In “The Scarlet Ibis”, Brother, the narrator, tells the story of when he was younger and had a brother. In the story, Brother’s parents have another child. The baby is crippled, and no one thinks he will make it. A coffin was even ordered for him because everyone was sure he would die. He did not, though, and Brother received what he had wanted for a long time, someone who looked up to him and played with him. Even in the beginning, Brother started to think that Doodle, the younger brother, was too different. For his own sake, Brother tried to change Doodle into a normal boy his age. Eventually, this became too far out of hand, and Brother lost the game he was playing. He pushed Doodle a too hard, and it all quickly came to an end. During the story, the boys’ family saw a Scarlet Ibis, a rare bird, had become stuck in a tree. It then fell out and died, a beautiful thing, dying for seemingly no reason, a horrible thing. Doodle is the Scarlet Ibis. The story is a perfect example of how even the greatest and most beautiful of things dies, it’s always for a reason.
Just like when the Ibis died, Doodle died for a reason. First, start with the reason the Ibis died. The Ibis died to show people that when an innocent and fragile thing is pushed to its limit, it will eventually break. “Sadly, we all looked back at the bird. A scarlet ibis! How many miles had it traveled to die like this, in our yard, beneath the bleeding tree.” The bird worked so hard and pushed itself so much, that it had lost the will to live. Before its final breath, it gave it one last try, began to flap its wings, but then lost it, and slowly fell to the ground, toward its imminent doom.
This is the same thing that happened to poor little Doodle. Because of how fragile and easily broken he was, when Brother pushed him a little too hard, he lost the will to keep going. “I heard Doodle, who had fallen behind, cry out, ‘Brother, Brother, don’t leave me! Don’t leave me!’ The knowledge that Doodle’s and my plans had come to naught was bitter, and that streak of cruelty within me awakened. I ran as fast as I could, leaving him behind with a wall of rain dividing us.” Before this passage, Brother had pushed Doodle to his limits in the boats, making him row hard against the current. This had made Doodle weak already, when Brother ran from him. Eventually, Brother went and looked for Doodle, who had disappeared, and found him dead. Sadly, Brother did not heed the solemn warning left by the Scarlet Ibis. He did not understand the message, that a fragile being can’t take stress and being pushed to its limits. So, Brother, and the world, lost Doodle.
Sometimes I forget how to treat others. I don’t pay attention to their problems, their own fragileness. I only care about myself. This story shows me that sometimes I really need to pay attention and not stress or push people who are near the breaking point. If I do, there could be consequences, such as death. Not death in a physical sense, although it can happen. Death as in the death of a friendship, or the death of a relationship. The world needs to hear this message, too. The fragile, special, and more important people of the world are always put down, as if they are less important. Unless we start to change this, there will continue to be stories like “The Scarlet Ibis”. So, in the story, Brother represents us, the human race.
If Doodle could die so easily, by being pushed past his normal, and getting weak, could friendships and relationships be the same way? There are ways to prevent this from happening, a person just has to find them. Sometimes, though, as in Brothers case, a person never will.
Pictures Obtained from:
1. http://www.news.gov.tt/index.php?news=176
2. http://leesbird.com/2009/02/18/ttlg-of-val-lee-scarlet-ibis/
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