"Pride is a wonderful, terrible thing, a seed that bears two vines, life and death"(172). "The Scarlet Ibis" by James Hurst. A story of brotherly love, or a terrible pride that ultimately lead to death? In this story there are many different conflicts and symbolic items that all have to do with the main character, Doodle.

There are two main types of conflicts in this story, internal and external. One internal conflict is man versus self. This conflict is in the story because Doodle does not believe in himself, "I can't walk, Brother"(172). With help from his brother, Doodle is able to believe that he can walk and works hard to be able to walk. This conflict affects the story because everybody thought that it was impossible for Doodle to walk. The external conflict is man versus man because Doodle was born with a weak heart, therefore he cannot perform normal tasks. Because of this, Brother pushes Doodle to be normal. Brother teaches Doodle how to walk, run and row a boat, but in the end, Brother pushes Doodle too far which resulted in Doodles death. These are the two main conflicts in this story.

There are many signs of symbolism in this story, such as the color red and how the Scarlet Ibis is symbolic to Doodle. First of all, the color red symbolizes blood, danger and death. Doodle's brother mentions the "knot of cruelty born by love, much as blood sometimes bears the seed of our destruction..."(172). The color red is everywhere in this story from Doodle's vermillion neck to the red leaves of the bleeding tree. There is even more red. When Doodle was born he was red and when he tries to crawl he turned red and his coffin was also red. This shows how the Scarlet Ibis is symbolic to Doodle because it is also red and like Doodle, the Scarlet Ibis is a very rare creature. These are some of the signs of symbolism in this story.

As you can see, there are many types of conflicts and symbolic items in this story. Even though the Scarlet Ibis didn't have much to do with conflicts, it was a huge symbolic item. Because of these conflicts and symbolic items I believe that "The Scarlet Ibis" is a story about pride and how it lead to death.