The Scarlet Ibis Theme Essay

Words: 966
Pages: 4

In The Lion King, a character named Scar killed his own brother to become king and for his own pride. Scar is just like the narrator in “The Scarlet Ibis”, who also exploited his brother to gain satisfaction. In the end, however, it backfired on both characters. In the short story “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst, the narrator’s brother , Doodle, has been disabled from birth. Since the narrator is ashamed of his brother’s disability, he teaches him how to walk. After that succeeds, the narrator’s desire for more gratification and to continue to ‘fix’ his brother prompts him to push Doodle to greater heights, heights too high for them both. In the short story, the theme -pride can take control over one’s love of others and can lead to regret- …show more content…
The main bird that’s mentioned, the scarlet ibis, is first seen when it’s outside the narrator’s house and is described as follows: “‘It looks tired’... Even death did not mar its grace…‘It lives in the tropics’... ‘A storm must’ve brought it here.’” (5). Here, the bird was faced with a difficult situation, fought hard to overcome it, but death won out in the end. The bird faced negative consequences due to a storm, which Doodle will also receive due to a different storm: his brother. The consequences are revealed after the narrator returns to Doodle after leaving him behind, only to find him dead, crying “‘Doodle!’ I screamed above the pounding storm and threw my body to the earth above his. For a long time, it seemed like forever, I lay there crying, sheltering my fallen scarlet ibis from the heresy of rain.” (6). In this quotation, we see the narrator come to terms with the deeds he’s done, mourning the death of his little brother, the ‘scarlet ibis’. It’s justifiable to call Doodle a ‘scarlet ibis’ because he, too, was placed in a difficult situation, fought hard to overcome it, and died in the end due to it, all caused in the first place by the narrator’s pride. The scarlet ibis is the author’s way of demonstrating pride’s consequences to the