Thomas Simpson 6th hour English Honors November 7th, 2012

The Scarlet Ibis Essay Assignment

The book The Scarlet Ibis is full of symbols. There are symbols all throughout the world. A symbol is an object, a person, experience, or any type of sign that represents something. It could be a dove representing peace or a stop sign telling you to stop. Symbols can represent the simplest things to the very unique, abstract things. An example from the story would be the scarlet ibis. The scarlet ibis was standing at the top of the tree and it tried to fly and it failed after a couple of feet, then fell down to the ground and died. The hurricane had forced it to fly, pushed it too hard and far. In the story it started raining, Brother had ran away from Doodle in the rain forcing him to keep going on his own when Doodle could not. Brother pushed Doodle too hard like the scarlet ibis had been pushed by the hurricane and he fell and died just like the scarlet ibis had done. Another great example of a symbol was Doodle standing without falling in the story. Brother had tried training him several times to stand as it said in the story, 200 attempts a day. Then finally Doodle did stand. Brother found greater hope. Doodle was hope himself, a sign of hope. When his family saw Doodle walk they were all so happy, and they were amazed. Even though Brother was ashamed of his selfish reasons for helping Doodle walk, it still gave him more hope in a future with Doodle, and training him to not be embarrassing. A great symbol in the story is also the Old Woman Swamp. They would go to the swamp more than any other place and it would be peaceful and they would talk about their futures. So

you could say Old Woman Swamp was a symbol that to Brother and Doodle represented peace and happiness as well as their future. They would go there and talk about having a house there. Theyd talk about how they were going to marry mommy and daddy. It was where they shared their best moments together as brothers. There are many symbols throughout the world. There were several symbols in this story with many meanings. The scarlet ibis, Old Woman Swamp, Doodle standing up, and many more symbols were in this sad short story. Maybe it was all the symbols that made this a great story, causing greater emotions like certain symbols may do. I will probably realize more symbols whether in other stories or life because of the short story The Scarlet Ibis.

Citations: Hurst, James. The Scarlet Ibis. Pages 257-267. Glencoe Literature Copyright 2002. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.