Shared Humanity In The Scarlet Ibis By James Hurst

Words: 1094
Pages: 5
Open Document
What does it mean to be human? Society often displays many differences between people. But all humans share characteristics such as emotion, the ability to make relationships, the need to survive, to feel loss, and knowing right from wrong. Different cultures may not all share the same views or opinions, but humans all share these underlying traits. Media, literature, and society all illustrate different views on what it means to be human, but within all sources the six traits of shared humanity in common are emotion, relationship, morality, survival, loss, and choice.
In literature examples of shared humanity traits such as emotion and relationships are displayed, in the short story “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst. The narrator tries to teach his paralysed brother, Doodle how to walk. “Doodle walked only because I was ashamed of having a crippled brother”.(Hurst) The narrator is embarrassed of his brother incapabilities. The motivation for Doodle to walk comes from the shame the narrator has about his brother’s condition. Doodle is in search for his brother's acceptance, and although he does not …show more content…
Also the narrator shows how relationships help to shape humans, just seeing that his brother was happy made the narrator realize the importance of family. In the book How I Live Now Daisy shows how morality really determines the decisions humans make. Going against her morals when she falls in love with her cousin causes her to want to hide the relationship because she knows it is wrong. In the book The Perks of being a Wallflower, Charlie experiences loss when his Aunt Penn dies which eventually leads to his depression. Charlie also struggle with choice, when he chooses to be honest and kiss Sam instead of Mary Elizabeth. All these traits are what humans have in common, but they do not define humanity, being human is the ability for society to express these traits through
Show More

Related Documents: Shared Humanity In The Scarlet Ibis By James Hurst

Pirandello In The Scarlet Ibis By James Hurst

Luigi Pirandello, an italian author from the late 1800’s, once said, “ When you say you are in love with humanity, you are well satisfied with yourself.” What Pirandello means by that is that humans share certain aspects of their lives. In the short story, “The Scarlet Ibis”, by James Hurst, the author included how emotion was identified between a young boy and his brother. “The Scarlet Ibis” is a short story about a boy named William Armstrong, nicknamed as Doodle. When Doodle was born he was invalid…

Words 675 - Pages 3