Why is the setting important in The Scarlet Ibis?

Mood. Mood, or atmosphere, is the emotion created in the reader by part or all of a literary work. A writer can evoke in the reader an emotional response—such as fear, discomfort, longing, or anticipation—by working carefully with descriptive language and sensory details. The description in the opening paragraph of "The Scarlet Ibis" establishes a haunted, lonely mood. Watch for mood changes as you read the story.

Foreshadowing. Foreshadowing is the act of presenting materials that hint at events to occur later in the story. Note the foreshadowing of death in the first paragraph of the story as hinted at in the somber descriptions of nature.

The setting of a literary work is the time and place in which it occurs, together with all the details used to create a sense of a particular time and place. In "The Scarlet Ibis," the setting is particularly important. According to Hurst, it is almost another character. You will notice that Hurst describes colors, weather conditions, plants, and trees in great detail as he creates the world of the story's two main characters. This world is one with which North Carolina-born Hurst is quite familiar. As you read, notice the important role that the setting plays in the story.

Create a radiating circle like the one below to explore the use of foreshadowing in "The Scarlet Ibis." Note the many different descriptions and events that foreshadow the end of the story. Then write each example of foreshadowing in a circle radiating out from the center. One example has been done for you.

Have you ever had mixed feelings about a family member or a close friend?

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Within the setting, the characters convey the main topics of the setting. The two characters that mainly convey the setting are the narrator and Doodle. The setting is a great area where the two brothers bond and try to help each other. In Doodle’s view he sees a really nice exaggerated setting, almost magical. In the narrator’s view the setting is rough because he is trying to get his younger brother excel, since he is ashamed of having a disabled brother. Also, many objects in the setting convey the character’s emotions as well, the ibis, the rain and lightning, the casket and Doodle’s daydreams. In many parts of the story the emotions play a big part in the setting, when Doodle can walk for the first time in front of the family they are all shocked and crying because they are so happy that the impossible became possible. Also, at the end there is emotions going on such as betrayal and sadness. …show more content…
In The Scarlet Ibis the narrator helps his little brother Doodle throughout the entire story, in many different ways. One way that he helps Doodle is that he is mentally pushing him so he could all the things a normal person could do, "One day I took him up to the barn loft and showed him his casket, telling him how we all had believed he would die,"(387) " his hand, trembling, reached out, and when he touched the casket he screamed." (387)The lines explain how the narrator is trying to push Doodle past his fears and mentally toughen him, "Doodle studied the mahogany box for a long time, then said, “It’s not mine."(387). As Doodle contemplates about the wooden casket it's shows that he doesn't want to except that his parents didn't have faith that he was going to live and that he scared of it. One of the best and most inspiring things that the narrator does for his brother Doodle is helping and teaching his brother how to walk. This allows doodle to have life that he could never have

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Reality’s Hardship on Life’s Unreal Expectations Written by James Hurst, the short story “The Scarlet Ibis” strongly emphasizes how the pride of Brother leads to unattainable and highly impossible goals, and how setting the highest goals can bring you down even further. Setting and trying to complete tremendous goals in a short amount of time is dangerous like when Brother urges, “School was only a few weeks away, and Doodle was far behind schedule...I made him swim until he turned blue and row until he couldn’t lift an oar,” giving the reader the view of Brother and his highly anticipated expectations which go over and beyond Doodle’s limits. Pushing over your boundaries, just a little bit over a long period of time, will help you to improve such as how Doodle was taught how to walk, but trying to take down these colossal objectives and…show more content…
In swimming, I can’t expect myself to swim like Michael Phelps in less than a month by swimming dead sprints six hours straight, but it would take small improvements such as having a healthy diet, good sleep, and improving my swim technique and implementing it when I start to feel tired, because that is where my technique and speed starts to progress. Completing minor achievable goals can lead to impatience and tempt you to making major objectives that you want great improvements on in the shortest amount of time, such as when Brother eagerly proclaims,”Once I succeeded in teaching Doodle to walk, I began to believe in my own infallibility and I prepared a terrific development program for him,”(Hurst 421) presenting the idea of Brother thinking he could make immense improvements on Doodle because Brother believed he was perfect just after teaching him to walk. Short-term goals will over time help you climb the ladder to your awaited prize, but the temptation of pride gets in our way to sidetrack us from these small tasks and mislead us to humongous objectives that we want

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