By: Josh Nollman “Don’t hurt me, Brother, he warned. Shut up. I’m not going to hurt you. I’m going to teach you to walk. I heaved him up again, and again he collapsed”(Hurst). “He looked down at me, and there was an agonizing, wordless plea for help in his eyes. I--well, I looked away”(Pentecost 43). “The Scarlet Ibis”, by James Hurst, is about a boy whose brother is slower at learning and can’t do all of the things he can. The boy sets off to teach his brother, Doodle, how to walk and play sports like he can, so he can have a “normal” brother. Throughout the story, Doodle is pushed to hard; leading to his death because of his frail heart. “A Kind of Murder”, by Hugh Pentecost, is a story of a student attending Morgan Military …show more content…
The narrator begins to help out Mr. Warren by defending him against the jokers, but then gets persuaded to stop. As a result, Mr. Warren is forced to quit because of the mistreatment. In these short stories, “The Scarlet Ibis” and “A Kind of Murder, the authors use figurative language to exhibit the duality of pride and how it can stray you from your morals.
Hurst and Pentecost utilize figurative language to portray the two sides of pride and how he let his pride consume him. “There is within me … a knot …show more content…
After being picked on, Mr. Warren, makes an attempt to win over the students and staff of Morgan Military Academy by saving the school dog, drowning in the nearby lake. The school dog symbolizes Mr. Warren because he felt like he was “drowning” and he needed somebody to save him. After the incident, Pentecost stood up for Mr. Warren stating: “[He will] personally take on every guy in [the] school if necessary, to knock some sense into [them]”(Pentecost 43). Pentecost makes an attempt at defending Mr. Warren and proving he is not such a bad guy, but gives in to the peer pressure from his friends when they call him a “do-gooder”. Pentecost stands up for what is right, but lets his pride and selfishness get in the way; resulting in the “murder” of Mr. Warren. In the story, “The Scarlet Ibis”, the main symbol is the Scarlet Ibis; the bird represents Doodle’s life and feelings throughout the story. The rare red bird was out of its natural habitat, native to the tropics in Southern Florida, it represented Doodle because he felt he didn’t belong and couldn’t survive where he lived. Also, Doodle and the bird both exhausted themselves to get to where they are at; resulting in their deaths. In the stories, “The Scarlet Ibis” and “A Kind of Murder”, the authors use symbolism to exhibit how the mixture of love and pride can lead to