The Scarlet Ibis Memory and the Past Quotes

"The Scarlet Ibis" doesn't discuss the family's ancestors, but this line prepares the reader to travel back in the past with Brother. It also sets a tone of sadness and mourning.

This lets us know we're going to take a trip down memory lane. Time having "its way" is a way of thinking about time. If it's had "its way," it has passed. The line is a little ironic, because Brother lives in the past. Like Gavin Stevens says in William Faulkner's A Requiem for a Nun, "The past is never dead. It isn't even past."

Brother makes things explicit in this line. The story we are about to hear is a memory of Doodle. This lets us know that Doodle is probably dead, but gives no idea of when, why or how long ago the death occurred.

This line reminds the reader that the story is a memory. There is something very tender about Brother picturing his mother worriedly watching her young son struggling to crawl, in spite of his "weak heart" (2.1).

We find this moment interesting because it discusses both the past and the future. It's painful sad because it shows that Brother always assumed Doodle would live to be an old man, and that he shared this assumption with Doodle.

These are the names of World War I battle sites. In this way, Brother subtly connects the deaths of boys in war with Doodle's death. This also helps us understand the larger setting of the story, and places Brother's memory in time.

These are the last words Brother hears Doodle say, but they will haunt Brother forever. This is part of why the memory of making Doodle touch the coffin is so vivid for Brother. Doodle says the same thing then, in Part 2.