Welcome to the site dedicated to the teachings of the book "The Scarlet Ibis"!!! Site created by Ryan School Project Note: The main character is unnamed in the story, so just in case you wonder why we keep calling the main character the "main character", it's because Hurst didn't give him a name. And we're very sorry if we're trying to give the whole story away.

*Just to let you know, this book is called the Scarlet Ibis because an Ibis apparently had washed to the main character's house after a hurricane from South America. The Ibis was on the blood tree of the family's yard. It tumbled down and died afterwards. Aunt Nicey called this a bad omen. It definitely was, as Doodle seemed to have been "caught" by its spell. He got a heart attack from a rainstorm and fell and died like the scarlet ibis. He was bleeding and fallen like the scarlet ibis was.

The Storyline

The Character Struggles

The Scarlet Ibis: A sort of bad omen?

Author: James Hurst Setting: In the south part of America, 1918, right after WW1 ended in Europe Themes: Friendship (the main character develops a social bond at times with his handicapped younger brother Doodle), Loyalty (Doodle seems to grow a sort of loyal bond toward his brother in the story as he gets older), Love (Doodle really shows affection towards his brother, like calling him brother),Cruelty (the main character really seems to grow a spurt of cruelty at times towards Doodle, mainly because of his incapibilities) Characters: the main character (Doodle's younger brother), Doodle, their parents (Mama and Papa), Aunt Nicey (their aunt) Conflict: The two brothers (the main character and Doodle) seem to struggle with each other at times and they can't get over it (the main character seems to find it very uncomfortable to have a handicapped brother like Doodle, whereas Doodle seems to find a very intellectual and social bond towards his brother. The difference between their attitudes seems to result in this particular conflict.) Point of view: First person point-of-view Plot (don't read it if you'd rather read the story: In The Scarlet Ibis, the main character starts recalling about what's happening with his life  while Doodle (his real name is William Armstrong) was with and around him. He starts off by saying how everyone thought that Doodle was going to die because of his weak body and heart.Then he starts giving a brief overview about how Doodle managed to fare with his incapibilities (like not being able to walk) at his young age. For instance, when he was two, he had to strain terribly just to roll over on from his stomach. Also, the main character also considered Doodle a burden in many waysdue to his sensitivity to the environment, like the fact that he couldn't be too hot, cold, tired, etc. Also, the main character seems to reveal his cruelty he had shown to his brother while they were both growing. When Doodle was five years old, the main character seemed to grow a little impatient and decides to teach his younger brother how to walk. Of course, he couldn't right away, but after some strenuous teaching after a couple of days, he finally learned to walk. Of course, his parents were impressed by that. Doodle and his brother's relationship gets stronger afterwards, as they begin to talk about their future lives. However, the main character still attempts to make Doodle even stronger and worthier by putting him through even more strenuous activities. He managed to do so, but he was still far behind in terms of not trying to look weird and stand out in the beginning of school. So one day, they found a scarlet ibis in their tree. It later on tumbled down and killed itself, however. This was said to be a bad omen by Aunt Nicey, the aunt of Doodle and his brother. Afterwards, Doodle went to train himself even more to get ready for school. His brother helped him, but a rainstorm later arrived. Doodle's brother started running back to their house, forgetting about his younger brother(on purpose, because of the cruelty he still held against his incapibilities) who was behind. He later on heard Doodle call for help, but didn't respond. He later on ran back and found his brother dead with a heart attack, just like the scarlet ibis was.

Questions the story made us wonder about

Calvin's response to the book Paul's response to the book Ryan's response to the book

Links to "The Scarlet Ibis"

