How does the narrator treat his brother in the short story, "The Scarlet Ibis?"

The narrator's treatment of his brother in the short story, "The Scarlet Ibis" is harsh essentially. He says that his brother Doodle was, “…from the outset, a disappointment." He even says that his brother was crazy in a way, albeit a “nice crazy.” The older brother, at first, does not like having a younger brother who is an invalid. His thought process in this is that he makes plans to kill his brother to rid...

The narrator's treatment of his brother in the short story, "The Scarlet Ibis" is harsh essentially. He says that his brother Doodle was, “…from the outset, a disappointment." He even says that his brother was crazy in a way, albeit a “nice crazy.” The older brother, at first, does not like having a younger brother who is an invalid. His thought process in this is that he makes plans to kill his brother to rid the family of the burden of caring for him.

He does learn to accept Doodle somewhat, but he and the rest of the family don’t give Doodle the respect he deserves. This is exemplified by the fact that they quit listening to Doodle because he talks incessantly. Again, this highlights the fact that they see the boy as a drain on their respective lives, the older brother more so.

The family doctor has given instructions on how to care for Doodle in his everyday life. However, the brother ignores these instructions whenever he takes Doodle out and is alone with him. The older brother does have some good qualities, he is not evil and incessantly mean to Doodle, but he does admit that he was mean to him sometimes. He does take Doodle to see the beauty of Old Woman Swamp, so he does try to give his younger brother some good experiences.

His harshness towards Doodle is shown when he takes Doodle to see the coffin the family was going to bury Doodle in, in his early days when his parent’s thought he wasn’t going to live. The brother is cruel in showing Doodle this coffin and even makes him touch it. In addition, the brother did not like having a brother who couldn’t walk as Doodle couldn’t walk at age five. He teaches Doodle to walk after much trial and error, but he does this for himself to relieve his embarrassment of being seen in public with a crippled brother. He isn’t really doing this for Doodle’s benefit. This shows the brother’s selfishness and vanity.

The heart-rending ending of this story also highlights the brother’s harsh treatment of Doodle. He runs from Doodle who follows him, as they want to get home ahead of a bad storm. He doesn’t walk slowly to let Doodle catch up to him. Doodle dies because of his physical infirmities – the running to catch up to his brother (and Doodle’s fear) is too much for him and he collapses and dies. The brother resents that Doodle is not like normal healthy young boys. Therefore, he says that, “I ran as fast as I could, leaving him far behind with a wall of rain dividing us.” He abandoned his brother and this harsh treatment had tragic consequences. He was not his brother’s keeper.