The Scarlet Ibis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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This is about the short story. For the bird, see Scarlet Ibis.
| "The Scarlet Ibis" | |
| Author | James Hurst |
|---|---|
| Country |  USA |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | tragedy, short story |
| Published in | The Atlantic Monthly |
| Media type | magazine |
| Publication date | July 1960 |
"The Scarlet Ibis" is a tragic short story written by novelist James Hurst. It was first published in The Atlantic Monthly in July 1960 and has since appeared in multiple high-school literature textbooks since the late 1960s.
[edit] Plot
The narrator's younger brother, William Armstrong (to be named Doodle later), was born an invalid. The narrator, at first, is skeptical about Doodle, and even has thoughts of killing him out of embarrassment, but later he decides to teach Doodle to walk, run, swim, climb trees and fight. They go to the "Old Woman Swamp" to practice. The narrator sets him a deadline to be like any other child and go to school. His grueling work shows little progress as the deadline he sets gets closer. Shortly after, the two children find a dead scarlet ibis that was blown over by a storm. The narrator notes that the scarlet ibis must have flown quite a vast distance to end up dying here.
Doodle and the narrator set out to the bog for one final attempt to yield results and Doodle fails. As a storm approaches they start to make their way back to the house. Angry that his plans had come to naught, the narrator begins to walk faster than Doodle. When Doodle falls behind, the narrator runs off leaving him behind in the storm. After his rage dies out, he starts feeling guilty. Walking back, he finds Doodle curled up next to a nightshade bush, dead and bleeding, with similarities to the dead Scarlet Ibis they found. "For a long, long time, it seemed forever, I lay there crying, sheltering my fallen scarlet ibis from the heresy of rain".
