The Scarlet Ibis Plot Outline

"The Scarlet Ibis" has a rather poignant plot. It focuses on how a physically disabled child, born William Armstrong, later referred to as Doodle, grows up with much influence from his older brother. The story is written in the eyes of his unnamed brother, and begins with the narrator's words of grief that fade into his memories when his brother was still alive, when William was first born. The older brother was first extremely disappointed to have an "invalid" brother and was so raged at this that he had planned to actually kill him. But when he saw his brother smile and look straight at him, he gained hope that his brother might be the kind of brother he had always wished for. When William was around the age of 2, his older brother had observed how he would crawl like a doodlebug, in a backward motion, resulting of the creation of the nickname, "Doodle". As Doodle grew and became older, he was transported on a go-cart, having no hope of ever walking...until he was taught to walk by his older brother. The older brother had had many expectations from Doodle and trained him day by day how to run, to climb and to swing. He had put a large amount of hope into making his brother the kind of brother that others had, and therefore started to treat Doodle as if he was the person he had fantasized. But little did he know that his brother was far from being his dream brother-that is at least physically. Consequently came the tragic death of William "Doodle" Armstrong, when the older brother becomes disappointed at Doodle and deserts him in a downpour and comes back to discover Doodle under a tree, blood trickling from his mouth, dead.