The Scarlet Ibis - no text

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The Scarlet Ibis

• By James Hurst

The text explores the conflicts between love and
pride, and draws attention to the effects of
familial and societal expectations. It also
explores the human selfishness, regret and guilt.
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Reminder This Term
We will complete all the online lessons We will
read all the text We will discuss ALL the
assignments All you have to do is show up
for class OR watch the recording and you will
have NO extra assigned work
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Essential Questions
What can short stories teach about
self-discovery? How do life experiences influence
an individual?
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Meet the Writer
Of The Scarlet Ibis
James Hurst was born on a farm in coastal North
Carolina in 1922. After studying at North
Carolina State College, he served in the army
during World War II. Hurst wants readers of The
Scarlet Ibis to think of how the war raging
among brothers in Europe is related to the
conflict between Doodle and his brother. He
reflects, people always suffer when others try
to make them over in their own image.
United States soldiers fire a machine gun in
Belleau Wood, France, in June 1918.
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The Scarlet Ibis
The story is set in the American South. Its
climax takes place in 1918, the year World War I
ended. Youll find references in the story to
battles being fought far away from its peaceful
southern setting. While we read Why do you
suppose the author chose this setting?
The physical settingAmerican South in 1918
The historical setting end of World War I
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Vocabulary

1. sullenly (adv.) resentfully gloomily
2. imminent (adj.) near, soon, about to happen
3. iridescent (adj.) rainbow-like with shifting
   colors
4. serene (adj.) peaceful calm
5. infallibility (noun) inability to make a
   mistake
6. blighted (adj.) suffering from disease that
   keeps growth from happening (usually referring to
   a plant disease)
7. doggedness (noun) stubbornness persistence
8. reiterated (verb) - repeated
9. precariously (adv.) unsteadily insecurely
10. evanesced (verb) pass out of memory
11. spite (noun/verb) hurt or annoy someone
12. heresy (noun) an action or thought that differs
    from what is generally thought as correct.

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Questions before we read
What can you infer about the little boy from the
details in this paragraph?   What do you think
about the narrators opinion that nicknaming his
little brother Doodle is a kind act? What
do you think the narrator means by saying, I did
not know then that pride is a wonderful, terrible
thing, a seed that bears two vines, life and
death.?   What can you infer about the
narrator from his comments about his pride and
from his behavior toward Doodle?   If the
summer is taken as a symbol of what is to come,
what do you think may lie in Doodles future?
  Does the birds struggle to fly remind you of
a character in the story? What special
significance might the bird have?     Why is
Doodle so fascinated by the scarlet ibis? Why
does he take such pains to bury it?  
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Lets Begin Reading the Story
If you did not attend live CC, then locate the
text below this lesson or in DocSharing
Once you have finished reading the story,
complete the rest of the lesson
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Point of View Who is telling the story, from
whose perspective?

• First Person story is told by a character in
  the story uses I, narrator knows only his own
  thoughts and feelings and what he sees.

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• Third Person Objective told as a reporter, eye
  of the camera point of view, narrator only
  reports on what he sees, no thoughts or feelings
  of characters revealed

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• Third Person Omniscient God-like narrator
  knows the thoughts and feelings of all characters
  and sees all that happens.

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• Third Person Limited Omniscient God-like
  narrator knows the thoughts and feelings of only
  one character, usually the main character.

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Point of View

• How is the story told?
• How old is the narrator before the flashback?
• But sometimes (like right now), as I sit in the
  cool, green-draped parlor, the grindstone begins
  to turn, and time with all its changes is ground
  away and I remember Doodle.

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Narrator Background
Hurst refers to a number of trees and flowers by
the local names that he learned as a boy. The
bleeding tree is a type of pine from which
white sap runs like blood when the bark is
cut. Graveyard flowers are sweet smelling
gardenias, which, because they bloom year after
year, are often planted in cemeteries. The
frayed twigs of the toothbrush tree were once
used by people to clean their teeth after eating.
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Characterization Methods used by the author to
let the reader get to know the characters.

• Direct Method of Characterization the author
  directly tells the reader something about the
  character (He is kind.)

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Indirect Method of Characterization the reader
draws a conclusion about the character based on

• Characters name
• Characters appearance (how he/she looks, clothes
  worn, etc.)
• What the character says
• What the character thinks and feels
• What the character does
• What other people think of the character
• How animals react to the character (animal
  growls)

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• Types of Characters
• Protagonist the main character who is trying to
  achieve a goal
• Antagonist the character who antagonizes, who
  causes problems in the story the antagonist may
  be an obstacle rather than a person at times

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More Characters

• Flat Character character with only one trait,
  one-sided, no depth
• Round Character a complex character,
  many-sided, realistic, more traits are given or
  observed in this type of character
• Static character does not change during the
  story (in personality, maturity, beliefs, etc.)
• Dynamic character changes, usually for the
  better, due to events in the story
• Foil This character serves as a contrast for
  another character, often the characteristics of
  the foils appear exaggerated because of the
  stark contrast. (Tybalt and Benvolio in Romeo and
  Juliet)
• Stereo Types athlete, bully, lawyer, bikers,
  etc.

