Topic > A theme about the importance of being kind to loved ones in The Scarlet Ibis

This story tells the reader that all siblings can be the same, handicapped or not. “The Scarlet Ibis,” a short story by James Hurst published in 1960, is the sad story of a child born with a serious medical condition who overcomes some of his challenges only to be killed by his well-meaning but self-employed. -absorbed older brother. In the short story "The Scarlet Ibis", the author James Hurst uses foreshadowing and symbolism to convey his message, Hurst is trying to tell the reader to be kind to their family members while they can, because before they know it, they will disappear. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayHurst uses foreshadowing to convey his message. Hurst does this by foreshadowing Doodle's death with the scarlet ibis dying in their yard. Doodle has just seen a scarlet ibis fly into his family's yard, fall and die. He takes care of it in such a way as to bury it. Then Aunt Nicey pops her head in the kitchen door and says, “Dead birds are bad luck. 'Especially red dead birds!'. This is a subtle foreshadowing of what will happen at the end of the story, where Doodle dies under a tree in the middle of a thunderstorm. The bird Doodle finds has the exact same cause of death as Doodle at the end of the story. This inserted quote brings us back to the starting point of our theme. Doodle recognizes how mean he has been to Doodle and says, "There is within me (and sadly I have observed it in others) a knot of cruelty carried by the flow of love, just as our blood sometimes carries the seed of love". our destruction, and sometimes I was bad at scribbling.” This subtle foreshadowing of our first quote brings us to the next quote, of what was being foreshadowed. The brother is describing how Doodle died in the middle of a storm. The brother explains: “He lay very awkwardly, with his head thrown back, making his vermilion neck appear unusually long and thin. Her little legs, bent sharply at the knees, had never seemed so fragile, so thin." This is what was foreshadowed in Aunt Nicey's first quote. Given these points, the author uses foreshadowing to convey the theme of being kind to loved ones before they leave. Moving forward, author James Hurst also uses symbolism to further convey the original message. He does this by symbolizing a scarlet ibis when Doodle dies. Doodle and his family just watched a bird fly shakily into their yard, fall, and then die. In the text, the brother thinks to himself: “A scarlet ibis! How many miles he had traveled to die like this, in our yard, under the bleeding tree. This dead bird symbolizes Doodle's death at the end of the story before it even happens. The bird symbolizes Doodle's death, because both the bird and Doodle have the same cause of death. Fast forward to Doodle's death, the author wrote, “I started to cry, and the tear-blurred red vision before me seemed very familiar. 'Doodle!' I screamed over the pounding storm and threw my body onto the ground on top of his. For a long time, it seemed like an eternity, I stood there crying, sheltering my fallen scarlet ibis from the heresy of the rain. The brother thinks the sight of Doodle lying dead on the ground looks familiar. This is because shortly before Doodle and his family had seen a bird die right in front of them in the exact same way. This is another way to symbolize Doodle's death as if he were the scarlet ibis from before. In conclusion,.