Notes for “The Scarlet Ibis”
 Tone: the narrator doesn’t have much faith in Doodle
 Figurative Language:
o Similes:
 “like an empty cradle” (594)
 “like tying a big…” (595)
 “like palmetto fronds” (595)
 “like a broken vase of dead flowers” (602)
o Metaphors:
 “stained” (594)
 “knot of cruelty” (597)
 Personification:
o “summer was dead, but autumn had not yet been born” (594)
o “speaking soft the names of our dead” (594)
o “hope no longer hid” (598)
o “sunflowers…turned away from the sun to face him” (599)
o “the thirsty sun” (600)
o “locusts were signing” (603)
o “rain was roaring…” (604)
 Foreshadowing:
o “such a name sounds good only on a tombstone” (595)
o “Doodle and I spent lots of time thinking about our future” (600)
o the scarlet ibis dies (602)
o “dead birds is bad luck…especially red dead birds” (603)
 Mini-lesson on Summarizing vs. Analyzing:
o Summarize the story of “Little Red Riding Hood”
o Look at the key words in the stories (wolf, Little Red Riding Hood,
forest, path, lumberjack) – by telling what these words symbolize
(i.e. red = love, blood, danger, anger), we can analyze the story
 Symbols:
o The scarlet ibis: Doodle, innocence
o Red: blood, love, death (the bleeding tree, the scarlet ibis, the way
Doodle looks at birth and at death
 Setting:
o 1918, Southern U.S.
 Theme: Pride, even coupled with love, can be dangerous.