“The Scarlet Ibis”
By James Hurst
Setting
Setting: the place and time
that a story takes place
Time: 1912-1918—World
War I; summer
Place: North Carolina;
cotton farm; Old
Woman Swamp.
Protagonist and Antagonist
Protagonist: main
character, often hero of
the story
Antagonist: character
against the protagonist,
often villain of the story
 Brother is the protagonist
 Brother’s pride is the
of “The Scarlet Ibis.”
 Even though he is not a
hero, he is still the
main character.
antagonist of “The Scarlet
Ibis.”
 His own pride is what
stands in his way.
Conflict
• Conflict: struggle
between opposing
forces
• Man vs. Man: a
struggle exists
between Brother and
Doodle.
• Man vs. Self: a
struggle exists within
Brother—himself
versus his pride.
Plot Points
 Exposition: introduces the characters, background, and setting
 Brother vividly describes the setting and then starts the story with
a flashback.
 Everyone thinks Doodle will die, but he lives and learns to crawl at
age 3.
 Rising Action: events which lead to the climax of the story
 Embarrassed by Doodle, Brother teaches Doodle how to walk at
age 6.
 Brother pushes Doodle to learn to do more, and is cruel to him at
times.
 A scarlet ibis dies in the family’s front yard.
Plot Points, cont.
 Climax: the highest point of action in the story; turning point in
the story
 Brother runs far ahead of Doodle during a severe thunderstorm.
Doodle cries out for Brother to wait, but Brother’s pride is too
hurt.
 Falling Action: events in the story that lead to the end of the
conflict
 Brother turns around to go get Doodle out of the rain.
 Resolution/Denouement: the end of the conflict
 Brother finds Doodle dead and cries over his body in the rain.
Flat and Round Characters
 Flat characters: only a
few things are known
about flat characters
 The parents and Aunt
Nicey are flat
characters in “The
Scarlet Ibis.”
 Round characters:
many characteristics
are known about
round characters
 Brother and Doodle
are round characters in
“The Scarlet Ibis.”
Static and Dynamic Characters
 Static characters: don’t change
during the course of the plot
 The parents, Aunt Nicey, and Doodle are
static characters in “The Scarlet Ibis.”
 Dynamic characters: change during
the course of the plot
 Brother is a dynamic character in “The
Scarlet Ibis.”
 Brother grows to regret his treatment of
Doodle.
Narrator and Point of View
 Narrator: the "voice" that speaks or tells a
story
 The narrator of “The Scarlet Ibis” is Brother.
 Point of View: the perspective, or outlook,
from which a writer tells a story.
 First person: the narrator tells the story from
his own point of view.
 Brother tells the story from his own
perspective.
Mood and Tone
 Mood: the atmosphere of a literary work intended to
evoke a certain emotion or feeling from the reader
 The mood of “The Scarlet Ibis” is one of sadness and
tension.
 Tone: the attitude a writer takes toward the reader, a
subject, or character.
 The tone of “The Scarlet Ibis” is very grave and full of guilt.
 Because this story is told through a first person narration, the
emotions of the Brother represent the story’s tone.
Flashback
 Flashback: the author or narrator depicts events which
have taken place before the present time.
 Brother (the narrator) begins the story in present, and
then flashes back to a previous time in his life.
 The use of flashback alerts the reader that the story
itself is a memory.
 The use of flashback also characterizes Brother as
someone who is now more mature and regrets his
treatment of his little brother Doodle.
Similes
 Simile: a comparison of two unlike things that uses the
word “like” or “as”
 “William Armstrong’s name is like putting a big tail on a
small kite.”
 This simile compares Doodle to a small kite and his real name to a big
tail, emphasizing how Brother thinks Doodle can’t live up to the name
“William Armstrong.”
 “Promise hung about us like leaves.”
 This simile compares promise to the multitude of leaves, suggesting that
there is a lot of potential.
 “Hope no longer hid in the dark palmetto thicket, but
perched like a cardinal in the lacy toothbrush tree,
brilliantly visible.”
 This simile compares hope to a cardinal, highlighting how much hope
there is for Doodle when he first stands on his own.
Metaphors
 Metaphor: a comparison of two unlike things
without using the words “like” or “as”
 “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.”
 This metaphor compares love to the flow of streams, whether water or
blood, and highlights how it is Brother’s love for Doodle that leads to his
cruelty toward him, and Doodle’s destruction.
 “Pride is a wonderful, terrible thing, a seed that
bears two vines, life and death.”
 This metaphor compares pride to a seed which grows into something
both positive and negative.
Personification
 Personification: attributing human
characteristics to something nonhuman
 “The last graveyard flowers were blooming, and
their smell drifted across the cotton field and
through every room of our house, speaking softy
the names of our dead.”
 This sentence gives the smell of flowers the
human ability to speak softly.
 “I pulled the go-cart through the saw-tooth fern,
down into the green dimness where the palmetto
fronds whispered by the stream.”
 This sentence gives the palmetto fronds the
human ability to whisper.
Allusions
 Allusion: a reference in a work of literature to a well-known
character, place, or situation from literature, music,
mythology, film, religion (especially the Bible), art, or
history.
 There are three allusions in “The Scarlet Ibis.”
 Battle sites of WWI: Chateau-Thierry, Soissons, and Belleau
Wood
 The story of Hansel and Gretel: “It was too late to turn back,
for we had both wandered too far into a net of expectations and
had left no crumbs behind.”
 Biblical Resurrection: “If we produced anything less than the
Resurrection, [Aunt Nicey] was going to be disappointed.”
Foreshadowing
 Foreshadowing: hints or clues
of events that have yet to
occur.
 Summer of 1918 was
devastating: plant growth was
replaced by death and decay.
 Clue that Doodle’s growth
will be replaced by death and
decay.
 The death of the Ibis.
 Clue that Doodle will die later
in the story.
 Dead birds are “bad luck.”
Symbolism
 Symbol: a person, place, or
thing used to represent
something else.
 There are many things which
symbolize death throughout
“The Scarlet Ibis.”
 Scarlet ibis
 Bleeding tree
 Mahogany coffin
Imagery
 Imagery: descriptive
language that appeals to the
five senses.
 Imagery related to death
pervades “The Scarlet Ibis.”
 Rotting brown magnolias
 Graveyard flowers
 Black clouds
 Ironweeds growing rank
Theme
 Theme: central idea of a piece of literature, sometimes
called the moral of the story, or the lesson
 One of the possible themes of “The Scarlet Ibis” is pride is
destructive.
 Lines like the following support this theme:
 “All of us must have something to be proud of.”
 Because Brother must have something to be proud of, he pushes
Doodle harder than he ever should have, leading to Doodle’s death.
 “Pride is a wonderful, terrible thing, a seed that bears two
vines, life and death.”
 Comparing pride to a seed which grows into death emphasizes how it
is Brother’s pride which ultimately causes Doodle’s death.