What Does The Scarlet Ibis Symbolize

Words: 251
Pages: 2

In the short story “The Scarlet Ibis”, James Hurst creates the Ibis to symbolize the young boy Doodle. “For a long time it seemed forever, I lay there crying, sheltering my fallen scarlet ibis from the heresy of rain.” Earlier on in the text, A scarlet ibis had fallen out of a tree dead. Doodle had taken care of the bird, which represents himself when he passes away in the end of the story and his older brother, the narrator holds him in sorrow. For a long while, Doodle helped out the ibis and made an effort to create a grave that the birds body would be sheltered in. This act of kind-heartedness was similar to what the older brother does for him later on in the story. “A scarlet ibis! How many miles it had traveled to die like this, in our