1. “The Scarlet Ibis”
By James Hurst

2. Setting Time: 1912-1918—World War I; summer
Place: North Carolina; cotton farm; Old Woman Swamp.

3. Point of View
“The Scarlet Ibis” is told through first person point of view.
The narrator is Doodle’s older brother.
The narrator tells the story using flashback.
Flashback: the author or narrator depicts events which have taken place before the present time.

4. Conflict
Man vs. Man: the struggle exists between the narrator and Doodle.
James Hurst uses the war raging among “brothers” in Europe to demonstrate the conflict between the narrator and Doodle.

5. Allusions There are three allusions in “The Scarlet Ibis.”
Battle sites of WWI: Chateau-Thierry, Soissons, and Belleau Wood
The story of Hansel and Gretel: “It was too late to turn back, for we had both wandered too far into a net of expectations and had left no crumbs behind.”
Biblical Resurrection: “If we produced anything less than the Resurrection, [Aunt Nicey] was going to be disappointed.”

6. Foreshadowing
Summer of 1918 was devastating: plant growth was replaced by death and decay.
Clue that Doodle’s growth will be replaced by death and decay.
The fall of the Ibis.
Clue that Doodle will fall later in the story.
Dead birds are “bad luck.”

7. Imagery Death imagery appears throughout “The Scarlet Ibis.” Examples:
Bleeding tree
Rotting brown magnolia
Ironweeds grew rank
Graveyard flowers
Mahogany box
Black clouds, darkness descended

8. Similes
Simile: a comparison of two unlike things that uses the word “like” or “as”
Examples:
“William Armstrong’s name is like putting a big tail on a small kite.”
“Promise hung about us like leaves.”
“Hope no longer hid in the dark palmetto thicket, but perched like a cardinal in the lacy toothbrush tree, brilliantly visible.”

9. Metaphors
Metaphor: a comparison of two unlike things without using the words “like” or “as”
Examples:
“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.”
“Pride is a wonderful, terrible thing, a seed that bears two vines, life and death.”

10. Symbols
Symbol: a person, place, or thing used to represent something else.
The main symbol in the story is the scarlet ibis which represents Doodle.

11. Theme
One of the possible themes of “The Scarlet Ibis” is pride is destructive.
Lines like the following support this theme:
“All of us must have something to be proud of.”
“Pride is a wonderful, terrible thing, a seed that bears two vines, life and death.”