The Scarlet Ibis

The Scarlet Ibis

:dablink|This is about the short story. For the bird, see Scarlet Ibis.Infobox short story |
name = The Scarlet Ibis
title_orig = | translator =
author = James Hurst
country = flag|USA
language = English
genre = tragedy, short story
published_in = "The Atlantic Monthly"
publisher =
media_type = magazine
pub_date = July 1960
english_pub_date =
preceded_by =
followed_by = "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.

Plot

The narrator's younger brother, William Armstrong (later nicknamed Doodle), was born an invalid. His parents didn't think he would live and made preparations for his death. 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 be like other chidren. They go to the "Old Woman Swamp" to practice their plot. The narrator gives him a deadline to be like other children and attend 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(from the tropics they live SC). 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 their house. Frustrated that his plans had come to naught, the narrator begins to run faster than Doodle, 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 I lay there crying, sheltering my fallen scarlet ibis from the heresy of rain".

External links

* [http://www.dixon.troyhigh.com/ibis.pdf Full Text of the story]


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