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The Scarlet IbisDiscussion notes
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The narrator

• First person point of view
• Told in flashback
• 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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Doodle as a baby

• The narrator is disappointed
• He wanted someone to play with, yet all he sees
  is a physically disabled baby who might die
• He even considers smothering his little brother
  until he discovers that Doodle is not mentally
  disabled- he is all there! What does it mean
  to be all there?

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Characterizing the narrator

• Characterization- much of what we learn about the
  narrator is based on his words, thoughts, or
  actions regarding his brother
• Is the narrator dynamic or static? Support your
  answer.

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Doodle at Two

• The narrator feels Doodle is part of the family
  since he begins to crawl and could be brought out
  of the bedroom
• He renames William Armstrong because he crawls
  backward like a doodlebug- plus, nobody expects
  much from someone called Doodle

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Doodle and the Go-Cart

• Doodle is a burden because the narrator must take
  him everywhere, and Doodle needs special care
• The narrator is cruel to Doodle
• After he accepts that Doodle is his brother and
  inescapable, the narrator shares Old Woman Swamp
  with him

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Doodle at Five

• The narrator is embarrassed that his brother
  cannot walk
• The narrator needs to be proud of someone or
  something
• The narrator forces Doodle to stand and to walk

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Doodles Sixth Birthday

• The narrator realizes that he taught Doodle to
  walk because the narrator was ashamed of Doodle
  not walking
• The narrator realizes that his motives in
  teaching Doodle to walk were purely selfish -
  PRIDE!

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Setting and Tone

• The author makes great use of setting in his
  story he uses it to establish the tone, to
  provide foreshadowing, and to provide symbolism
• Time- 1912-1918- WWI (ends in 1918)- destruction
  the blight damaging the crops can be compared
  to the destruction the war causes to people and
  places
• And during that summer, strange names were heard
  through the house Chateau-Thierry, Soissons, and
  in her blessing at the supper table, Mama once
  said, And bless the Pearsons, whose boy Joe was
  lost in Belleau Wood

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James Hursts Hope

• He wants the 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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Setting and Tone

• Place-North Carolina cotton farm Old Woman
  Swamp
• Atmosphere- clove of seasons- summer is dead
  autumn is not born
• Summer was blighted- crops withered, curled up,
  and died
• What is the tone of this story? How does the
  setting help to develop this from the first
  paragraph?

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Foreshadowing

• Summer of 1918 was blighted- plant growth
  replaced by death and decay
• Fall of Ibis- Doodles fall
• Doodles response to the Ibis
• Dead birds is bad luckSpecially red dead
  birds!

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Allusion- new literary term

• 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.
• The Family Guy frequently uses allusions. Ex.
  This scene is an allusion to a scene in The Lady
  and the Tramp.

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Three Allusions in our story

• 1. Belleau Woods- WWI battle sites
• 2. 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.
• 3. If we produced anything less than the
  Resurrection, Aunt Nicey was going to be
  disappointed.

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Imagery

• Imagery is descriptive language that deals with
  any of the five senses (sight, touch, smell,
  hearing, and taste), and even movement.
• 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- simile that appeals to the
  sense of sight
• curtains billowed out in the afternoon sea
  breeze, rustling like palmetto fronds- simile
  that appeals to the sense of sight and provides
  movement
• Even death did not mar its grace, for it lay on
  the earth like a broken vase of red flowers.
  simile that appeals to the sense of sight
• The rain drops stung my face like nettles-
  simile that appeals to the sense of touch
• Nettles are covered with tiny, nearly invisible
  stinging hairs that produce an intense, stinging
  pain, followed by redness and skin irritation.

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Death Imagery

• Bleeding tree
• Rotting brown magnolia
• Ironweeds grew rank
• Graveyard flowers
• Mahogany box
• Black clouds, darkness descended

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Other Examples of Similes and Metaphors

• Simile- William Armstrongs name is like putting
  a big tail on a small kite
• 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-
  The narrators cruelty is being compared to a
  disease that kills .
• Metaphor- Pride is a wonderful, terrible thing,
  a seed that bears two vines, life and death.
• Simile- Promise hung about us like leaves
• Simile- Hope no longer hid in the dark palmetto
  thicket, but perched like a cardinal in the lacy
  toothbrush tree, brilliantly visible. (red
  cardinal is compared to a sense of hope)

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Symbols

• A symbol is a thing or idea that stands for
  something else
• The main symbol in the story is the scarlet ibis
  which stands for Doodle
• Why does the author choose the scarlet ibis as
  the symbol as opposed to another bird?
• With what is red usually associated? Why choose a
  red bird and develop red imagery?

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Key Lines that Develop Theme

• 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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What is the theme of this story?