Adolescence In Through The Tunnel

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Psychoanalyst and author Louise J. Kaplan once said, “Adolescence represents an inner emotional upheaval, a struggle between the eternal human wish to cling to the past and the equally powerful wish to get on with the future.” Adolescence is a difficult time in people's lives. Everyone must experience it at one point in their life. In the story, “Through the Tunnel,” the author, Doris Lessing, writes about a boy who experiences the transition to adulthood. A young boy named Jerry goes to a beach with his mother while they’re on vacation. He soon meets some native boys and yearns to be like them. The native boys are jumping off large, dangerous rocks and swimming through a long, dark tunnel. Jerry challenges himself to swim through the tunnel so he could fit in with the native boys. In the short story, “Through the Tunnel,” the author, Doris Lessing, uses …show more content…

According to the short story, “He must go into the darkness ahead, or he would drown”(Lessing 365). The author uses the tunnel as a symbol for the transition to adulthood because Jerry must continue traveling through the tunnel despite the challenges he faces and his will to go back. He must continue going through the tunnel and adolescence. After Jerry finishes his dive through the tunnel, the author states, “It was no longer of the least importance to go to the bay”(Lessing 366). The author uses the tunnel as a symbol for the transition to adulthood because once Jerry made it through the tunnel once, it was no longer important for him to travel through it again. Once someone transitions into adulthood, there is no longer a need for them to experience adolescence again. The author uses the tunnel as a symbol for the transition to adulthood by showing the struggles Jerry faces while in the tunnel. Jerry, like everyone else, must travel through adolescence and into

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