The Scarlet Ibis
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40 free The Scarlet Ibis trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
James Hurst published only a handful of stories, yet The Scarlet Ibis has been read in English classes for more than sixty years. In a few pages it follows two boys on a farm: a frail child nicknamed Doodle and the older brother who loves him, is ashamed of him, and pushes him too far. This quiz works through the story the way a good reading check does. It starts with what happens and who is who, moves on to the setting, the symbols and the craft, and ends with the man who wrote it and the real bird behind the title. It is written for students revising before a test, teachers who want a ready-made comprehension check, and readers who remember being moved by the ending. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you can play it straight through or print it for a class.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In James Hurst's "The Scarlet Ibis", what formal name do the parents give the baby the narrator later nicknames Doodle?
William Armstrong
William Armstrong is what the family calls the baby while he can only lie in bed. The narrator thinks it far too grand, a name that would only suit a gravestone.
Q 02In "The Scarlet Ibis", what odd way of moving reminds the narrator of a doodlebug and earns his brother a nickname?
Crawling backward
Crawling backward was all Doodle could manage at two, though the doctor had warned that even that strain could kill him. The narrator later says nobody expects much of someone with such a name.
Q 03In "The Scarlet Ibis", what is Doodle born in that one of the household links to Jesus's nightgown?
A caul
A caul is a birth membrane that sometimes covers a newborn's head. She says such babies deserve special respect, because they may turn out to be saints.
Q 04In "The Scarlet Ibis", how does the narrator plan to kill his baby brother?
Smothering him with a pillow
Smothering him with a pillow is the six-year-old's secret plan, a shocking start to a story about brotherly love. He drops it the day the baby proves he is alert.
Q 05In "The Scarlet Ibis", where does the narrator secretly teach Doodle to walk, a place so lovely it once made Doodle cry?
Old Woman Swamp
Old Woman Swamp is the only beauty the narrator knows, and the brothers dream of living there as grown men. Doodle first stands alone there after weeks of falling.
Q 06In "The Scarlet Ibis", what does the narrator force a terrified Doodle to touch in the barn loft?
His own coffin
His own coffin had been ordered by Daddy when almost nobody expected the newborn to survive. Doodle calmly says it is not his, then touches it, screaming.
Q 07In "The Scarlet Ibis", which motive does the narrator admit drove him to teach Doodle to walk, making him cry?
Pride
Pride, not love, drove him: he was embarrassed to have a five-year-old brother who could not walk. Looking back, he sees that the same feeling gave Doodle his finest hour and then cost him his life.
Q 08Which war shadows "The Scarlet Ibis", with Château-Thierry named at home and Mama blessing a family whose son was lost?
World War I
World War I was in its final months in 1918, when the story's last events take place. Mama blesses at the table a family whose son Joe was lost at Belleau Wood.
Q 09In "The Scarlet Ibis", what does one of the household say dead birds bring, especially red ones?
Bad luck
Bad luck is her warning from the kitchen door, and it comes true within hours, when Doodle dies in the storm that same afternoon.
Q 10The scarlet ibis, the tropical bird of James Hurst's short story, is a national bird of which Caribbean country?
Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago splits the honor between two birds: the scarlet ibis stands for Trinidad and the cocrico for Tobago, and both appear on the national coat of arms.
Q 11In "The Scarlet Ibis", which condition makes the doctor warn that the strain of crawling could kill Doodle?
A weak heart
A weak heart leads the doctor to rule out even crawling, yet Doodle learns at two. From then on the family brings him into the living room, and he becomes one of them.
Q 12In "The Scarlet Ibis", on which occasion do the brothers reveal at breakfast that Doodle has learned to walk?
His sixth birthday
His sixth birthday was chosen after weeks of hints about a spectacular surprise. Doodle walks to his place at the table, and the family hugs both boys.
Q 13In "The Scarlet Ibis", what does Daddy build so that the narrator can haul Doodle along wherever he goes?
A go-cart
Q 21In "The Scarlet Ibis", why does Mama forbid Doodle to touch the dead ibis?
It might carry disease
It might carry disease, Mama says, voicing only fear where Doodle sees something beautiful. She calls the family back to the table while he works out another way.
Q 22In "The Scarlet Ibis", which dessert fails to tempt Doodle back to the table after the red bird dies in the yard?
