Sunday, April 19, 2015

What are the three points of rising action in The Scarlet Ibis?

When we think of plot diagrams and charting the plot of
stories, the rising action are events that heighten the tension and exacerbate the
central conflict of the text and lead to the climax, which is the moment of greatest
emotional intensity in the story. If we take the climax of this excellent story to be
when Doodle and his brother, in the storm, have to admit their failure to "train" Doodle
and the brother abandons Doodle to his death, then the three points of rising action
leading to this would be the following.


Firstly, I would
argue the point when the narrator shows Doodle his coffin demonstrates the "knot of
cruelty borne by the stream of love" that is present in their relationship, and also
foreshadows the narrator's abandonment of Doodle at the
end.


Secondly, when the narrator teaches his brother to
walk and Doodle is able to give a demonstration of this to their parents, the narrator
makes a very interesting and revealing confession when he admits that he taught Doodle
to walk only because he was "ashamed" of having a crippled brother and that he was a
slave of pride.


Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the
third incident of rising action occurs when the scarlet ibis descends on their tree and
dies. The condition of the scarlet ibis, and how it dies, is explicitly linked to
Doodle's death in the narrator's mind, as he recognises how Doodle, like the scarlet
ibis, was a precious creature that needed protection and was not made for this
planet.

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