Through The Tunnel

His mom and him went to the beach for vacation and Jerry went to this rocky wild looking beach to be away from his mom to act independent where his mom is at the regular sand beach. When he got there he was kind of scared so he went back by his mom at the regular beach. But one day he went to the rocky area to find a few foreign boys and he wanted to make friends with them by impressing them. The foreign boys liked him because he was good at diving so they thought he would be fun to hang out since he was a good swimmer like them. But there was this tunnel which was one of the main conflicts. He did not know to swim the tunnel because he had to hold his breathe for about two minutes. He swam through some of it and thought if he should go back but he said I am too far into it to turn back, but he made it alive. Jerry learned that taking a risk like that was a bad idea especially since his mom wasn’t by

Joss Whedon, a famous director, once said, “Everyone who made it through adolescence is a hero.” Adolescence is a difficult part of life where we learn to become independent and we discover who we are. Many books explore the theme of adolescence, and it is expressed in many different ways. In this story, Jerry, a eleven year-old boy, goes to the beach with his mother and he sees some boys swimming through a tunnel. Inspired by them, Jerry trains hard until he can also swim through the tunnel. In the short story “Through the Tunnel” the author, Doris Lessing, uses symbolism of setting and comparison to express the difficulty of the transition from childhood to adulthood.

The next day Jerry goes to the wild bay, where he meets some natives. “To be with them, of them, was a craving that filled his whole body.” (Pg. 30) When Jerry sees those in adulthood, he becomes filled with a desire to join them, but when he does they unconsciously exclude him. “. . . and they proceeded to forget him. But he was happy. He was with them.” (Pg.31) Jerry appears not to mind. Slowly, Jerry begins to realize he is very different from the adults. “ They were big boys-men, to Jerry.” (Pg.31) After some time the adult portion of the group easily does something that

The story “Through the Tunnel” by Doris Lessing has a main theme of perseverance throughout the entire story. The young boy in the story, Jerry, is the main character, and he was going to overcome his fear. He had been contemplating if he should go down through the hole, or tunnel, that the big kids were going through. The only problem was that he had to hold his breath for a long time under the water. He is a great example of what the story is mainly about, if you do not give up and you persevere, you can achieve things you never thought you could.

In the short story "Through the Tunnel", Doris Lessing describes the adventure of Jerry, a young English boy trying to swim through an underwater tunnel.  Throughout the story, the author uses the third person omniscient point of view to describe the boy's surroundings and to show us both what he and the other characters are thinking and what is happening around them.  By using this point of view, the author is able to describe the setting of the story, give a detailed description of the characters, and make the theme visible.

Initially, our first thoughts of Jerry at the beginning of the story, is that he acts immature and is burdened within a circle of maternal protection. During the opening of the story, the author conveys Jerry’s relative childishness by labeling him as “the boy”. The author also uses the mother to demonstrate his youth and how he is trapped in a circle of maternal protection which leads us to think that he is lonely due to that reason. In this part, “His mother walks in front of him, carrying a bright white strap in one hand” tells us that because the mother was walking in front of him, it gives us the impression that the mother still thinks of him as a boy that needs to be protected from any potential harm. We see more of Jerry’s immaturity and how the burden of protection leads his actions as we go through the story. During the part where Jerry sees the group of boys acting free-spirited, we see that he is overcome with desire to be with them, probably because he feels that because he is always in the circle of protection making him feel lonely and isolated from everyone. At first, he is added into the group and begins to have fun jumping from the cliff into the water with the other boys. Later on however, he starts to act immature when he realizes he could not do the same thing the other boys were doing. That was, underwater for a long time and going through the dark tunnel and he becomes scared. In this passage,“... In a panic of failure, he yelled up, in English, “Look at me! Look!” and he began splashing and kicking the water like a

In the story “Through the Tunnel” by Doris Lessing the main character Jerry is young and sees a group boys do something that he finds interesting, Going through the tunnel. The problem is he is too young and too weak to do it. The boys were Judging and excluding him and it made him sad. Jerry used the negative actions of the french boys as motivation to set a goal of swimming through the tunnel before he leaves. Although Jerry is not physically strong or mature he has a large amount of mental strength and uses what should be his weakness be his strength.

