Analysis: Assessing the Theme of “The Scarlet Ibis”

Here’s another one of my essays from my English I class during freshman year.

“The Meaning of Life”

“When we do the best that we can, we never know what

miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another.”

– Helen Keller (1880 – 1968)

In the year of 1960, James Hurst introduced the world to his tragic short story The Scarlet Ibis about the narrator who tries to help his little, invalid brother Doodle become a “normal” boy. As the novel progresses, the narrator helps him learn how to walk, which their parents are proud of, and prepares him for school by teaching him various skills. By the end, frustrated that their plans of teaching Doodle how to run, swim, and fight didn’t work out, the narrator runs away from Doodle during a lightning storm on their way to their house, leaving him behind. The narrator eventually goes back to check on him and finds him dead. Now, this might not seem like one of the most influential piece of literature of the twentieth century you’ve ever seen at first glance, but at the time, the story broke new grounds with its involving, thematic plot and use of symbolism, quickly becoming critically-acclaimed. However, at its heart lies its underlying message that everyone’s life is not worthless and that everyone’s role in life somehow affects at least another person.

People are sometimes oblivious of the effect, whether it be positive or negative, they have of another’s life. The relevance this has on The Scarlet Ibis is that, as the narrator tells his story, he’s looking back on a past life he had with Doodle and “all this is still so clear to me, now that summer has long since fled and time has had its way” (p. 314). This clearly implies Doodle has had a significant impact on the life of the narrator, enough for the narrator to remember it thoroughly. The same could be said vice-versa, as Doodle wouldn’t have been able to walk, or do nothing, for that matter. Accordingly, even though the narrator’s pride got the best of him, his relationship with Doodle is sort of like a redeeming quality in his life.

Furthermore, it wasn’t until after Doodle died that the narrator realized what effect Doodle had on his life, when he “began to weep, and the tear-blurred vision in red before [him] looked familiar” (p. 323). The fact that people don’t know another’s role in life until after their dead has been evident throughout history. For example, the perpetrators of the Columbine High School massacre, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, were practically “nobody’s” until the day of the school shooting, even though there were several early warning signs of their plans. Likewise, Heath Ledger wasn’t really well-known to the mass media until his untimely death in January, which obviously had a considerable impact on The Dark Knight‘s record-breaking box office performance, despite the fact he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor in 2005.

So, as you can see, James Hurst wanted to teach us the value of life, in a way, because we are not worthless, even if we think we are. What would happen if Isaac Newton or Albert Einstein thought their lives were worthless and committed suicide early in their life? It’s not until one experiences life without oneself that (s)he realizes what it would’ve been like if one never existed.