Emily Gott

After a lot of thinking and reading I came to the conclusion the Diego (the brother) of
Doodle should be proven innocent. I believe this because he didn’t know that everything he was
doing was putting so much stress on Doodle and was going to cause his death. He was just trying
to help him live a better life. Some evidence that helped me decided that Diego was innocent,
was that he started to have fun with him, and he was proud of him for being able to walk. He also
went back for Doodle at the end and was extremely upset when he found him lying there not
breathing.
Diego was also a good person because, “I went back and found him huddled beneath a
red nightshade” (Hurst 354). If he really didn’t care about his brother he would not have went
back for him. At the time he may not have known what he was doing with him was going to kill
him, but at the end you could tell how much regret he had from that. He also made his own
development program for Doodle and stuck with what he said and helped Doodle achieve goals
everyday. Every second of the day, Diego was with Doodle, and you could tell they weren’t just
brothers, but they were best friends. Sure he may have had some flaws but the nice things he did
for Doodle overruled them.
Some evidence that supported him being a good brother includes, “renaming my brother
was perhaps the kindest thing I ever did for him” (Hurst 345). He had decided that this name
suited him more than William, and at least he cared enough about him to even give him a
nickname. Another piece of evidence that helped me decide that he was innocent was, “I
prepared a terrific development program for him” (Hurst 349). This showed that he cared enough
about Doodle to make him a special program and spend so much of his time helping Doodle
achieve goals such as walking and possibly running one day. The final piece of evidence that
supports by argument is, “Aw, come on, Doodle…you can do it” (Hurst 350). This shows that
Diego had faith in his brother and knew that he would learn how to walk.
Some evidence that opposes my argument includes, “I began to make plans to kill him”
(Hurst 345). Everyone gets mad at their siblings and make dumb threats, but they don’t mean it
literally. Another piece of evidence is, “He was a burden in many ways” (Hurst 345). Everyone
may have feelings like this but they will go away eventually. Also most first borns when another
kid is added to the family get upset and may feel like its a burden but always get over it. This is
because you begin to love your siblings and is exactly what happened in this story.
I believe that Diego is innocent because throughout the story you could tell that slowly
but surely he began to love his brother. He tried so hard to teach his brother as much as he could
throughout Doodle’s life. Who would spend every second of the day with their sibling if they
truly didn’t love them and wanted to hurt them. This story was also in first person point of view
and stated at the beginning all the bad thoughts that Diego had but throughout the story they
went away. He may have thought some bad things but never put them into action. I strongly
believe that Diego is innocent and shouldn’t be blamed for what sadly happened to Doodle.