Peach cobbler
Peach cobbler is Mama's promised treat, but Doodle has lost his appetite and comes back from the burial looking pale. It is one more sign that he is unwell.
Q 23In "The Scarlet Ibis", to which spot on the water does the narrator take Doodle for one last lesson before the storm?
A go-cart made the narrator his brother's unwilling driver, and he raced it around corners on two wheels to put Doodle off coming. It is retired to the barn once Doodle can walk.
Q 14In "The Scarlet Ibis", which crop does Daddy mourn when his fields wither and are then flattened in a single season?
Cotton
Cotton was the family's living, and Daddy stands in the ruined field cursing the weather and politics until his sons start to giggle.
Q 15In "The Scarlet Ibis", what strikes the farm after a long drought, uprooting trees and finishing off the crops?
A hurricane
A hurricane tears up trees and ruins what the drought had spared, yet Doodle and his brother shrug it off, sure that everything will turn out all right.
Q 16In "The Scarlet Ibis", which US president is the eccentric Miss Leedie said to be in love with, writing to him daily?
Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson gets a letter from her every day, the narrator claims. He mentions her to explain that Doodle's craziness was the gentle, dreamlike kind.
Q 17In "The Scarlet Ibis", who delivers Doodle and is the only person to believe the frail newborn will live?
Aunt Nicey
Aunt Nicey is the story's voice of faith: she insists the baby is special, objects to his nickname, and gives thanks to God when he walks.
Q 18In "The Scarlet Ibis", where in the yard does the exhausted red bird perch before it tumbles dead at the family's feet?
The bleeding tree
The bleeding tree, a tree that oozes sap, is named in the story's opening sentence, so the bird frames everything that follows. By the time the narrator tells the tale, it is gone.
Q 19In "The Scarlet Ibis", Daddy reads that the bird lives in the tropics, from South America up to which US state?
Florida
Florida is the top of its range in the bird book, so Daddy decides that a storm must have blown the ibis off course to their farm.
Q 20In "The Scarlet Ibis", what does Doodle use to carry the dead bird to its grave after Mama forbids touching it?
A piece of string
A piece of string looped around its neck lets Doodle obey his mother and still honor the bird. The family watches from the window, amused by the shovel twice his height.
Horsehead Landing
Horsehead Landing is where the brothers trained on hot days, and where Doodle, tired and frightened, collapses in the mud on the last afternoon.
Q 24In "The Scarlet Ibis", what does the narrator make an exhausted Doodle do against the tide as storm clouds gather?
Row the boat back
Row the boat back, the narrator insists, after Doodle says he is too tired to swim. By the time they land, lightning is flashing and both boys know the training plan has failed.
Q 25In "The Scarlet Ibis", what does Doodle beg of his brother in the barn loft and again in the storm?
Not to leave him
Not to leave him is Doodle's one great plea, made first during a cruel game and then in earnest. The second time, his brother runs on through the rain until the cries fade.
Q 26What turns the scarlet ibis, the bird of James Hurst's story, bright red after it starts life gray and brown?
Pigments in its food
Pigments in its food do the work: a heavy diet of red crustaceans supplies astaxanthin, a carotenoid, and the full color takes about two years to develop.
Q 27At which point in the year does "The Scarlet Ibis" open, in what its narrator calls the clove of seasons?
Summer turning to autumn
Summer turning to autumn is when the bird arrives and when Doodle dies, so the story opens where it will end. Clove here means a split, the gap between two seasons.
Q 28In "The Scarlet Ibis", which object by the kitchen door turns and carries the adult narrator back to memories of Doodle?
A grindstone
A grindstone now stands where the ibis once landed, beside a tidied garden and a gleaming white house. Its turning is what takes the narrator back in time.
Q 29In "The Scarlet Ibis", which pet bird belongs to the golden-robed boy in the favorite story Doodle makes up?
A peacock
A peacock with a ten-foot tail is the star of Doodle's best tale, in a game the brothers call lying. Everyone in his stories has wings and flies wherever they like.
Q 30In "The Scarlet Ibis", how do the brothers plan to earn a living once they are grown and settled in their swamp?
Picking dog-tongue
Picking dog-tongue, a wild plant, would pay for a house built of whispering leaves. Doodle adds that he could marry Mama and his brother could marry Daddy.