Flaws Of The Narrator In The Scarlet Ibis, By James Hurst

In everyday life, we see many examples of the flaws of humans and narrators. For example, CNN and Fox News are both news channels who usually have the same stories that they report on. CNN could report on the story from a more Liberal standpoint but Fox News could report on the same story but from a more Conservative standpoint. Whose story would you trust? That is the main flaw about our society and about people in general, is that we lie or re-write a story to fit what we believe or what we want to hear, instead of telling the full truth. Sometimes, these traits are similar even in fictional stories, when they involve the narrator. Narrators expose flaws when they introduce themselves in their conversations and actions. In the short story …show more content…
“The Scarlet Ibis”, a short story written by James Hurst, starts off with the narrator having a conflict with his crippled brother, Doodle. At the beginning of the story, the narrator despises his brother, he wants nothing to do with him, but as the story progresses the narrator mentors his little brother to learn how to do simple things such as walking. During the training with his brother, the narrator had a tendency to be mean to Doodle, or to run away and leave his crippled and helpless brother to be by himself. These events would often cause conflict between the two brothers, but they would get over it. At the end of the story, the narrator and Doodle were out at the Old Woman Swamp, when a wicked storm started, one that involved lighting hitting the ground and trees catching on fire. Among the chaos, the narrator reverted back to his old flaw of running away and leaving his brother alone. His brother cried out after him, “Brother, Brother, don’t leave me! Don’t leave me”(425)! The narrator purposely left his brother, knowing that Doodle would be scared and have trouble running away. Consequently, the narrator realizes that Doodle was not following him, but it was too late, he ran back to find his crippled brother dead on the ground. Due to the narrator's flaw of letting his emotions get the better of him, when others need him the most, his crippled brother fell victim to death. His arrogance …show more content…
In the short story “Dog Star”, by Arthur C. Clarke, the narrator first did not like animals, he hated them. When he first met Laika, he did not really want her and was somewhat cautious around her. Ironically, he kept the dog, who saved his life from a deadly earthquake. Even though the narrator and Laika had been through so much together, he still decided to leave the dog at a friends house, and pretty much abandon her. When he waited to the last minute to make plans for Laika, he found someone who could take care of her when, “...Dr. Anderson volunteered to look after her, I accepted numbly. The old physicist and his wife had always been fond of her, and I am afraid that they considered me indifferent and heartless- when the truth was just the opposite”(48). Even though he resented the thought of leaving Laika behind, he still chose his job over his family and left her, which ended up breaking the dog’s heart so badly that Laika died soon after the narrator left to go into space. Here, the narrator allows his priorities to become success and money over family and loyalty. He gets an almost cockiness about him when he picks fame and fortune over his pet, his family. When a reader sees this narrator, they see how the wrong priorities can be the undoing of another being. Being hard headed and cold hearted to others can be the downfall of a