Question

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, \its not mine.\

\it is,\ i said. \and before ill help you down from the loft, youre going to have to touch it.\

which object from the excerpt is used to symbolize death?

• the casket
• the loft
• the owls
• the stream

Explanation:

Identify the symbolic object

Using the Literary Symbolism knowledge point, we analyze the excerpt from "The Scarlet Ibis." The narrator shows Doodle a specific object stored in the barn loft: "his casket, telling him how we all had believed he would die." A casket is a box designed for burying the dead, making it a direct and powerful symbol of death and mortality.

Analyze the other options

The other options mentioned in the text do not primarily symbolize death:

• The loft is simply the physical setting where the object is stored.
• The owls are living creatures nesting inside the casket, representing nature reclaiming the object.
• The stream is used metaphorically in the phrase "stream of love" to describe the flow of human emotions.

Answer:

• (A) the casket (Correct answer)
• (B) the loft
• (C) the owls
• (D) the stream