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Finally, I could see I was licked. Doodle was my brother, and he was going to cling to me forever, no matter what I did, so I dragged him across the burning cotton field to share with him the only beauty I knew, Old Woman Swamp.

Brotherhood is an enduring theme of this story, and here is where Brother finally concedes that he loves his younger brother. Old Woman Swamp is “the only beauty” he knows; therefore, bringing Doodle there and sharing that beauty with him is Brother’s expression of that love. This brotherly love is expressed throughout the story but is compromised by Brother’s personal pride, shame, and cruelty.

“Doodle!” I screamed above the pounding storm, and threw my body to the earth above his. For a long, long time, it seemed forever, I lay there crying, sheltering my fallen scarlet ibis from the heresy of rain.

At the close of the story, Doodle dies in the pouring rain. The rain is indifferent to the tragedy, and the weather motif comes into play one last time. Brother mentions the “heresy” of the rain, a nod to the story’s religious undertones. Earlier, Doodle’s progress is seen as miraculous, and his death now constitutes something close to blasphemy. The symbolism of the scarlet ibis as a stand-in for Doodle is brought into full focus when Brother calls Doodle his “fallen scarlet ibis,” suggesting Brother now sees Doodle the way Doodle once viewed the scarlet ibis: with compassion, though in this case it’s much too late.

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