Doodle and his brother, who is never named, are the main characters in James Hurst's short story "The Scarlet Ibis." Almost everyone believes Doodle will die when he's a baby, but he survives and when he is five years old his brother teaches him to walk. They then spend much of their time out in nature, especially at Old Woman Swamp. It is during these excursions that the two tell wild tales. The brother, who is the narrator of the story, calls them lies, but they are really just imaginative stories, the kind children invent all the time.
The brother says that his "lies were scary" but that Doodle's "were twice as crazy." Doodle's stories are fantastical with colorful birds and flying people. The stories are symbolic of two things. First, because Doodle is crippled, they reveal his wish for unrestricted freedom of movement. Instead of being just able to walk, he wants to fly. Second, the story of the peacock foreshadows Doodle's death. Every night the bird figuratively swallows up Peter in a reference to death with terms such as "go-to-sleep" and "burying." Hurst writes,
When Peter was ready to go to sleep, the peacock spread his magnificent tail, enfolding the boy gently like a closing go-to-sleep flower, burying him in the glorious iridescent, rustling vortex.
The stories reveal that Doodle is a sensitive boy and that he has an extremely vivid imagination.
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