Love is often strived for in life, no matter what form it may be in.

It emerges in many levels and types, and many of these can coexist with each other. This wide spectrum shows that love can be both positive and negative, with negative being on both ends of this spectrum. Often times, it is thought that there is a forever upward incline for loving someone. What many dont realize is that love has a limit in which it transforms itself. That limit is the fine line between love and cruelty. Naturally, humans show pride in the things they love and put expectations upon them. There are two connotations of pride, one being positive, and one negative. It is easy to cross the boundary between them without realizing, and once this line is crossed someone is seamlessly trapped doing harm to both themselves and those around them. Unconditional love stands separated from any other form of love. It seems to have no boundaries, and stands throughout anything. The differences between conditional love verses unconditional love is, conditional love is when expectations of the lover are met therefor earning that love, while unconditional love, is never-ending love no matter what, where the lover will continue to love through rough times and difficult situations. These three forms or ways of loving are shown in the Scarlet Ibis by James Hurst. The narrator, Brother crosses the boundary between love and cruelty as he appears to be taking care of his brother Doodle, but there is an alternate meaning behind all his cruel and loving acts. Still after all these acts, Doodle still loves his brother unconditionally. Brother also shows pride in Doodle to an amount that surpasses just pride in doodle, but himself even more. Brother is self-centered, and takes all his pride and love towards Doodle just to benefit himself, but even through his incapabilitys, Doodle still loves his Brother. There are many forms of love, but if someone is loved to a certain point, it turns to cruelty. The fine line between love and cruelty is unapparent for Brother. He treats Doodle to a point where something that seems cruel could mean to be an act of kindness, and something that seems loving can result in something that is actually cruel. From the reader point of view, Brother seems to be doing a heartless act renaming his brother Doodle, but inside of all this he means it for the better of doodle. This is a reoccurring idea in the story, where Brother does an
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act that would be normally frowned upon in society. Brother treats Doodle with a different objectives in his mind than what is morally correct. Renaming his brother is a good representation of this. Renaming my brother was perhaps the kindest thing I ever did for him, because nobody expects much from someone named Doodle. On a reverse side of this, Brother is many times seeming to be doing a cruel act to Doodle but with only himself in mind. When Brother is teaching Doodle to walk, he forces Doodle to keep trying although it is extremely hard for Doodle. Brother speaks with a tone of disrespect and cruelty. Shut up. Im not going to hurt you. Im going to teach you how to walk.. Doodle is constantly pushed to his limits, the narrator believes pushing him will help him learn and grow. Brother pushes Doodle to learn to row, climb, swim, and walk. Ultimately, Brother is doing something kind for doodle, up to a certain degree. Reading in-between the lines, the reader can see Brothers true intention behind pushing Doodle is really just for his own sake. I purposely walked fast, and although he kept up, his face turned red and his eyes became glazed. The tone often connected with Brothers dialogue is self-centered and disrespectful, giving the reader feelings of remorse towards Doodle, and animosity towards Brother. Doodle shows Brother unconditional love even though Brother does not treat him well. Doodles continuous love shows how he looks up to his brother and thinks of him as a perfect person and a role model. Even when he is left in the mud he yells to Brother with a tone of betrayal but still loving. The authors use of short sentences provides the reader with a sense of alarm and emotion towards Doodle. This part is the point where Doodle mentally and physically gives up hope to receive any love back from Brother. Not only does Brother physically push him to the limit, but mentally as well, as Doodle tries many times to be loved. He is persistent to impress his brother, and the lack of this affection leads to his death. Brother, Brother, dont leave me! Dont leave me! Much of this love is shown though Doodles sentences. The reader connects the tone of the sentences and the syntax with a feeling of sorrow and love. he clung to me, crying, Dont leave me. Dont leave me.. Brother realized Doodle is his brother, and that doodle will love him even if he doesnt love Doodle. He accepts the fact that Doodle loves him unconditionally, and sometimes tried to get Doodle to not
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love him. Brother looks at Doodle with acceptance and disinterest. Doodle is just another one of those things that Brother has to deal with in life. Its as if Doodle is just an extra limb that has grown onto Brother, he must learn and adapt with that new part of himself. Doodle on the other hand, looks up to Brother and follows whatever he is told. Doodle was my brother and he was going to cling to me forever, no matter what I did. In this passage it is obvious Brother doesnt want Doodle to love him, but still tries to deal with that fact. Brother takes pride in Doodle to an amount where it has surpassed just pride in Doodle, but more greatly pride in himself. When Brother teaches Doodle how to walk, he wants the pride of knowing he was to one to teach Doodle, not the pride of having a brother who can walk. And through the success, he is greedy for more pride so he sets up more things for Doodle to learn. Once I had succeeded in teaching Doodle to walk, I began to believe in my own infallibility, and I prepared a terrific development program for him Brothers pride in doodle gets to the point where all he really cares about is himself and his own pride. He pushes Doodle expecting to receive pride from that. Doodle wants Brother to be proud of him. He follows through and pushes past the limits of his abilities. After we had drifted a long way, I put the oars in place and made Doodle row back against the tide. Along the way to achieve the greatest pride he can in himself, Brother decides to set up high expectations for Doodle expecting him to reach them. This one decision of Brother will be something that he will not ever forget. Once Brother pushes doodle to the limits though, it is too late to go back, and ultimately this leads to Doodles death, and something that Brother would not ever forget. For a long long time, it seemed forever, I lay there crying. There at that moment, Brother finally realizes he had been feeding off of Doodles successes using them for his own good rather than Doodles. Pride is something that ultimately controls both Doodle and his brothers life, Doodle receiving a lack of pride, and Brother absorbing all of the pride for himself. Combined, these two factors is what made doodle die mentally, and physically. Doodle is the Scarlet Ibis, a broken vase as the author describes it, enduring many difficulties to end up in a foreign place, just as Doodles mind did. Many times in the story, the reader cannot feel a brotherly bond between Brother
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and Doodle. They seem to drift apart as Brother becomes self-centered and selfish, and Doodle loses hope for Brother to love him. Brother does not understand that love to a certain point is acceptable, but once that point is surpassed, it is negative. Due to him not understanding that he pushes Doodle past his limits and into his downfall, Brother experienced something that he will never forget. His unintentional murder of his brother. Sometimes the process of loving someone, is to let them grow and learn themselves. Without that time, it is hard to feel the true love that is being given to them. Love is like a story, there is a climax in which after all there is left is falling actions. The climax represents the equilibrium of love and independence. It shows that without independence it is hard to feel loved, for that love turns into a normality.