Comparing Two Short Stories -My Brother's Keeper and Do Angels Wear

Comparative analysis of two stories : "My brother's keeper " " and Do angels wear brassieres?"

The two short stories that I am comparing are " My brother's keeper" by Geoffrey

Philp and " Do angels wear brassieres?" by Olive Senior. "My brother's keeper" talked

about history ,race , identity, friendship, family, age, motherhood and sexuality and how

they are defined around cultural and traditional positions. It is about a young man named

Paul and his account of the changes he went through dealing with a step brother he did

not even know existed until the very first day the boy showed up at their door . His step-

brother's name was David and he was coming from America where he was lived with

his mother and father until their death. " Do angels wear brassieres?" is about little girl

named Beccka's quest for knowledge and what she had to go through as a teenager living

with two females in one house .In this story I saw the relationships among family,

friendship, motherhood,voice, tradition, ethnicity and how these fit into the identity of the

individual in addition to their gender ,age and sexuality.

Although " My brother's keeper" and "Do angels wear brassieres?" were written

by two different authors, they had a lot in common .Both of them were set in

the island country of Jamaica and were about single families. From the beginning, the

narrator in " My brother's keep" had anger in his voice. His anger was towards this new

boy coming into his life. But that anger turns into compassion by the end of the story.

" Do angels wear brassieres?" also had tones of anger throughout the story coming from

different people at different times towards Beccka . Relating this to the family ,I saw how

age marginalized relationships in and outside of the family. Even though Beccka sounded

intelligent, she was not allowed to voice her thought because she was a ‘child'.

Both stories are similar in various ways addressing the problems existing in their

society. For instance, in "My brother's keeper " and " Do angels wear brassieres?", both

writers address the fact that migration to ‘ greener pastures' was common the sense of

belonging, the idea of pride in one's family, the poverty that most people had to live with

and the strong believe in religion ( Christianity ) were central to the Jamaican society.

From both stories, I saw that in terms of family, it is very female centered. Both Paul and

Beccka did not have their fathers living with them .

In " Do angels wear brassieres?", Beccka was so inquisitive that her own mother

and Aunt thought she was possessed . Compared to the Beccka character in " Do angels

wear brassieres?" , Paul in " My brother's keeper" was not as curious . He was withdrawn

and seemed content with what he already knew . He was angry at David, his step-brother

who , coming from a different cultural background is used to doing things differently.

Both "My brother's keeper " and " Do angels wear brassieres?" make very interesting

reading.