(analysis + evidence
The Scarlet Ibis Analysis Notes
Point of View- 1st person limited (Narrator’s name isn’t given, just “Brother”, reinforces that the story
focuses on the relationship between the brothers, because he’s an adult looking back reader gets dual
perspective of adult and child)
Themes-according to author “”tenacity and splendor of the human spirit”; also lots of DUALITY:
paradox of terrible beauty= “front of his shirt was stained a brilliant red”, storm was destructive but
compelling “the rain was coming, roaring through the pines, like a bursting Roman candle the gum tree
was shattered by lightning,” when dead Doodle and the bird are “fragile,” “graceful,” “lay on the earth
like a broken vase of red flowers…awed by its exotic beauty”
mixed emotions= narrator’s love/cruelty towards Doodle: “there is within me a knot of cruelty born by a
stream of love,” “the knowledge that Doodle and my plans had to come naught was bitter and that streak
of cruelty within me awakened. I ran as fast as I could, leaving him far behind”
= narrator’s pride/shame: “I did not know then that pride is a wonderful, terrible thing, a seed that bears
two vines, life and death” “they did not know that I did it for myself, that pride, whose slave I was, spoke
to me louder than all their voices, and that Doodle walked only because I was ashamed of having a
crippled brother,” “Do you want to be different from everyone else when you start school?”
Foreshadowing- “William Armstrong…such a name sounds good only on a tombstone”; Doodle’s coffin;
during the “blighted” summer Doodle had nightmares, turned blue after swimming; the death of the ibis;
racing the approaching storm
Tone/Mood- Poignant, pensive, somber, sometimes nostalgic (subdued imagery, description of weather,
the narrator’s comments about pride, cruelty, the sequence of his memories, Doodle’s death in the storm)
Author’s style- use of imagery (slanted rays of the sun burned orange in the tops of the pines, sick-sweet
smell of bay flowers hung everywhere like a mournful song, ironweeds grew rank amid the purple phlox,
etc), symbolism, structure=series of flashbacks, compelling opening and closing lines: “It was the clove
of seasons, summer was dead but autumn had not yet been born, that the ibis lit in the bleeding tree” “For
a long time, it seemed forever, I lay there crying, sheltering my fallen scarlet ibis from the heresy of rain”
Symbolism- Nature a major focus
Scarlet ibis- symbol for Doodle, for fragile beauty, death/tragedy (their bodies are described in similarly,
narrator calls him “my fallen scarlet ibis”, Doodle wasn’t supposed to live and is unusual, bird brought
out of natural habitat by a storm)
Swamp – symbol for the brothers’ love (narrator took Doodle to “the only beauty I knew,” described with
positive imagery, it’s where they spent time together, Doodle learned to walk)
Weather- symbol for emotions/upheaval in characters’ lives (Good weather when Doodle is making
progress, “blighted summer” and destroyed crops during WWI, while Doodle is getting weaker, fierce
storm that ends in Doodle’s death)
The color red-associated with Doodle, the ibis, symbolizes exotic beauty, death
Doodle’s coffin-symbol for death (Doodle terrified when narrator makes him touch it, covered in “Paris
green,” screech owls sometimes associated with death)