While teaching a freshman literature course, I felt it was necessary to hold a brief class discussion regarding the main topic of the short story we were about to read. By using this technique, hopefully the students would be able to empathize with the characters. I knew that on this particular day, the discussion could become either a revelation or a total failure depending on their reaction to my questions as I prepared them to read "The Scarlet Ibis."
The Scarlet Ibis is a story of two brothers, the narrator, whose name is not given but is simply referred to as "Brother" by his younger sibling, and "Doodle". Doodle is born a very sickly child who isn't expected to live. His brother wanted someone who could run and jump and play with him, but instead he got the fragile Doodle; this makes him angry. Determined to make Doodle into the brother he wants, Brother pushes him constantly, past the point of physical endurance; he is often cruel to him, even making him touch the coffin that was originally built for him as a baby. Doodle does learn a lot from Brother, but this comes at a high price.
Eventually, at the age of six, he even learns to walk. Enlightened by this, the brother decides to teach him how to run, climb vines, swim, and even fight to prepare him for school. However, almost a year after the plan was made, and the deadline was almost up, Doodle was still far from the original plans.
One day, a big red bird appears in the garden, looking sick and tired. The boys' father identifies it as a Scarlet ibis, a tropical bird that must have been blown off course because of a recent storm. When the bird suddenly dies, Doodle, pitying the creature, decides to bury it. Afterwards, the boys go down to Horsehead Landing, a nearby swamp. On their way back to the house Brother has Doodle practice rowing. A sudden rainstorm comes, and when they reach the riverbank Doodle is tired and frightened. Brother leaves Doodle behind in the pouring rain, angry that he can't finish "training" Doodle before school starts. He soon returns for Doodle, only to find that he has died with blood flowing out of his mouth, staining his throat red. He had died like the Scarlet Ibis. Brother cries with regret for what he had done.
I opened the discussion by asking, "How do you feel when you see a handicapped person?" Their immediate reaction was to look everywhere--down at the desk, out the window, at their friends--everywhere except at me. Fortunately, one student broke the classroom silence and others followed suit. Comments poured out as well as examples of people they knew or had seen who were handicapped. "I feel sorry for them." "I just ignore them because I don't know what to say." "I'm glad it's not ME." "I wonder what happened to them." The normal 10-minute opening discussion turned into an entire class hour with just a few minutes at the end for a question and answer period. That's when a young boy raised his hand and asked me, "Aren't you embarrassed?"
"Why do you think I would feel embarrassed?"
"Well...you know, because of the way you walk."
I could feel every student's eyes glued to me while they were more than likely thinking to themselves, "He shouldn't have asked her that."
My response was, "If I were embarrassed, do you think that I would choose to spend every day of my life in front of high school students, who can be the most critical people on earth at times?" I chuckled at all the strange looks, and they chuckled, too, accompanied by an enormous sigh of relief. I did tell them the story of being one of God's "special" children," which was the smartest move I possibly had ever made. Now they could understand who I really was.
To be continued...
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