Why does the narrator create a demanding development program for Doodle after teaching him to walk?

After Doodle succeeds in walking, the brother sets a demanding program for Doodle because pride will not allow the brother to have a crippled sibling.

When he teaches five-year-old Doodle to walk, the brother is mainly motivated to do so because he is "embarrassed at having a brother of that age who couldn't walk." So, he insists that Doodle learns to walk, "hauling" his brother up each time that he falls until the boy succeeds. Finally, after weeks of secret practicing, Doodle is able to walk on his own, and the brother is overjoyed.

I grabbed him in my arms and hugged him, our laughter pealing through the swamp like a ringing bell. Now we knew it could be done.

When Doodle displays his accomplishment on his sixth birthday, his family is thrilled. Then, after Doodle reveals that it was his brother who has taught him to walk, everyone rushes to hug the brother and he cries. When his father asks the brother why he is crying, the boy cannot answer.

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.

After Doodle's accomplishment, the brother decides that Doodle should learn "to run, to swim, to climb trees, and to fight." Feeling that he is infallible, the brother sets deadlines for Doodle's goals. However, in his blind pursuit of making Doodle normal, the brother ignores the toll that such physical efforts take upon the frail boy. Later, after the brother's plans fail, his pride, which he has earlier described as "a wonderful, terrible thing, a seed that bears two vines, life and death" reacts to this failure.

At Horsehead Landing where Doodle is supposed to swim and row, Doodle becomes exhausted. Later, when he cannot keep up with his brother as they start back, the frustrated brother ignores Doodle's pleas and runs faster in his cruel pride and anger. 

In "The Scarlet Ibis" the narrator is the older brother of young Doodle, who has had physical obstacles from birth. Instead of being the overproctective big brother who helps Doodle navigate through a difficult world, much like we all would like to picture ourselves doing if put in that situation, the narrator describes the selfish response most of us typically have in day to day life.

The narrator is embarassed by his puny and awkward little brother Doodle. Because of this, he pushes Doodle to learn how to walk, run, and be the most normal version of a kid that the narrator can muster. But this hard work really doesn't seem to be for Doodle, who is just happy to be spending time with his older brother. Instead, the narrator is teaching and pushing Doodle so the narrator isn't embarassed by him when school begins and he sees all of his friends. He doesn't want to deal with having the little brother who is different. 

What motivates the narrator in "The Scarlet Ibis"?

It seems that the narrator has several purposes in his retelling of the story. First, it is a reminiscence of the earlier times at his family home when Doodle was still alive. The big brother tells the story from a nostalgic point of view, remembering the good and bad times spent with his unusual little brother. Brother also seems to be trying to ease his own conscience about the way he treated Doodle in his final minutes and, though there is never a real admission of guilt, he seems to be unburdening himself by telling the story and recounting the death of his own "fallen scarlet ibis." During the story, Brother's desire to make Doodle a normal little brother is nearly completely driven by his own need for the acceptance of others. He is ashamed that Doodle is weak and both mentally and physically challenged, and though his efforts to strengthen Doodle appear to be kind-hearted and through a love for his brother, they are actually of a selfish sort.

Why does the narrator set demanding goals for Doodle in The Scarlet Ibis?

In James Hurst's story "The Scarlet Ibis," the narrator has big plans for his little brother, Doodle. When Doodle is born, his brother is disappointed, because the child is weak. Over time, it becomes the narrator's job to take care of Doodle, to pull him around in his cart, and to treat him with gentleness. But the narrator soon tires of this. He is embarrassed by his brother's weakness, and he wants Doodle to be just like other boys—to be a brother who can run and swim and fight and do everything other kids do.

The narrator decides that he will make that happen. He will end his own embarrassment and all the trouble Doodle brings to him by teaching his brother to walk. He pushes Doodle day after day, making Doodle try again and again, even when the little boy falls and is exhausted. Finally, just before Doodle turns six, he walks.

But the narrator's plans for his brother do not end there. After teaching Doodle to walk, the narrator decides that he will build Doodle up even further so that the little boy can finally do all those things he had always wanted in a brother. What's more, the narrator knows that Doodle will be starting school in less than a year, and he does not want to be embarrassed in front of the other kids if Doodle shows up at school weak and unable to hold his own against the other boys.

The narrator pushes his brother constantly the summer before Doodle is to go to school, and he is disappointed at his little brother's lack of progress. Therefore, he purposely walks faster so Doodle has to keep up, forces his brother to swim and row, and ignores Doodle's exhaustion and tears. Again, he does not want his brother to be different from the other children and embarrass him.

By the end of the story, though, the narrator has pushed Doodle too far for too long. Doodle cannot keep up with his brother during the thunderstorm, and he collapses one final time and dies.

In "The Scarlet Ibis," why does the narrator change the baby's name to Doodle?

