The Scarlet Ibis

“The last 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.”

The narrator begins his reminiscences with sensory descriptions of his environment. The smell of the graveyard flowers and whispers of the dead foreshadow the tragic outcome of the story by highlighting human mortality. The bleak description of the flowers also establishes the story’s somber mood.

“But sometimes (like right now), as I sit in the cool, green-draped parlor, the grindstone begins to turn, and time with all its changes is ground away—and I remember Doodle.”

The grindstone, traditionally used to sharpen tools, here functions as a way for the narrator to sharpen his memory. The grindstone’s turning symbolizes the narrator’s return to the past and allows the reader to view the story through his perspective.

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

This simile compares naming Doodle “William Armstrong” to putting a large tail on a small kite, suggesting that giving Doodle a strong name sets the boy up for failure. To the narrator, his small, fragile brother would have no use for a “big tail,” or a big name.