Scarlet Ibis questions
Clarke
On a separate sheet of paper answer the following questions. Write complete sentences noting the
subject of the question within the answer.
1.
What do we know about the narrator of the story? What details at the start of the story tell us
that the events he is about to relate took place many years ago?
2.
Why does the narrator teach Doodle to walk? Why does he cry when his family congratulates
him for his effort?
3. After Doodle has learned to walk, what does his brother try to teach him, to prepare him for
school?
4. How does Doodle respond to the scarlet Ibis and to its death?
5. Why does Doodle die? To what extent do you think his brother is responsible for his death? By
the end of the story, whom do you pity more-the narrator or Doodle?
6. On one level the conflict that powers this story involves the narrator’s actual struggle to make
his brother like everyone else. On another level the narrator experiences an internal conflict.
Describe the narrator’s internal conflict. Is it ever resolved? How do you know?
7. What do the narrator’s actions and thoughts reveal about his character: is he jealous? Loving?
Cruel? Generous?
8. In the last sentence, the narrator calls his brother his “fallen scarlet ibis.” In what ways does the
scarlet ibis resemble Doodle? How are their deaths similar both in appearances and in cause?
9. The theme of this story reveals a truth about the effects of love and pride. In one sentence
state what you think is the theme of the story. In spite of what’s been said about theme rarely
being stated in a story, there are several passages of the story where the narrator or Doodle
puts his finger on the essence of the theme. Find at least two of these passages.