Francisco Ochoa Mrs. Wrabel Junior Honors English 30 April 2024 Betrayal within Families “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst and “My Brother’s Keeper” by Jay Bennett, bring up the intricacies of relationships, specifically within families. Both stories touch on the theme of betrayal and how it shows up in relationships between family members. In “The Scarlet Ibis”, the narrator, blinded by his pride and anger, betrays his little brother, Doodle. The narrator found it hard to love Doodle because Doodle had a hard time doing basic functions like walking. The narrator tries to push Doodle’s physical limits by training him in a swamp, but after realizing that Doodle wouldn’t be able to learn anything else before summer break ended, the narrator explains he felt a “streak of cruelty within [him] [awaken]” and he purposefully “ran as fast as [he] could, leaving [Doodle] behind with a wall of rain dividing [them]”(Hurst 444-445).…show more content… “My Brother’s Keeper” ends with the main character, Jamie, choosing to be honest and betrays his brother, Ted. Ted runs a man over and talks to his lawyer about his accident. Jamie is then told by Ted’s lawyer to lie in front of the judge and the court to keep Ted from facing the consequences. After Jamie, Ted, and the lawyer are called into the court and Jamie is told to tell the truth, Jamie says to himself, “I can’t do it Ted. I just can’t” and Jamie “knew that he could never again be his brother’s keeper”(Bennett 29-30). Jamie’s final decision to tell the truth during Ted’s trial shows how betrayal becomes present between Jamie and Ted in “My Brother’s Keeper”. Betrayal is quite common among families in real life, too. In real life, people are almost sure to betray one
