Theme Of Rite Of Passage In Jerry's '

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

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

In Conrad Philip Kottak’s “Rite of Passage” he mentions the three stages of a rite of passage. Anthropologist Arnold Van Gennep defines these stages as Separation, Margin, and Aggregation. Victor Turner, another anthropologist, focused on Margin, which he referred to as liminality. Not only can a rite of passage be an individual experience, but it can also be a communal experience which Turner called “communitas.” Many of us experience this “communitas” in different ways such as my Hispanic culture that experiences quinceneras. Quinceneras are a rite of passage for young girls’ transition from adolescence to womanhood. I for one never experienced this rite of passage.

Jerry is one of the main characters in the short story, Through the Tunnel. Jerry is an eleven year old, English boy who is trying to become more independent, but still wants to please his mother. Throughout the story he struggles through getting through the tunnel because he looks up to what he considers men passing through the tunnel. He tries everyday and never gives up. He also is looking for his mothers appreciation and approval at times. At the end of the story, Jerry feels that he has accomplished some things such as holding his breath for about three minutes, however he still has to work on the strength for traveling through the tunnel. Overtime Jerry finally felt that he had enough courage to jump off the rocks and swim

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

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

Jerry is pushed beyond his limit when swimming through the tunnel and he struggled but persevered and kept swimming. After swimming for an unbearable amount of time, Jerry addresses that, “He was at the end of what he could do… [but] he must go on into the blackness ahead.” (Lessing 5). He acknowledged that he was being pushed out of his comfort zone but instead of giving up, he was determined to make it through. Dissimilarly, when Elizabeth was faced with the challenge of taking responsibility and owning up to her actions after striking out at Celia, she runs away, fearing retribution. After attacking Celia, Elizabeth experiences the feelings of guilt and fear, “…I ran as fast as I could…I was able to creep down to the girls’ washroom and quickly hide…I was so filled with horror…” (Huggan 80, 81). Elizabeth realized that she was going to face punishment for her actions but instead of accepting it she decided to run away from her problems. Jerry, displaying a growth mindset through his ability to conquer challenges, was able to successfully complete his goal. Elizabeth, demonstrating a fixed mindset, runs away from her challenges and faces consequences afterwards. Hence, having a growth mindset that is not afraid of challenges will accomplish more than having a fixed mindset that runs away from

If the relationship between Jerry and his father was more open where they could talk about anything, he might’ve not had to deal with his side of things alone. But instead, he goes it alone, without any help from his dad, his close friends, or even the teachers. In the beginning of chapter 37 on page 247, The Goober explains how he didn’t want to go to school and see Jerry being taunted and teased, so he stayed home for a couple days. When he came late to the raffle fight, he thought about how “the school reminded him of his own betrayals and defections.” Even the teachers don’t help him in the matter, they go along with the students. This is apparent in

In the film, Jerry has no control of himself, his thoughts or anything going around in his life. He harbors negative thoughts. Moreover, when he goes to his friend at the garage who vouched for Grimsrud, he is unable to get access to the duo and thus totally lost control of the situation even though he had changed his mind. Epicureanism is also evident in the scene where Jerry shows frustration when removing ice from the vehicle. He was frustrated because he could not be like his father in law and upon realizing that he has been outwitted by the father in law decide to channel his frustrations on the windscreen.

Jerry loses nothing if he fails this task while if Temas and Medoto might be seen as people who are weak and cannot to harder tasks. Medoto and Temas have nobody to help them accomplish this task but themselves, while Jerry has himself and his mother. Jerry’s mother is the one who brought him to the beach and let him wander off and bought him goggles to see through the tunnel because he cannot see because there is too much salt in the ocean. “”I want some swimming goggles,” He panted, defiant and beseeching. She gave him a patient, inquisitive look as she casually said, “well of course darling.” but now now! He must have them at this minute and no other time. He nagged and pestered until she had bought the goggles (Lessing PG. 379)”. This quotation clearly shows that his mother bought the goggles for him to support him in his quest. Temas and medoto have a small knife,a spear, and a shield to help them with this quest. They had to pass this rite of passage in order to

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

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

As my mouth dropped and face grew grey I could not believe it. I asked myself why would Jerry do such a thing, he has so much integrity. I decided to stop what I'm doing and look for Jerry. As I go through the mountains, pass the valleys I see no sign of Jerry. I made a last suggestion and decided to go look in Mannville.

The protagonist was initiated by trying test himself underwater so he would get better at holding his breathe. So he could go in the hole. But every time he goes there he will get sick once again. While he was swimming his mother was laying down at the shore. After she was buying goggles for her son, she would watch him. His enemy was the hole because the hole would not let him out so that is the reason why he was trying to hold his breathe for a long time. Jerry did come through as a wiser and more mature character because he had the choice that he could or couldn’t do it. So since he couldn’t could not do it, so he decides to not go through the tunnel for one day then the next day he will be going through the tunnel once

Early in the story, Jerry began to develop this unusual desire to explore and venture away from his mother. After the second day of vacation, Jerry finally decided to tell his mother he would “like to go and have a look at those rocks down there.” His mother saw that it was time for him to start growing up and her thoughts stated, “Of course he’s old enough to be safe without me.” This exhibited his mother’s confidence in her son, and displayed that Jerry was ready to be independent. He made it down to the rocks, but he had a rude awakening when he jumped into the bay with the other boys. He quickly discovered that he