Scarlet Ibis
In the short story “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst we meet Doodle and his brother. Doodle has a disability that does not allow him to walk. Doodles Brother is embarrassed by his inability to walk, and when his mother makes him pull doodle around, he comes up with a plan to make his brother walk. The narrator, Doodles brother, put aside doodles feelings and health to benefit his pride. The Scarlet Ibis symbolizes Doodle because they look symbolically similar and different, they were both out of place, and they both died in very similar ways.
Doodle and the scarlet ibis look symbolically similar and different, “He seemed all head, with a tiny body that was red and shriveled like an old man's. Everybody thought he was going to die” (Hurst 344) Doodle and the Scarlet Ibis were both once described as red, and you can infer that the bird was fragile like Doodle. Doodle and the bird are also symbolically different because the bird is described as having long legs whereas Doodle was described as "all head" when he was born and had trouble walking.
The Scarlet Ibis and doodle were both seen as out of place, “‘It lives in the tropics- South America to Florida. A storm must have brought it here’” (Hurst 352). Like Doodle, the bird was sick, broken, and out of place. Doodle was mentally and physically disabled in a world of full able-bodied people, and the bird was sick and injured and many many miles from its natural habitat.
Doodle and the Scarlet Ibis both died in similar ways as well, “ ...His neck and the front of his shirt were stained a brilliant red… He lay very awkwardly, with his head thrown far back, making his vermillion neck appear unusually long and slim…” (Hurst 354) When Doodle dies, he bleeds from his mouth staining himself red just like the Scarlet Ibis, Doodle, and the Ibis’s necks were also positioned in the same way.
Lastly, the bird and Doodle both looked very fragile and at peace once they had died.
In the end, the Scarlet Ibis symbolizes Doodle because they were both similar in the ways that they had been described, they were both out of place, and they both died very similar deaths.
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