Love. Care. Kindness. Compassion. These are lessons “The Scarlet Ibis” teaches readers. In “The Scarlet Ibis”, a baby is born William Armstrong: his parents and doctor do not believe this small baby will live. William has a weak heart and cannot walk. His brother renames him Doodle. Brother teaches Doodle to walk; he pushes Doodle hard but in a good way. One day Brother pushes Doodle too far; while in the rain, Brother runs away from Doodle leaving him screaming. When Brother goes back in the storm to find Doodle, Brother finds Doodle dead on the ground laying under a bush. “The Scarlet Ibis” teaches readers to show more compassion by using characters, symbolism, and conflicts.

              In the “The Scarlet Ibis” readers are taught compassion by the characters in the story. In this story the two main characters are Brother and Doodle. Brother very rarely shows compassion to Doodle; Doodle always shows compassion to Brother. He forgives Brother for his behavior, even if they are terrible things. One of the only times in “The Scarlet Ibis” where Brother shows compassion is at the end of the story, right after Doodle dies: “I lay there crying, sheltering my scarlet ibis from the heresy of rain” (6). He hides Doodle’s body from the rain. Because he feels guilty for what he has done. In this part of the story, Brother learns how to show compassion. Doodle just wants to feel accepted by his brother. He wants his brother not to think of him as a burden. One example of Brother wanting Doodle to be accepted is “I knew he was watching me, waiting for a sign of mercy” (6). Doodle waits for Brother to say it is ok that Doodle has failed their goals. The characters demonstrate how to show and how to not show compassion, but there are other parts of this story that also teach kindness.

               In the “The Scarlet Ibis”, readers are also taught compassion by the symbols in the story. There are a lot of symbols in this story. The biggest symbol in the whole story is the scarlet ibis. The scarlet ibis symbolizes Doodle.  Doodle helps the scarlet ibis after the bird dies when no one else would. “Doodle says, ‘I’m going to bury him.’ ‘Don’t you dare touch him,’ Mama warned. ‘There’s no telling what diseases he might have had’” (5). Doodle shows compassion when burying the bird. He teaches readers that even if others don’t show compassion to someone or something one can still show kindness. Another important symbol in this story is the coffin. In the beginning of the story, the coffin is a symbol of compassion. The father gets this coffin built for Doodle because if his son did pass away, the father wants Doodle to have a nice place to rest. However, towards the end of the story the coffin is a symbol for lack of compassion. “If you won’t touch the coffin, I will leave you here by yourself” (2). This is what Brother says to Doodle in the barn loft. Brother shows no care for Doodle; he doesn’t care that Doodle is scared he is going to make Doodle touch his own coffin. All these examples teach how to correctly show kindness. This teaches readers about compassion by using symbols but there still is one more reason.

               Finally, in the “The Scarlet Ibis”, readers are taught compassion through the conflicts in the story. There are many conflicts in this story, mostly between Doodle and Brother. Some of the conflicts have a bad ending but others have a positive outcome. A conflict that has a good ending is when brother teaches Doodle how to walk. However, this also can show the lack of compassion Brother has for Doodle because of the reason Brother teaches Doodle. Brother teaches Doodle to walk only because Brother is embarrassed of his brother. “I couldn’t tell them why I was crying. They did not know that I did it for myself, my pride” (3). Even if Brother is prideful, the outcome of the situation is amazing. Doodle learns to walk. One conflict that does not end positively is when Brother leaves Doodle in the rain: “I ran as fast as I could leaving him far behind, a wall of rain dividing us” (6). Brother tries to make Doodle prove himself. Brother wants to see if he can make it without help and Doodle could not. Sadly, this ends in Doodle dying and Brother is feeling as guilty as ever. Brother shows little compassion to Doodle, he wants Doodle to be “normal”. He pushes Doodle way too far and now Brother faces the consequences of not showing compassion.

                “The Scarlet Ibis” uses characters, symbolism, and conflicts to teach readers the importance of compassion. Certain readers might believe that other literacy devices show compassion better, but some readers may disagree. These literacy devices show this topic the best. The conflicts in the story really show compassion by the lack of kindness the characters show each other. This teaches readers the right way to treat each other. Love. Care. Kindness. Compassion. These are all-lessons readers learn from “The Scarlet Ibis”