Imagery and Symbolism in "The Scarlet Ibis"

Read the excerpt from "The Scarlet Ibis." When he was two, if you laid him on his stomach, he began to try to move himself, straining terribly. The doctor said that with his weak heart this strain would probably kill him, but it didn't. Trembling, he'd push himself up, turning first red, then a soft purple, and finally collapse back onto the bed like an old worn-out doll. I can still see Mama watching him, her hand pressed tight across her mouth, her eyes wide and unblinking. But he learned to crawl (it was his third winter), and we brought him out of the front bedroom, putting him on the rug before the fireplace. For the first time he became one of us. What does the underlined imagery in this excerpt show about Doodle?

(D) He is determined and does not give up easily.

In "The Scarlet Ibis," how does the death of the scarlet ibis foreshadow the death of Doodle?

(A) Like Doodle, the scarlet ibis is a fragile creature that struggles to survive in its environment.

Read the excerpt from "The Scarlet Ibis." There is within me (and with sadness I have watched it in others) a knot of cruelty borne by the stream of love, much as our blood sometimes bears the seed of our destruction, and at times I was mean to Doodle. One day I took him up to the barn loft and showed him his casket, telling him how we all had believed he would die. It was covered with a film of Paris green sprinkled to kill the rats, and screech owls had built a nest inside it. Doodle studied the mahogany box for a long time, then said, "It's not mine." "It is," I said. "And before I'll help you down from the loft, you're going to have to touch it." Which object from the excerpt is used to symbolize death?

(A) the casket

Read the excerpt from "The Scarlet Ibis." That winter we didn't make much progress, for I was in school and Doodle suffered from one bad cold after another. But when spring came, rich and warm, we raised our sights again. Success lay at the end of summer like a pot of gold, and our campaign got off to a good start. On hot days, Doodle and I went down to Horsehead Landing and I gave him swimming lessons or showed him how to row a boat. Sometimes we descended into the cool greenness of Old Woman Swamp and climbed the rope vines or boxed scientifically beneath the pine where he had learned to walk. Promise hung about us like the leaves, and wherever we looked, ferns unfurled and birds broke into song. Which sentences from the excerpt most emphasize that spring has become a symbol of hope for the boys? Check all that apply.

(B) But when spring came, rich and warm, we raised our sights again. (C) Success lay at the end of summer like a pot of gold, and our campaign got off to a good start. (E) Promise hung about us like the leaves, and wherever we looked, ferns unfurled and birds broke into song.

Read the excerpt from "The Scarlet Ibis." The knowledge that Doodle's and my plans had come to naught was bitter, and that streak of cruelty within me awakened. I ran as fast as I could, leaving him far behind with a wall of rain dividing us. The drops stung my face like nettles, and the wind flared the wet glistening leaves of the bordering trees. Soon I could hear his voice no more. What best describes the purpose of the foreshadowing present in the narrator's words, "Soon I could hear his voice no more"?

(B) It creates suspense as the reader wonders why the narrator can no longer hear Doodle's voice.

Read the excerpt from "The Scarlet Ibis." But Mama, crying, told me that even if William Armstrong lived, he would never do these things with me. He might not, she sobbed, even be "all there." He might, as long as he lived, lie on the rubber sheet in the center of the bed in the front bedroom where the white marquisette curtains billowed out in the afternoon sea breeze, rustling like palmetto fronds. What best describes the effect of the sensory imagery used in this excerpt?

(B) It helps the reader to better visualize the life that might lie ahead for Doodle.

Read the excerpt from "The Scarlet Ibis." After we had drifted a long way, I put the oars in place and made Doodle row back against the tide. Black clouds began to gather in the southwest, and he kept watching them, trying to pull the oars a little faster. When we reached Horsehead Landing, lightning was playing across half the sky and thunder roared out, hiding even the sound of the sea. The sun disappeared and darkness descended, almost like night. Flocks of marsh crows flew by, heading inland to their roosting trees, and two egrets, squawking, arose from the oyster-rock shallows and careened away. What best describes the effect of the imagery used in this excerpt?

