Brothers: Ritual Into Manhood

In the short stories, “ Brothers are the Same” and “ Through the tunnel,” both have completely different authors that portray a young boy attempting to pass some kind of ritual into manhood. Beryl Markham, the writer of “Brothers are the same”, creates a young, African warrior determined to enter the gateway of becoming a man. While Doris Lessing, generates a boy no older than eleven to experience his rite of passage of leaving his boyish self. To go in more depth, both stories share struggles and conflict for the characters to reach their goal, while having the same overall theme . Yet they differ from one another with their vast culture and mindset. To begin, the two stories concern a character who undergo rites of passage on their journey from childhood to manhood. Doing so, both characters, …show more content…
Only in this short story, Temas trained and dreamed of this rite of passage his whole life. “ For eight of his 16 years, this youth, this young Tamas, had waited for this moment.” (Markham 360) Temas is a 16 year old boy, who is a part of the Masai tribe. In this culture, each young boy has to prove he is a man by killing a lion. Doing so, Beryl Markham, captures the very essence of a right of passage in this short story. During the test of manhood, Temas freezes in fear. Yet it is not fear of dying but fear of failing that consumes him. This conflict is not only in “ Brothers are the same” but is also mirrored in “ Through the Tunnel.” 11 year old Jerry has been training vigorously for many days, only when the day comes to leave, Jerry has to make a decision. Whether to just leave this whole challenge, or do it right now because he knows doing it next summer won't be an option. “ If he did not do it now, he never would. He was trembling with fear that he would not go; he was trembling with horror at that long, long tunnel under the rock, under the sea.” (Lessing 382.) All of this proves just how similar these short stories, yet in some ways they