How Long Has It Been, Darlings, Since You Read "The Scarlet Ibis?" Or Have You?????????????

                               If not, girls, you really should.

                              I first came across this story in a short story anthology I wish I still had called "Night In Funland."  It also had this story, the original "Flowers For Algernon," by Daniel Keyes, and Stephen Vincent Benet's "Too Early Spring."

                                 James Hurst's story, which was first published in The Atlantic Monthly in July of 1960, is vague in its details, which is why I think it endures. It is the only thing Hurst is noted for.  The parents are little more than figureheads, while the main characters are the narrator, referred to only as "Brother," and his younger sibling, William Armstrong, who comes to be nicknamed "Doodle."

                                  Doodle's diagnosis is never given, but my guess is he was born hydrocephalic, (water on the brain, with an enlarged head) has a weak body, making it unable for him to walk easily, and a heart condition.  I instantly sympathized with Doodle.

                                     The narrator, who is writing this is looking back on his childhood, not unlike Scout in Harper Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird."  The mood is Southern Gothic.  As the boys grow older, Brother becomes Doodle's keeper, and he takes on the role, but with underlying resentment.  As time goes on, Brother takes it upon himself that he is going to teach Doodle to walk, run, swim and play like other boys.  He succeeds with the first, but it is lack of success with the rest, plus excessive pride on Brother's part that sets up the tragedy.

                                        One day, while they are out, a thunder and lightning storm comes up.  Brother urges Doodle to keep up, but the overexertion from training, leaves him weakened.  In what I felt was an act of cruelty, Brother leaves Doodle behind, his plaintive cries echoing.  When a bit later, he returns to find Doodle, he finds him dead, with blood pouring out of his mouth.

                                           The blood is symbolic.  Earlier in the story the family spies a Scarlet Ibis in a tree in their yard.  The aunt who lives with them says this is a bad omen--this bird must have gone off his path and is in an area his species normally does not inhabit.   And auntie is right, because look what happens.

                                             That is the story.  I know, get out those hankies, girls.  I cried just thinking about it.  But what I wonder is why the narrator who has some remorse, as he writes this story looking back, takes no account of the fact that he murdered his own brother?  If he had stayed with Doodle, I do not think Doodle would have died.  With Brother leaving him, he died not only of over exertion, but fright, and probably a heart attack.

                                              How could the author, James Hurst, overlook this aspect?  Or did he choose to, leaving the reader to decide?

                                                Meanwhile, what of the parents?  How grief stricken they will be, when they find Doodle is dead.  And how will they deal with their older child?  I wonder.

                                                   But I have no doubt that "Brother" is guilty of murder.  Maybe not with intent, but murder, nevertheless.

                                                    What do you think, darlings?????????????????????