Name: ___________________________________
Period: ______
“The Scarlet Ibis” - Socratic Discussion Questions
1.
How do the narrator's feelings towards Doodle change over time? What motivates this change?
2.
Analyze the following metaphor: “There is within me (and with sadness I have watched it in others) a knot of cruelty
borne by the stream of love, much as our blood sometimes bears the seed of our destruction, and at times I was mean to
Doodle.” How does the narrator display cruelty toward Doodle? What do you think motivates his cruelty?
3.
What motivates the narrator to teach Doodle to walk? Do you believe that the narrator helped Doodle for the
right reasons? Do you think he had his brother’s best interests at heart? Why or why not?
4.
Analyze the following metaphor: “I did not know then that pride is a wonderful, terrible thing, a seed that bears two
vines, life and death.” What role does pride play in the story? How does the narrator exhibit it? How is it both
wonderful and terrible?
5.
Analyze the following symbol: “For a long time, it seemed forever, I lay there crying, sheltering my fallen scarlet ibis from
the heresy of rain.” In the text, the narrator draws a direct comparison between the scarlet ibis and Doodle. The
scarlet ibis is a symbol for the boy. What is similar about the ibis and Doodle and their experiences? Why does
Doodle insist on burying the bird?
6.
Foreshadowing plays a major role in the story. What details do we get about Doodle (especially near the end of
the story) that help us to predict the ending?
7.
Explain your opinion of the narrator’s behavior at the end of the story. Is he in some way responsible for Doodle’s
death? Is his emotion at the very end sorrow, guilt, or something else?
8.
How does the first person narrator telling the story in a flashback affect the way readers interpret "The Scarlet
Ibis"?
9.
Why is it so important to the story that Doodle had to die at the end?
10. What are the potential themes of this story? What is one important message that "The Scarlet Ibis" relays to
modern audiences?
11. After having read the story, what do you believe is purpose of the narrator’s contrast between what he sees (the
imagery) and what he says (the diction) in the first two paragraphs of the story?