Doodle's Death In The Scarlet Ibis By James Hurst

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“...so I placed my hand on his forehead and lifted his head. Limply, he fell backwards onto the Earth. He had been bleeding from the mouth…” In the short story “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst, Doodle died while he and his brother, the narrator, were out and about in the woods. The narrator would take him out into the wild, so Doodle could learn and be like the normal kids at school. Doodle was born abnormal but his brother wanted him to be a normal sibling, so he would push Doodle harder than what parents would push their kids to thrive. Although the narrator just wanted Doodle to do things an ordinary child could do, the narrator is still to blame for Doodle’s death because of his selfishness and hatred towards Doodle.
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