The Scarlet Ibis

Written from the perspective of the unnamed elder brother, “The Scarlet Ibis” offers readers a glimpse into the narrator’s past while simultaneously allowing for an older and wiser narrator to impose his own gloss on events. The narrator begins by recalling the past in first-person narration: “It’s strange that all this is still so clear to me, now that summer has long since fled and time has had its way” (48). This statement allows the reader to vicariously experience the story, aware that the events occurred long ago, and that life has changed for the protagonist. Throughout the narrative, past tense verbs and numerous asides signal that the central actions of the story are complete and can only be contemplated from the vantage point of the present. The narrator, for instance, notes that the pride he took in teaching Doodle to walk and the ultimate failure of his role as a brother was something he did not understand at the time: “I did not know then that pride is a wonderful, terrible thing, a seed that bears two vines, life and death” (50). The narrator, in hindsight, recognizes his relationship with Doodle as bound up in his boyish notion of pride, which motivated him to help his brother experience life more fully but also led to Doodle’s death.

The theme of Coming of Age: Pride and Social Acceptance is developed through the character of “Brother,” the narrator. Repeated references to pride and shame show that the narrator is no longer a boy and is now able to reflect on his past actions. In his retrospective, the narrator can ascribe meaning and motivation to them. He admits that his pride would not let him stop trying to teach Doodle athletic skills, despite his adult knowledge that he “should have already admitted defeat” (52). The narrator also acknowledges his “childish spite” toward Doodle and laments “that streak of cruelty within me” (53), which his failure to remake his brother and his shame at his brother’s disabilities awakened.

Set in an undisclosed rural town in North Carolina in the early 20th century, the story is filled with descriptions of the natural world that echo the somber emotions of the narrator, foreshadow the tragic events to come, or reveal the beauty of Doodle. The narrator’s dualistic perception of nature thematically develops The Beauty and Inevitability of Death. Flowers symbolize both hope and decay. At the beginning of the story, the natural world carries traces of death and mourning. The flower garden contains rotting and rank flowers, the oriole nest rocks “back and forth like an empty cradle,” and birdsong “seems to die up in the leaves” (48). These details foreshadow Doodle’s death and paint a picture of loss and decay. These sorrowful descriptions are juxtaposed with vivid and ethereal pictures of the natural world as experienced by Doodle. Doodle gazes with wonder at the Old Woman Swamp and cries at the beauty of his environment, which is “beyond the touch of the everyday world” (49). Even Doodle’s stories, which the narrator boyishly calls “lies,” are filled with natural and fairytale-like imagery. The most prominent fantasy involves a peacock with a marvelous 10-foot tail that envelopes a sleeping young boy, “burying him in the gloriously iridescent, rustling vortex” (51). The colorful, lively settings that Doodle encounters are contrasted with the somber settings nature imposes on the narrator. This juxtaposition shows that loss permeates the narrator’s natural world.

The parents and the world beyond their domain remain shadowy background elements of the story, emphasizing the isolation of the two boys and the world that they create together. The limited natural world beyond their front door frees the brothers and shapes their lives. The swamp, the flowers, the fields, and the pine tree become a playground for the brothers. Most of the story’s action occurs outside along the stream and beneath the trees. Indeed, the narrator states that he wants a brother to enjoy the natural world with him: “[S]omeone to race to Horsehead Landing […] and someone to perch with in the top fork of the great pine behind the barn, where across the fields and swamps you could see the sea” (48). Although limited in his physical abilities, Doodle recognizes the potential of the swamps and fields, spinning tales of a fairytale future on the banks of Old Woman Swamp and crying at the beauty of their environment.

Although external global events provide readers with a sense of contemporary history, these details are sparse and passed over quickly by the narrator. The blight of 1918 and an Atlantic hurricane destroy the trees in the boys’ yard and devastate the cotton and corn fields. Yet, after witnessing their father “cursing heaven, hell, the weather, and the Republican Party,” the narrator and Doodle believe that “everything would be all right” (51). This simplicity and lack of concern for the world beyond is echoed by brief mentions of notable World War I battles, which the narrator construes as “strange names” (51). The brother’s lack of interest in world events further suggests their isolation and childlike view of the world.

The most symbolic images in the story are those of birds. From the central image of the scarlet ibis, which is compared to Doodle in the story’s final sentence, to the orioles that nest near the family home, to Doodle’s tales of magical peacocks, birds inhabit the text. While the scarlet ibis itself symbolizes the beauty and death of Doodle, these other birds suggest two other ideas. First, one of Doodle’s fantasies is about a boy who owns a peacock that folds the boy up in its colorful tail to sleep. The peacock symbolizes Doodle’s wish for rest from the pain of the real world. Second, during the narrator’s attempt to teach Doodle to row, swim, and box, the birds represent hope. Their songs, which break out during these summer trainings, fill the narrator with faith in his plan and Doodle’s ability to learn the skills necessary to fit into their rural community.

The final paragraphs of the story show an image of a deceased Doodle that echoes the earlier depiction of the dead scarlet ibis. By comparing Doodle to the ibis, the author illustrates the boy’s grace and beauty and hints at the human world’s inability to accept Doodle. The scarlet ibis, which the family fails to name without a book on bird species, dies beneath a bleeding tree. Like the ibis, Doodle’s grace and beauty remain unrecognized by the narrator until Doodle’s untimely demise “beneath a red nightshade bush” (53).