The Plot of the Scarlet Ibis Stages                              What happens            Exposition                introduces characters, like                                 Doodle, the main character                                 (unnamed), their parents,                                 and Aunt Nicey, also starts                                 to show the first person                                     point of view (the main                                      character's), and tells the                                    setting of the place and                                        natural objects like the                                       "Bloody Tree." He also                                       mentions events like the                                      fact that everyone thought                                  that Doodle was going to                                    die.  Opening Incident      the main character starts                                     talking about the conflict                                    and the struggle he has                                       with his younger, handi-                                     capped brother Doodle                                       and how he can't stand                                       having a brother incapable                                  of doing everyday things.                                   Then, the plot gets set in                                     motion as the MC starts                                    talking about how  he and                                   his brother associate with                                   each other. Rising Action             The conflict heatens up                                    when the MC decides to                                     teach his younger brother                                   how to walk (something                                     that he couldn't do). Now,                                  that's like taking a huge                                      risk, and you would                                           probably expect Doodle to                                  immediately say no to that.                                 However, Doodle's love                                      for his brother overcomes                                  the caring of his health, so                                  he takes the risk. Now,                                      his brother still shows                                        cruelty for his incapibilities                                 ,  and the love-hate conne-                                  ction between the brothers                                  intensifies the conflict.                                 However, Doodle does le-                                   arn to walk at the end. Climax                    The conflict between the l-                                 ove-hate thing goes on as                                    the MC continues making                                  him do strenuous activities                                  to make him "not stand ou-                                t" towards everone else.                                     Also, Doodle, his brother                                    and the rest of the family                                    spot something like a bad                                    omen: the fact that they see                                a scarlet ibis on the bloody                                  tree they have. It was swept                               from South America to their                               house, but it tumbled down                                 and killed itself through the                                 process. It is like the high                                   point of the conflict, when                                  the suspense is high to find                                 out about this omen and                                     when this omen could chan-                               ge the events in the future.                                  Also, one day, the MC and                                  his brother get caught in a                                  rainstorm after training, and                                they run back to their house                                , Doodle can't seem to catch                               up with him, and he seems                                 afraid at times of the rain.                                   The MC ignores this fact                                     and doesn't care about his                                  brother at this point, and                                     the affair between him and                                  his brother is at a high point.                               Sadly, Doodle dies through                                 a heart attack in the rain. Falling Action         The family seems to get                                      interested in finding the ibis                                in their yard, but they seem                                 to suspect something out of                                it, too. Aunt Nicey said that                               it was a sign of a bad omen.                               Also, when Doodle dies, his                               brother starts to feel sorry for                             what he did and not helping                                  him during the time of need. Conclusion             The conflict seems to get                                   solved after Doodle died. It                                 caused his brother to "think                                twice" about what ill effects                                he did to him. I think that                                   his brother would feel sorry                                for his brother's death                                        throughout his life. A tragic                                 ending, but still the conflict                                 is resolved, in a way.

Moral of the book: "Always be content with what you have." (NOTE: Don't read the bottom if you'd rather read the story instead to find out the plot.

This moral is true to its point since the main character seems to keep pushing his younger's brother's limits of what he's doing. His younger brother, Doodle, is handicapped and is incapable of doing normal, everyday things like walking, etc. The main character just seems to have too much pride within him, so he starts to push his younger brother to do strenuous activities (for him) like running, swimming, etc. That's just sad, don't you think? Since the MC(the main character) taught Doodle how to walk, don't you think he should be content with him by then? Well, that's not the case. In fact, he goes on to continue pushing Doodle to do other activities in order to make him not "stand out" and "look weird" in school, which he would be starting at next year. However, I would say that Doodle would also be considered a stubborn person, too. I mean, he seems to be entranced and lulled to his older brother's ways after he taught him how to walk and stand upright. So I say that Doodle should've resisted trying to become capable in these activities. It's like that he's not even caring about his health anymore. Even worse, he and his brother (the MC) keep all these activities Doodle does as a secret. They shy it away from their parents. Although most people would blame this on the MC's fault, I, however, would also put part of the blame on Doodle's. Yeah, you may say he's young and that he has a cruel brother, but that won't be particularly the case. These strenuous activities even lead to Doodle's downfall, eventually. His brother's cruelty took over at an unfortunate state of time when they were both trapped in the middle of a rainstorm. They had just went out to train Doodle again to do those normal activities for the start of school (Doodle's school would start only a few days later), but the rainstorm appeared and they had to run out back to their house. Apparently, however, the MC ran so fast not even Doodle could catch up to him, and since he was afraid of rain and other things, the whole situation became worse. The suspense is just killing you, isn't it? Well, Hurst (the author) decides to make it a TRAGIC story (that should give you a hint). THe MC ran so fast that he left Doodle behind in the rain. Doodle called out to his brother, but as I said, his brother's cruelty took over at that point, and as a result, he just kept on running to his house. Apparently, later on, the MC seems to have lost some of that cruelty, and he ran back to his brother after waiting out for him (but he didn't COME). That's when the MC found out (that's right) that Doodle was dead, lying on a pine tree. He had blood on him. It seems that he got so scared of the rain that he got a heart attack and died immediately. See, that's what happens: You should never try to take advantage of someone else even more. Instead, just stick with what you have, otherwise, there could be a bad experience or downfall that would occur.   ---------This article was written by Ryan