What is the point of view in "The Scarlet Ibis"?
The point of view, or vantage point, from which the narrative of "The Scarlet Ibis" is told is that of first person narrative with the brother of Doodle being the narrator. Told from this perspective of the brother, William Armstrong is presented to the reader as a "nice crazy" who first becomes one of the family when he was three as he was put on the rug before the fireplace. The little boy is given the name of Doodle when he crawls backwards because, the narrator explains, "nobody expects much from someone called Doodle."
Clearly, there is much direct characterization as the narrator evaluates Doodle himself. For example, he states that Doodle "was a burden in many ways" but that he is "licked" because he must take Doodle everywhere with him. In addition, the first person point of view also provides the reader an insight into the narrator's soul as he touches upon a characteristic of many:
There is within me (and with sadness I have watched it in others) a knot of cruelty borne by the stream of love, much as our blood sometimes bears the seed of our destruction, and at times I was mean to Doodle.
Indeed, it is the narrator's pride and his "knot of cruelty" which lead to his forcing Doodle to walk because he is ashamed of having a crippled brother, Sadly, too, this pride in the narrator leads to the death of the "scarlet ibis," his brother Doodle because he tried to remake Doodle in his image.Truly, "The Scarlet Ibis" is as much the narrator's story as it is that of Doodle.
What is the point of view and writing style in "The Scarlet Ibis"?
This story uses the first person point of view. Brother, a character in the story, is the narrator. Using first person narration, Brother is able to tell the story from his own perspective and personal experience. So, the reader gets the events from Brother's own memory. Although this is not a series of diary entries, Brother does recall these events in a similar way. This story is Brother's confession about how he treated and mistreated his younger brother, Doodle.
So, it is similar to a story like Edgar Allen Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado." The clear difference is that Poe's narrator (Montresor) confesses with hardly any remorse whereas Brother's confession in "The Scarlet Ibis" is filled with remorse and regret.
Brother recounts the events in hindsight. This is why he uses the past tense from the very beginning. In retelling the story, Brother is older and wiser and therefore better able to reflect upon his mistakes with Doodle. When Brother shows his family how he's taught Doodle to walk, Brother cries and the reader understands Brother's shame in this story/confession:
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.
What is the point of view in "The Scarlet Ibis" by James Hurst?
Brother paints Doodle red in "The Scarlet Ibis" by James Hurst. The story's narrator is Doodle's older brother that he named simply "Brother."
Brother tells the story as a nostalgic recollection of the events surrounding Doodle's life. Brother, much older, finds it easier to look back and remember the events and his reactions with a mature evaluation.
The adult observations enable the reader to understand Brother and the treatment of his little brother. Acknowledging that many of the things he did with regard to Doodle were wrong and cruel reflects well for the adult Brother who accepts the responsibilty for his actions.
...a knot of cruelty borne by the stream of love. I was mean to Doodle. One time I showed him his casket, telling him how we all believed he would die. When I made him touch the casket, he screamed.
Everything in the story is seen through Brother's eyes. The brief encounters with other members of the family enter the story only to facilitate or explain something surrounding Doodle's life. No matter how unwholesome the experience was, Brother does not hold back the details.
Despite the difficulty that the mature Brother must have experienced as he looked back at himself, he pushes through his emotions and explains what happened from his point of view. When the cruel streak hits Brother again and he leaves Doodle out in the storm, the adult brother comments that he was bitter because of the failure of the plan to have Doodle ready for school.
Finally, when Brother finds Doodle under the poisonous nightshade bush he able to surrender to the devastation of the death of his brother. Comparing his brother to the death of a beautful red bird, Brother realizes that Doodle was his "fallen scarlet ibis."
Who is the narrator in "The Scarlet Ibis" and what's their point of view?
The narrator in "The Scarlet Ibis" is the brother of William Armstrong, later called Doodle. This story is told from first person point of view because the brother narrates and uses "I" when he relates what occurs.
In "The Scarlet Ibis" by James Hurst, there is much that the reader learns about the brother because of his role as narrator. Certainly, he is quite different from Doodle: He is a healthy, able boy, and because Doodle is frail and cannot do normal activities, the narrator is embarrassed by him. Yet, he feels that by renaming Doodle, he was kind "because nobody expects much from someone called Doodle." However, as the narrator himself reveals, he really does expect things from Doodle: He wants Doodle to walk, to swim, to row a boat, even to run because, as he confesses, he is a "slave" to his pride.
Sadly, the narrator realizes that pride
...is a wonderful, terrible thing, a seed that bears two vines, life and death.
For, once he has taught Doodle to walk, he begins to believe in "my own infallibility." This belief becomes the narrator's tragic flaw because he demands too much of Doodle, and the weakened boy tries to keep up with his brother in a storm, but his fragile heart gives out. His "streak of cruelty" in making Doodle push himself has killed his brother.
From whose point of view is "The Scarlet Ibis" told?
"The Scarlet Ibis" is a beautiful story told in the first person by Brother. He is looking back in time to a point in his youth when he saw a beautiful Scarlet Ibis. The amazing thing is that the bird is not from this geographical region so no one has ever seen one there before. Brother relates the story of the Ibis in connection with Doodle, the younger and disabled brother. Doodle is pushed in a cart by Brother and eventually Brother teaches Doddle to walk, run, and be as normal as he can be. Brother knows he is still not ready to do everything he needs to do and he continues to force Doodle to try to acheive things he is not capable of. Brother tells the reader of the death of the ibis and draws the connection to the death of Doodle.
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