(B) It helps the setting come alive.

In "The Scarlet Ibis," Doodle is best symbolized by the bird, the scarlet ibis, because

(B) both are fragile creatures who struggle in their environments before dying tragic deaths.

Read the excerpt from "The Scarlet Ibis." I thought myself pretty smart at many things, like holding my breath, running, jumping, or climbing the vines in Old Woman Swamp, and I wanted more than anything else someone to race to Horsehead Landing, someone to box with, and someone to perch with in the top fork of the great pine behind the barn, where across the fields and swamps you could see the sea. I wanted a brother.What does the imagery in this excerpt best show about the narrator?

(C) He enjoys nature and wants someone to share it with.

Which excerpt from "The Scarlet Ibis" most foreshadows that the narrator will feel regret for something he has done to Doodle?

(C) There is within me (and with sadness I have watched it in others) a knot of cruelty borne by the stream of love, much as our blood sometimes bears the seed of our destruction, and at times I was mean to Doodle.

Read the excerpt from "The Scarlet Ibis." Daddy, Mama, and I went back to the dining-room table, but we watched Doodle through the open door. He took out a piece of string from his pocket and, without touching the ibis, looped one end around its neck. Slowly, while singing softly "Shall We Gather at the River," he carried the bird around to the front yard and dug a hole in the flower garden, next to the petunia bed. Now we were watching him through the front window, but he didn't know it. His awkwardness at digging the hole with a shovel whose handle was twice as long as he was made us laugh, and we covered our mouths with our hands so he wouldn't hear. When Doodle came into the dining room, he found us seriously eating our cobbler. He was pale and lingered just inside the screen door. "Did you get the scarlet ibis buried?" asked Daddy. Doodle didn't speak but just nodded his head. Which example of sensory imagery from the excerpt best shows that Doodle is upset about the death of the scarlet ibis?

(D) He was pale and lingered just inside the screen door.

Read the excerpt from "The Scarlet Ibis." 1 It's strange that all this is still so clear to me, now that the summer has long since fled and time has had its way. 2 A grindstone stands where the bleeding tree stood, just outside the kitchen door, and now if an oriole sings in the elm, its song seems to die up in the leaves, a silvery dust. 3 The flower garden is prim, the house a gleaming white, and the pale fence across the yard stands straight and spruce. 4 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. Which sentence from the excerpt is foreshadowing and why?

(D) Sentence 4 because it foreshadows that Doodle is no longer present in the narrator's life.

Read the excerpt from "The Scarlet Ibis." There is within me (and with sadness I have watched it in others) a knot of cruelty borne by the stream of love, much as our blood sometimes bears the seed of our destruction, and at times I was mean to Doodle. One day I took him up to the barn loft and showed him his casket, telling him how we all had believed he would die. It was covered with a film of Paris green sprinkled to kill the rats, and screech owls had built a nest inside it. Doodle studied the mahogany box for a long time, then said, "It's not mine." "It is," I said. "And before I'll help you down from the loft, you're going to have to touch it." What symbol is described in this excerpt, and what does it represent?

(D) the casket, which symbolizes the loss of Doodle

Read the excerpt from "The Scarlet Ibis." The lightning was near now, and from fear he walked so close behind me he kept stepping on my heels. The faster I walked, the faster he walked, so I began to run. The rain was coming, roaring through the pines, and then, like a bursting Roman candle, a gum tree ahead of us was shattered by a bolt of lightning. When the deafening peal of thunder had died, and in the moment before the rain arrived, I heard Doodle, who had fallen behind, cry out, "Brother, Brother, don't leave me! Don't leave me!" The imagery in this excerpt most reflects

(D) the sense of sound to emphasize the intense volume of the storm.