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Acting out of pride may lead to regret. 

It is clear throughout the story that the narrator’s actions to help Doodle are fueled by personal pride, which he ultimately comes to regret. As a boy, the narrator would rather have a brother who is not sick and is able to do what the other boys do. It is this sentiment, not concern for Doodle’s well-being, that leads Brother to help Doodle learn to walk. When Doodle achieves the goal of walking, Brother is filled with personal pride, and this attempt to elevate his own dignity inspires him to take on Doodle as his own special project. But in doing so, he treats Doodle as an object, not as a human being.

When Doodle is finally able to walk, Brother begins to pridefully think that he can do no wrong with Doodle, which leads to the tragedy alluded to early on in the story. Brother feels proud of Doodle, but for his own accomplishment and not for his brother’s achievement. When Doodle is unable to meet their agreed-upon schedule for Doodle’s improvement, the narrator’s pride is hurt. Doodle looks for mercy from his older brother but receives none. Brother is too proud to admit defeat, and instead he feels personal shame. When he runs on ahead of Doodle in the rainstorm, he is trying to outrun the shame he feels at not meeting his own goals. His brother’s pleas go unanswered. This act, done out of hurt pride, leads to the greatest regret of his life: Doodle’s death.

Expectations can be out of balance with reality.

The expectations Brother sets for Doodle are too high, which leads to the younger boy’s tragic end. Brother does not want to accept Doodle’s physical limitations. When Doodle is born, everyone in the family except Aunt Nicey expects the child will die in infancy. They accept this potential tragedy as a fact of nature. Brother even calls the boy “Doodle” because he thinks no one will expect much from a boy such a name. The family’s expectations for Doodle are very low, but Doodle exceeds their expectations by living through his early years. When he does so, the family comes to embrace his new abilities. But Brother wants more than is possible. He does not want to accept the fact that walking may be the uppermost limit of Doodle’s physical capabilities. Instead, he expects Doodle to one day be able to behave like other boys, by climbing and swimming and even boxing. This expectation is out of balance with reality.

Often, Doodle questions why he must achieve the levels of physical ability the other boys have. Brother ignores these questions, insisting that Doodle try harder. This shows Brother’s unwillingness to accept Doodle as he is, and he eventually pushes Doodle too far. Late in the story, in the moments before the tragic retelling of Doodle’s death, Brother admits, “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.” This “net of expectations” does not leave room for acceptance of what Doodle can realistically accomplish.

Nature is unyielding.

A central idea in the story is that nature is unfeeling and unyielding. The massive hurricane that comes to the family’s property is an example of nature’s indiscriminate violence. The father blames the weather for destroying his livelihood for the season, but the destruction wasn’t personal; nature feels nothing for the father’s struggle. Nature simply is, and does what it does.

Both Doodle and the scarlet ibis are ultimately unable to survive in a world of unyielding natural forces. This is because they are both fragile creatures, neither of whom are built to survive in their environments. One storm pushes the scarlet ibis too far out of its natural habitat and another results in Doodle’s death. In both cases, nature does not yield to the desires of humans and animals. The rain does not stop when Brother screams and mourns for his brother, nor does nature care that Doodle and the scarlet ibis both wished to survive. Nature has its own plans. It has no capacity to feel, a sharp contrast to Brother, who often behaves with the same unyielding hostility, but does in fact possess the capacity to show compassion; he simply chooses not to.

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