The Scarlet Ibis Review

Read the following quote:

"It was in the clove of seasons, summer was dead but autumn had not yet been born, when the ibis lit in the bleeding tree. The flower garden was stained with rotting brown magnolia petals, and ironweeds grew rank amid the purple phlox."

What type of mood is created?

• Jovial

• Somber

• Anxious

• Exasperated

Read the following quote:

"It's strange that this is all so clear to me, now that summer has fled and time has had its way... and I remember Doodle."

What does this quote tell you about the plot structure of this story?

• It is linear since it features a flashback.

• It is linear because it tells the events in the order they occur.

• It is non- linear because it features a flashforward.

• It is non- linear because it features a flashback.

Read the following quote:

"The last of the graveyard flowers were blooming, and their smell drifted across the cotton field and through every room of our house, speaking softly the names of our dead... and time with all its changes is ground away- and I remember Doodle."

What does this quote tell you about the narrator?

• He associates Doodle with death

• He is happy as he thinks about Doodle

• He struggles to remember Doodle

• He is angry as he remembers his brother

Read the following quote:

"It’s strange that all this is still so clear to me, now that that summer has long since fled and time has had its way."

What point of view is the story told from?

• 1st person

• 2nd person

• 3rd person- limited

• 3rd person- omniscient

Which of the following quotes does NOT foreshadow what happens to Doodle at the end of the story?

• "They named him William Armstrong, which was like tying a big tail on a small kite. Such a name sounds good only on a tombstone."

• "Doodle could beat me lying."

• "Doodle began to look feverish, and Mama felt his forehead, asking him if he felt ill. At night he didn’t sleep well, and sometimes he had nightmares, crying out until I touched him and said, “Wake up, Doodle. Wake up.”

• “Dead birds is bad luck,” said Aunt Nicey, poking her head from the kitchen door. “Specially red dead birds!”

Read the following quote:

"They named him William Armstrong, which was like tying a big tail on a small kite."

What is ironic about Doodle's real name?

• He is named after one of his ancestors

• He is named after a disappointment

• His name does not fit him

• His name is fitting because of his appearance

Which of the following quotes is a simile from the text?

• "Then when the slanted rays of the sun burned orange in the tops of the pines, we’d drop our jewels into the stream and watch them float away toward the sea."

• "Keeping a nice secret is very hard to do, like holding your breath."

• "That summer, the summer of 1918, was blighted. In May and June there was no rain and the crops withered, curled up, then died under the thirsty sun."

• "It was too late to turn back, for we had both wandered too far into a net of expectations and had left no crumbs behind."

Which quote illustrates why the narrator changed his feelings towards Doodle after he is born?

• "Doodle was just about the craziest brother a boy ever had."

• "He was born when I was six and was, from the outset, a disappointment."

• "I thought myself pretty smart at many things, like holding my breath, running, jumping, or climbing the vines in Old Woman Swamp, and I wanted more than anything else someone to race to Horsehead Landing, someone to box with, and someone to perch with in the top fork of the great pine behind the barn, where across the fields and swamps you could see the sea. I wanted a brother."

• "However, one afternoon as I watched him, my head poked between the iron posts of the foot of the bed, he looked straight at me and grinned."

Which of the following quotes does NOT demonstrate the similarities between Doodle and the scarlet ibis?

• “It looks tired,” Daddy added. “Or maybe sick.”

• “It lives in the tropics—South America to Florida. A storm must have brought it here.”

• "A scarlet ibis! How many miles it had traveled to die like this, in our yard, beneath the bleeding tree."

• "Doodle remained kneeling. “I’m going to bury him.”

Which quote BEST demonstrates a theme of The Scarlet Ibis?

• "Hope no longer hid in the dark palmetto thicket but perched like a cardinal in the lacy toothbrush tree, brilliantly visible."

• "Even death did not mar its grace, for it lay on the earth like a broken vase of red flowers, and we stood around it, awed by its exotic beauty."

• "I did not know then that pride is a wonderful, terrible thing, a seed that bears two vines, life and death."

• "The knowledge that Doodle’s and my plans had come to naught was bitter, and that streak of cruelty within me awakened."