Ashoo 1

Jacob Ashoo

Mrs. Eaton

9 Honors Literature and Composition 1

16 October 2019
Pride in “The Scarlet Ibis”

The theme in “The Scarlet Ibis” is that too much pride can cause negative effects. First,

when Doodle is born, he is small, frail, and his family worry’s that he may also have a mental

problem. The narrator does not like having a disabled brother. His disabled brother leaves a mark

on the narrator’s pride, and he does not like that. He gets a crazy idea of killing Doodle. The

narrator’s exact words are, “It was bad enough having an invalid brother, but having one who

possibly was not all there was unbearable, so I began to make plans to kill him by smothering

him with a pillow” (Hurst 430). Doodles condition leaves a dent in his pride. The narrator does

not like this at all and starts to get some negative thoughts. He even describes having a disabled

brother as being unbearable. It’s so unbearable to him that he even goes to the extent of wanting

to kill his brother. Doodles condition leaves a dent in the narrator’s pride, which caused this

thought. Therefore, too much pride results in negative consequences. The theme next appears

while Doodle and the narrator are at the Old Woman Swamp. In an effort to get Doodle to walk,

the narrator holds him up onto his feet and let’s go, hoping that Doodle will eventually be able to

hold himself up. But, he is not necessarily doing this just to help Doodle, but also his pride. He

even states, “I did not know then that pride is a wonderful, terrible thing, a seed that bears two

vines, life and death” (433). The narrator says himself that it was for pride, and that pride is both

a good and a bad thing. It even foreshadows Doodles death later in the story, hence the seed

analogy. Doodle begs him to stop, but he does not. He cannot stand having a disabled brother, so

he does anything to make Doodle normal, even if it is against his will. Again, this proves that too
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much pride has negative consequences. The last example of the theme is in the ending of the

story. Doodle and the narrator are coming home from another day of work when a large storm

comes. The narrator starts to run, but Doodle cannot catch up and falls, asking his brother to not

leave him. Brother gets a sudden wave of rage and runs away because, “The knowledge that

Doodles and my plans had come to naught was bitter, and that streak of cruelty within me

awakened.” (441). What he is saying is that he feels that he has done nothing for Doodle, and he

gets mad. He runs away, leaving Doodle in the midst of the storm. Doodle dies soon after. The

narrator’s hatred for Doodle from the beginning resurfaces, and although he does not

intentionally kill Doodle, he leaves him behind, frustrated with the mark Doodle has made on his

pride. Thus, too much pride can have negative consequences. To summarize, the narrator

wanting to kill Doodle, forcing Doodle to walk, and leaving Doodle in the rain proves that too

much pride has negative effects