The characterization of Jerry illustrates the stages of maturing and becoming independent. In the beginning of the story, Jerry is depicted as young and immature. The immaturity of Jerry is shown when he is trying to capture the older boys’ attention. In order to capture their attention, “he began splashing and kicking in the water like a foolish dog.” This action conveys that Jerry is still immature, and wants to join the older kids. After seeing the boys pass through the tunnel, Jerry also wants to pass through in order to be a part of their group. In order

Growing up, many young boys idolized the war heroes in movies such as Saving Private Ryan and American Sniper. However, in the poem "Tunnels," Yusef Komunyakaa portrays the theme of the true fear and lack of purpose experienced by the American soldiers who fought in the Vietnam War. This was done by showing the reader that any mistake could easily result in the death of a soldier. Through his use of poetic form and structure, figurative language, and diction Komunyakaa is able to effectively convey his theme.

In the following stories the authors dramatize the transition to adulthood through different symbolic objects and experiences. The authors use different types of literary elements to portray different experiences and feelings to the reader. I think the authors chose to use symbolism in their stories so that they could help the reader understand the different elements that are happening within the story.

When Jerry swam to the bottom he found a hole to the other side, he was easily scared when a piece of seaweed touched his lips, it seems Jerry is eager to see the other side but at the same time he's not. He had practiced holding his breath for long strands of time, the local boys were doing it so Jerry thought he would do, but consequences came with it for he got terrible bloody noses that made him dizzy. He had swam back to the hole and in the process of doing so he had ran out of oxygen and lost conscience and floated back up to where he had started in the first place, his mom had said “Well, I shouldn’t overdo it. I don’t think you ought to swim anymore

In order for Jerry to achieve his goal, he had to prepare, practice, and sacrifice. To practice controlling his breath, Jerry exercised his lungs every day. Jerry exercised so much that his life depended on it. The stress he put in his body made his nose bleed every night after exercising. This event reveals that Jerry is maturing and is working really hard to control his breathing because of the goal he set for himself. As stated in the theme, Jerry is done preparing to control is breathing and is now practicing. Jerry wanted to see what was under the rock, so he decided to learn to control his breathing. After the first day of practicing, the longest he stayed underwater until his chest started hurting was fifty-two seconds. At night he dreamt of the cave in the rock, which motivated him to practice more. He became so concentrated at exercising his lungs every day that, “The day and the next, Jerry exercised his lungs as if everything, the whole of his life, all that he would become, depended upon it. Again his nose bled at night, and his mother insisted on his coming with her the next day” (17). Jerry is determined to control his breath as the quote stated “Jerry exercised his lungs as if everything, the whole of his life, all that he would become, depended on it” (17). He doesn’t care what gets in his way, even if his nose bled every night after exercising. Characterization

Throughout the story Through the Tunnel, the most important theme that recurs is self determination. The boy in the story, Jerry, has demonstrated this self determination by pushing himself through tough situations. One of these situations was when Jerry saw the French boys playing in the ocean. In the text, it said, “To be with them, of them, was a craving that filled his whole body.” (244) This quote proves his determination because later on in the story, he then swam toward them. Eventually, they started playing, and the boys yelled cheerful greetings at him. That’s when Jerry knew that he was welcomed in. Without his determination in this scene, Jerry wouldn't have been able to play with the boys. Jerry demonstrates self determination in

In the story through the tunnel a boy named Jerry overcomes his fears, becomes more mature and proves to himself that he can do anything he puts his mind to. One day on the beach jerry asks his mom if he can go to the other side of the beach where he meets four native boys diving under the water and coming out on the other side. When jerry tries to find the the hole he cannot so the next day he comes back with goggles and dives down looking for the whole, once he finds it he practices holding his breath until he thinks he can hold long enough to get thru the cave. The day before they go jerry decides to go thru the cave and he comes out victorious. Jerry doesn't really rejoice in his accomplishment but he does say to his mom out of nowhere

“Yet, walking down the path with her, he blurted out, ‘I’d like to go and have a look at those rocks down there,’’ (Lessing 1). During the short story, “Through the Tunnel,” Lessing shows that Jerry has an interest in breaking away from his mother early on in the story. He shows a passion for wanting to go to the wild bay, instead of staying with his mother at the safe beach for their vacation. Jerry’s transformation from boy to a young man is revealed in the settings of the safe beach, wild bay, and the journey through the tunnel.