Cruel Love (Scarlet Ibis Essay)

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Family members are supposed to be nice to each other. They aren't supposed to bully or be mean to each other. Doodle's brother, from James Hurst's "The Scarlet Ibis," does not follow this family standard. A lot of readers say that he was a good brother but the truth is that he was not. He was arrogant and ungenerous to Doodle and only did things for himself. Doodle's brother was a bad brother. Doodle’s brother was selfish. Everything that he did for Doodle was for himself. Doodle’s brother taught him how to walk and many other useful skills. He only did it, however, for himself and not Doodle. "Doodle told them it was I who taught him to walk, so everyone wanted to hug me and I began to cry. They did not know that I did it for myself, that pride who's slave I was, spoke to me louder than all their voices; and that Doodle only walked because I was ashamed of having a crippled brother.” (347) Doodle's big brother only taught Doodle how to walk because he was embarrassed and ashamed of him. Doodle's big brother's fear of being made fun of led him to being ashamed of his little brother. This subsequently led to him to teach Doodle how to walk. He also did not want to have a brother that could not do anything. Doodle's brother only helped Doodle for his own reasons and for himself. Doodle's brother was cruel. When he wanted Doodle to do something, he tricked him into doing it. There were many occurrences in Doodle's life where his brother used this method. For instance, he made Doodle touch his own baby casket. "One day I took him up to the barn loft and showed him his casket,.....before I'll help you down from the loft, you're going to have to touch it…” When he said that he would not touch it, Doodle’s brother said “Then I'll leave you here by yourself,” I threatened and made as if I was going down.” (346) When he did this, he put Doodle in a position so that he had

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