Brothers Are The Same Analysis

In the Language Book of Literature there are two amazing stories; One theres “Through

The Tunnel” by Doris Lessing, and the second story is “Brothers Are The Same”, by Beryl

Markham. These boys turn into men but sometimes others need to see an accomplishment to

believe it. In the story through the tunnel, jerry is an 11 year old boy with his mom on vacation

(mother has no name). Brothers Are the Same the story isn't really what you'd think it would be.

These brothers are Temas and Medato and are in the Masai tribe in Africa. All these boys have

personality and life like similarities.

Jerry is a very individual kind of person, likes to be alone, find out things by himself, and

defeat things himself. Jerrys mom is very up tight

and seems like she is always on pins and

needles when it comes to keeping jerry safe. Jerrys mom was widowed and he understood that.

Jerrys mother and him are walking down to the beach when jerry screams “I'd like to go have a

look at those rocks down there (Lessing 375p). When jerry goes and discovers these rocks, he

finds a lot older men jumping in and out of the water. He was curious of what was down there, so

he stayed and watched until he found out how and what to do. Jerry is unable to hold his breath

and see the first time he tried going into the cave or tunnel; so he begged his mother for some

goggles. On the second day of trying he was able to get down and touch the hole of the tunnel

but not get inside all the way because of his breath rate. But Jerry tried until he found out what

was in there. Jerry keeps having bloody noses every time he goes down, which worries him a

lot. On the last day Jerry tried, he succeed, but was not expecting to find absolutely nothing in the

Tunnel. All just yellowish gray empty waters. After counting to 115 seconds under water, the

story states “his eyes must have burst, he thought; they were filled with blood, he torn off his

goggles and a gout of blood fell into the sea” (Lessing 383p). Soon after a while Jerry went home

and had lunch with his mother, which she was very proud of him staying underwater for that

long, but i think she finally saw him growing up and becoming a man.

In Africa there is a tribe called the Masai. Temas and Medoto are two young men in Africa

wanting to prove their manhood. In this tradition the way you must prove manhood is to fight a

lion.

Finally it was Temas’s time. All Temas had was a sword, shield, and a spear to fight this

lion. Medoto was the most brave boy in the village and everyone knew the lion would charge at

him. Temas has always been terrified of failing in Medoto’s eyes, so when this moment came,

all Temas thought to himself was “ I will fail, I should fail.” (Markham 365p). The silence of the

waking lion finally crawled to them and Temas was shaking. The lion looks at Temas, when

suddenly Medoto throws at rock at the lion. Medoto was standing right behind the Temas. The

lion attacks Temas and gets dragged away into the deep grass, that's when Temas finds the

Masai sword. Temas defeated the lion at once. Finally Medoto gave Temas a belt and states “

it's no good to lie, I wanted you to fail, but when I saw you hesitate I could not bear it because I

remembered my own hour of fear. It was then I threw the stone; not to shame you, but to save

you from shame. You are a greater warrior than I-than any- for who what the bravest would do

what you have done? “ (Markham 369p).

These two stories have many similarities. These 3 boys all had accomplishments they

were wanting to show to others. In Through the Tunnel Jerry was not expecting this obstacle

but

Jerry was very determined to do what he wanted. Same goes for Temas, yes he prepared for his

whole life but Temas wanted to make himself and someone else proud. Jerry had his mother to

run up too and tell her that he can hold his breath for over 115 seconds, not only that she was

proud, but he was proud of himself. In Temas’s case he wanted to prove to not only Medoto, his

role model, but also the whole village to see. Temas deserved that belt. Both of these boys had

a lot of doubt in their situations, Jerry was scared about the bloody noses and all, and Temas

was shaking when he saw that lion. All men no matter how brave you are, you will always have

a little bit of fear.

Both very very very hot climates but totally different cultures, Temas and Jerry have. Jerry

is on the beach but there's plenty of people and a busy like place the beach is. In

fact Temas is in a very low class place. Living in africa and in a tribe, resources are more limited,

you do all for yourself and not much help. Basically doing these accomplishments at least for

Temas was hard work. Temas spent his whole life training for this hour and worked himself out to

prepare. But in Jerry's picture, in my opinion, he's very young to go into a underwater cave and

did not train himself for years, he only trained for a day. Both of these obstacles had a similarity

of wanting to make someone proud and to make a different perspective of their views on being

men, but also it was very different. The two boys Temas and Jerry both had different ways of

progressing the accomplishment, Temas was forced upon and Jerry’s was unexpected.

These boys both needed these accomplishments, and the motivation for their life ahead

of them. Doing these kinds of things really helps a person's mindset upon themselves and gives

a foreshadowing to what choices to make when grownup. Everything has a reason, just not all

come right away.