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Characterize the narrator

• Characterization- much of what we learn about the
  narrator is based on his words, thoughts, or
  actions regarding his brother
• Is this direct or indirect characterization?
• Is the narrator dynamic or static?

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Characterize Doodle
Doodle was just about the craziest brother a boy
every had. Of course, he wasnt crazy crazy like
old Miss Leedie, who was in love with President
Wilson and wrote him a letter every day, but was
a nice crazy, like someone you meet in your
dreams. He was born when I was six and was, from
the outset, a disappointment. He seemed all head,
with a tiny body which was red and shriveled like
an old mans. Everybody thought he was going to
die-everybody except Aunt Nicey, who had
delivered him. She said he would live because he
was born in a caul, and cauls were made from
Jesus nightgown. Daddy had Mr. Heath, the
carpenter, build a little mahogany coffin for
him. But he didnt die, and when he was three
months old, Mama and Daddy decided they might as
well name him. They named him William Armstrong,
which is like tying a big tail on a small kite.
Such a name sounds good only on a tombstone.
  I thought myself pretty smart at many things,
like holding my breath, running, jumping, or
climbing the vines in Old Woman Swamp, and I
wanted more than anything else someone to race to
Horsehead Landing, someone to box with, and
someone to perch with in the top fork of the
great pine behind the barn, where across the
fields and swamps you could see the sea. I wanted
a brother. But Mama, crying, told me that even if
William Armstrong lived, he would never do these
things with me. He might not, she sobbed, even be
all there. He might, as long as he lived, lie
on the rubber sheet in the center of the bed in
the front bedroom where the white Marquette
curtains billowed out in the afternoon sea
breeze, rustling like palmetto fronds.
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What can you infer about the little boy from the
previous passage?
INFER conclude from facts and reasoning rather
than from obvious information.
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Theme
The central idea what is the main idea of the
piece?

• Themes are rarely stated directly in literature.
  (In The Scarlet Ibis they are!) Most often, a
  reader has to infer the theme of a work after
  considerable thought.
• The theme is the statement the writer wants to
  make about that subject.
• For example, if the subject is growing up, the
  theme might be
• For most young people, growing up is a process
  that involves the pain of achieving
  self-knowledge.

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Key Lines that Develop the Theme of Pride

• 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
• All of us must have something to be proud of
• Pride is a wonderful, terrible thing, a seed
  that bears two vines, life and death.

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How is pride wonderful and terrible?

• Wonderful because he teaches Doodle to walk
• Terrible because he does it for selfish reasons
• How does this quote function in the story??

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The Scarlet Ibis

• Literary Devices

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Foreshadowing hints of clues of events that have
yet to occur

• summer was dead, but autumn was not yet born
• Summer of 1918 was blighted- plant growth
  replaced by death and decay
• last graveyard flowers were blooming
• such times make him remember Doodle
• Doodles real name only looks good on a tombstone
• arrival of the bird, its death, and Doodle
  burying it
• Fall of Ibis- Doodles fall
• Doodles response to the Ibis
• Dead birds is bad luckSpecially red dead
  birds!

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Imagery

• Essentially, imagery is any series of words that
  create a picture, or sensory experience in your
  head.
• The use of figurative language (similes,
  metaphors, and personification) helps create
  imagery in writing. Lets look at some examples.

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Examples

• with a tiny body which was red and shriveled
  like an old mans
• curtains billowed out in the afternoon sea
  breeze, rustling like palmetto fronds
• Even death did not mar its grace, for it lay on
  the earth like a broken vase of red flowers.
• The rain drops stung my face like nettles

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What death imagery do you recall?
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Symbolism

• A symbol is an object, person, animal or event
  that stands for something more than itself.
• Public Symbols are common and known to most
  people
• Dove peace
• cross Christianity
• In literature, an author can invent a symbol
  linking an object to a character, or event in the
  story.

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Why Symbolism?

• All figurative language and stylistic devices are
  used to help convey the theme of the story. If
  you cannot figure out what a symbol stands for,
  think about the controlling ideas of the story,
  and your theme will lead you to understand the
  symbol.

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Symbol The Scarlet Ibis
Why does the author choose the scarlet ibis as
the symbol as opposed to another bird? Watch the
CC if you need help With what is red usually
associated? Watch the CC if you need help Why
choose a red bird and develop red imagery? Watch
the CC if you need help
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Additional Important Terms

• Tone the authors attitude toward the story and
  readers
• Tells us what the author thinks about his or her
  main character

• Mood the feeling the reader gets from the
  reading

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Review the Vocabulary in the next Lesson (in the
course) or in the Vocabulary Classroom (if you
attend live CC).
For a long, long time, it seemed forever, I lay
there crying, sheltering my fallen scarlet ibis
from the heresy of rain.