The Scarlet Ibis

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“The Scarlet Ibis” Questions 2. In The Scarlet Ibis pride is used as a favorable and an unfavorable characteristic. The narrator uses his pride to show superiority over Doodle when he takes him up to the barn loft to show him his casket: “‘It is,’ I said. ‘And before I’ll help you down from the loft, you’re going to have to touch it’” (Hurst 775). The reason why the narrator wouldn’t help Doodle down before he touched his casket was because he wanted to show him who was in control. On the other hand, the narrator also shows his pride in a more positive light when he encourages Doodle to keep trying even though he fails repeatedly, “‘Oh yes you can, Doodle,’ I said. ‘All you got to do is try. Now come on,’ and I hauled him up once more” (Hurst 776). The narrator does appear to be the normal supportive big brother, until he states the real reason why Doodle walked, “Doodle walked only because I was ashamed of having a crippled brother” (Hurst 777). This makes you wonder, does the narrator really want to see Doodle succeed or is he doing it for his own personal benefit? 3. The scarlet ibis represents Doodle in many ways. After the exotic bird tumbled out of the top of the tree to the ground the narrator realizes, “Even death did not mar its grace” (Hurst 779). The exotic bird even after it passed away still had all of the beauty and grace it had when it was still living, but in Doodles case he died with the all of fragileness he left earth with. After the narrator’s father finds out what kind of bird it is the narrator realizes, “How many miles it had traveled to die like this, in our yard, beneath the bleeding tree” (Hurst 779). The scarlet ibis that passed away in the Armstrong family’s yard had the same fate Doodle did, because how many obstacles Doodle had to overcome to die the way he did, on the side of the road, huddled beneath a red nightshade bush. 5. The

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