Home > The Scarlet Ibis Summary & Study Guide > The Scarlet Ibis Group > Question and Answer

Question:

Answers:

1. 
   lit24 Teacher
   Doctorate

   eNotes Editor

   "The Scarlet Ibis," by James Hurst, was first published in the July 1960 issue of the Atlantic Monthly magazine. The story focuses on the troubled relationship between two young boys: the narrator and his mentally and physically disabled brother, Doodle. In the course of the story, Doodle becomes symbolically identified with a rare and beautiful scarlet ibis which, finding itself in a hostile environment, dies.

   "The Scarlet Ibis" opens with the narrator, Brother, reminiscing about a remarkable event that took place when he was a young boy at his family home at the end of the summer of 1918. The events of the story take place between 1911-1918 on a cotton farm in North Carolina.

   Dix Hill in "had anyone stopped to listen to us, we would have been sent to Dix Hill," is a reference to the famous Dorothea Dix Hospital which was a psychiatric hospital in Raleigh, North Carolina.

   Sources:

   http://www.enotes.com/scarlet-ibis/criticism

   http://www.enotes.com/scarlet-ibis/summary

   http://www.enotes.com/scarlet-ibis/themes

   Rate answer:

   • Flag as inappropriate

   Posted by lit24 on Tuesday November 3, 2009 at 6:15 AM