Humans and Nature Theme Analysis

“The Scarlet Ibis” is filled with many rich descriptions of the natural world. It quickly establishes the rural North Carolina farmland in which the story takes place and draws some of its most important symbols from nature. Beyond providing a detailed vision of the story’s setting, however, Hurst uses descriptions of nature and the seasons to mirror the boys’ states of mind as well as the dynamic between them, and to suggest that, like nature, people can quickly turn volatile and violent.

The opening two paragraphs are two prime examples of this mirroring, as they describe the season of Doodle’s death and how the surroundings have changed since that time. In the first paragraph, Brother depicts a decaying world, using imagery of rotting brown magnolia petals, graveyard flowers, and rank weeds, as well as a bird’s nest that sits “untenanted…like an empty cradle.” These descriptions foreshadow the decay of Brother and Doodle’s excitement in Doodle’s training program and symbolize his eventual death. In the story’s second paragraph, Brother explains that, since Doodle’s death, a grindstone has replaced the old bleeding tree, and he notes how the trill of the birds seems to die as soon as they sing. Nature’s beauty has been lost to Brother, just as Doodle has been lost. These two paragraphs are a good setup for the pattern that Hurst establishes, in which nature provides a mirror image of Brother’s state of mind.

Later in the story, nature helps the boys to connect with one another and reflects their dynamic. Early on, Brother expresses how he wanted a brother so that he would have someone to accompany him to Old Woman Swamp. When Brother realizes how much he does love Doodle, he immediately takes him there “to share with him the only beauty [he] knew.” Before Brother sets out to try to teach Doodle to walk, he describes how he would gather flowers and the two of them would weave them into crowns. This moment of friendship is reflected in the idyllic setting of the swamp. It is spring when Brother plans to teach Doodle to walk, and spring returns when they set out to teach Doodle to race and swim, but when they’ve both grown exhausted, the season has turned to the lazy days of summer.

As the story approaches its tragic conclusion, the violence of nature becomes more and more pervasive. The summer preceding Doodle’s death was “blighted” with a terrible hurricane, and Brother makes a point to mention that the year is 1918, suggesting that perhaps the author meant to remind readers of the devastation of World War I as the boys and their father survey their corn and cotton fields in ruin. The harm that Brother causes Doodle is also reflected in the weather. The storm that approaches in the final moments of the story is symbolic of Brother’s cruel and tyrannical treatment of Doodle. As combined forces, the storm and Brother’s cruelty cause Doodle’s death. In this way, the natural world acts as a mirror to the characters and their emotions, reflecting the states of mind of the two brothers and the dynamics between them and ultimately suggesting that their story is as much a tale of tragedy as it is a tale about humanity and nature.