In “The Scarlet Ibis,” the narrator, Brother, thinks the name his parents gave his physically deformed little brother is too grand for such a small child.  Doodle’s real name is William Armstrong (his parents finally name him after three months when it looks like he isn’t going to die after all), and according to Brother, he is “. . . all head, with a tiny body which was red and shriveled like an old man's.”  Brother also says that naming him William Armstrong is like, “tying a big tail on a small kite.  Such a name sounds good only on a tombstone.”  Because the name is somewhat "fancy" and doesn’t seem to fit, Brother gives him the nickname, Doodle, because he looks like a doodlebug when he crawls backwards.  According to the footnotes in the text of the story, a doodlebug is also a train that goes “backwards and forwards between stations.”  So, Doodle gets his nickname simply because of the way he looks physically when he crawls around the house before he can walk. 

What does Doodle desire in "The Scarlet Ibis"?

Above all else, Doodle wants to live. He is terrified of the coffin his parents had made for him. When Brother threatens to leave him alone unless he touches the coffin, Doodle pleads with Brother not to leave him. Doodle defies the odds and the doctors and does survive. He continues to defy the odds when Brother teaches him to walk. Doodle seems satisfied with his life. He is thoughtful and observant. Note when he is overwhelmed by the beauty of nature as he looks upon Old Woman Swamp saying, "So pretty, pretty, pretty." Even though Doodle is satisfied with his life, in simply surviving and contemplating the world, he does try to become more "normal" for Brother's sake; he struggles to live up to Brother's training and expectations because he never wants Brother to leave him. At the end of the story, when Doodle and Brother are rushing back home from the creek, Brother thoughtlessly runs ahead. Doodle's fear returns: 

"Brother, brother, don't leave me! Don't leave me!" 

Two things Doodle wants: 1) To live and 2) That Brother will never leave him and/or that he will never be alone. 

What are the narrator's influences and motivations in "The Scarlet Ibis"?

This is a very important question to consider when analysing this excellent short story. Essentially, this story concerns one brother who wants to change his younger brother for his own selfish reasons. It is clear from Doodle's birth that he is not like other children, and this is a fact that the narrator, known as "Brother" in the text, finds very difficult to accept. From the beginning the narrator makes clear his hopes for a younger brother:

I thought myself pretty smart at many things,like holding my breath, running, jumping, or climbing the vines in Old Woman Swamp, and I wanted more than anything else someone to race to Horsehead Landing, someone to box with, 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.

However, clearly Doodle is not able to do this, but this does not stop the narrator from being rather cruel to him and also trying to change him into the brother that he always wanted. Note what his motivation was for teaching him to walk:

When Doodle was five years old, I was embarrassed at having a brother of that age who couldn't walk, so I set out to teach him.

It is embarrassment that leads the narrator to work so hard with his brother, and the narrator himself expresses shame when others congratulate him at his success:

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.

It is this same "pride" and "embarrassment" that leads the narrator to abandon his brother at the end of the story, angry and frustrated at his failure to train Doodle, thus leaving him to perish alone.

Thus when we think about what is the primary motivation of the narrator in "The Scarlet Ibis," we see that it is his own pride and embarrassment at having a brother like Doodle that leads him to try and change him into the brother that he always wanted--which tragically ends in Doodle's death.

Why does the narrator want Doodle to walk in "The Scarlet Ibis"?

Once the narrator, Brother, learns that his physically deformed brother, Doodle, is not mentally disabled, he begins to challenge Doodle to walk and be “normal.”  Brother admits it is because of his pride that he pushes Doodle to walk.  He is not only embarrassed by Doodle’s disabilities, but he is also tired of hauling him around in a cart.  Brother also wants someone to play with on the farm and in Old Woman’s Swamp. 

Brother says, “When Doodle was five years old, I was embarrassed at having a brother at that age who couldn’t walk, so I set out to teach him.”  Once Brother accomplishes the task of teaching Doodle to walk, he cries when Doodle shows his parents.  He says, “They didn’t know that I did it for myself, that pride, whose slave I was . . . and Doodle walked only because I was ashamed of having a crippled brother.”

It is Brother’s pride and embarrassment that Doodle is different than everyone else at school that leads him to teach Doodle not only to walk but also to climb ropes and run and jump.  As an adult looking back on his childhood when the story begins, Brother admits that it is his pride and cruelty that eventually led to Doodle’s death.

Why does the narrator want to change Doodle in "The Scarlet Ibis"?

Brother, the narrator, notes that Doodle is a disappointment. Doodle is born deformed and the narrator describes it like this, "He seemed all head, with a tiny body which was red and shriveled like an old man's." The narrator is six years old at the time. He loves to be very active outside. So, he hopes that when Doodle is older (if he survives), that he and Doodle will be able to do these things together. Doodle surprises everyone's expectations by surviving and being mentally active. But the narrator is not satisfied. His parents encourage him to take Doodle with him everywhere he goes, and the narrator feels like Doodle is a burden. 

When Doodle is five years old, and the narrator is eleven, the narrator notes that he is embarrassed to have an invalid brother. So, this is why the narrator begins teaching Doodle to walk. When he and Doodle present their progress to their parents, everyone is overjoyed. However, the narrator is crying because he knows he hasn't taught Doodle out of generosity; he's done it out of embarrassment and pride: 

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. 

Brother cares enough to feel ashamed about his motives, but this doesn't stop him from continuing to push Doodle to be more "normal."