Leonard Settles10/19/09Prd 5
The Scarlet Ibis
is the story of two brothers, one, the narrator, called Brother, and the younger of thetwo, Doodle. Doodle was born a very sickly child, whom no one expects to live, expect the aunt, whomBrother feels a tremendous amount of, for lack of a better word, shame. The family even choose a namethat they thought would sound good on a tombstone.
The Scarlet Ibis
is set in 1912-1918 North Carolina near the old woman swamp, a swamp that runs between Virginia and North Carolina. The story starts off with a a sickly child being born. No one inthe family expected the child to live. Surpassing all expectations he lived. His older brother know asthe narrator wanted a brother to run with, to play with, rough house and show off to his friends. He didnot get what he wanted.The older brother had mixed feelings about doodle, he even thought of smothering him in his sleep. Hedid not follow through with his plans though. The older brother deiced to teach him how to be the brother he wanted. Now this sound good, but once you realize what he is doing it for, its not.The narrator is doing this for is own selfish egotistical reasons.First he starts by teaching him how to walk. Now doodle had a long list of “don'ts” but he turned theminto “do's.” He took him out in the blazing sun everyday trying to make his goal of teaching doodlehow to be “normal” before school started. He would grab doodle by the arm and lifting him 100's of times a day. Sometimes he would just look at him and say “do you even wanna learn how to walk?”Doodle and his brother showed off his new talent to his family who thought it would never happen.After he learned to walk they sat back and realaxed a little bit. They told stories or “lies” as the book calls them. Doodles lies favorite lie was about people who could fly. To me this was probably doodlesfavorite lie because its something even people who could walk cannot do.After he was proud enough of doodle walking he made a “program” for doodle. The older brother wanted to teach him how to run, swim, climb trees, and to fight. The deadline was less than a year. Now for someone like us this may sound very simple. A everyday thing. But for doodle, someone whoevery foot step was a challenge, this was like running a marathon. His older brother did not take this into consideration. This had nothing to do with doodle, he wanted a “normal” brother like everyone else,
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