Through The Tunnel

862 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Parent child relationships in literature poetry

The Willpower of the Tunnel: A Thematic Analysis of “Through the Tunnel” Doris Lessing, uses the theme “set yourself a goal and work for it” as she wrote “Through the Tunnel.” She did so by using two characters, Jerry, his mom, and the setting. The story tells about how Jerry wants to swim through the tunnel, but has to do work to accomplish his goal. Jerry, the young english boys helps build the theme as he shows determination, hard work and a positive mind set. Jerry obeyed his mother, as he thought “... on the safe beach he thought about it” [the bay]. Finally being able to go to the bay Jerry swims with three boys. One by one “they began diving again and again.” Watching them go Jerry knows he wants to get to the other side also. Taking …show more content…

Like any typical mother, Jerry’s mother worries about him becoming independent. Being a single mother, she isn’t quite ready for Jerry to separate, she shows this by saying “Why darling would you rather not come with me?” Knowing he is following behind she has a little bit of relief, knowing her only child isn’t ready to separate from her. As the next day approaches she knows Jerry would rather go somewhere else than the beach when she says “ Are you tired of the beach, Jerry? Would you like to go somewhere else?” As he tells her he would rather go to the bay, she doesn’t hesitate when she allows him to go to the bay. Wondering to herself she thinks “He’s old enough without me. I must be careful.” Allowing him to get the goggles he wants she lets him go back to the bay again. As the nights come she knows Jerry is overdoing himself by the bloody noses he’s getting. She shows she is caring when she “insists that he comes with her to the beach the next day,” knowing he will obey. Finding out Jerry didn’t ask to go to the bay she trusts him and doesn’t chase after him letting him enjoy himself. Listening to him say how he can hold his breathe and knowing she trusts him by saying ¨Well I shouldn't overdo it. Jerry’s mother has learned to trust Jerry while they were on this

Show More
Related

  • Summary Of The Noviktiate By Jean Howarth

    859 Words  | 2 Pages

    Her brother leaves her alone because he trusts her to be able to deal catch gophers on her own. He showed her how to get gophers and believed in her to get them on her own. As she was “all by herself” she contemplated the hardship she faced and how she would deal with it. The girls “mind went running” as she laid still on the grass to “Judy Craig’s gopher” but that quickly left her mind and all she could think about was the hardship of acceptance from her brother. The girls brother leaving her alone with the job of catching gophers shows that he is finally willing to accept her, but because of this acceptance he expects her to do something against her own morals. The girl was faced with an ambivalent

    Read More

  • Tunnel By Sarah Ellis Essay

    827 Words  | 2 Pages

    The point of view was effective throughout the course of Tunnel giving us a better understanding of the elements happening. Tunnel is written in first person point of view, meaning that the pronoun “I” was used throughout the story. On page 44 this is seen. It states “I didn't know by the time I was sixteen it would be the global economy and there would be no summer jobs, even though you did your life-skills analysis as recommended by the guidance councilor.”

    Read More

  • Themes and Images in The Awakening

    1476 Words  | 3 Pages

    The sea, this "water of the Gulf," is the deepest, most mysterious place Edna has ever explored. Until now, Edna had lived her life on the "white beach," a perfectly virginal island of blind men leading even more blind women. But Edna dips her toes into the dark waters and now she wishes to leave the island and swim out to a better place; or soar overhe...

    Read More

  • Through The Tunnel Character Analysis Essay

    534 Words  | 2 Pages

    When “he preserved his nervous, uncomprehending smile” (359). Jerry feels awkward around the boys because he is an outsider, he’s not from there like the other boys are. Jerry also experiences “An immense, swelling pain fill[ing] his head, and then the darkness crack[s] with an explosion of green light. His hands, groping forward, met nothing; and his feet, kicking back, propelled him out into the open sea.” (366). Jerry was extremely afraid when he got near the end of the tunnel. He is afraid because he was running out of air and he could see the sky but he kept swimming and swimming but he couldn't reach the surface. When Jerry would get done swimming his nose would bleed incredibly because of the pressure so deep in the water and after he got done swimming through the tunnel he was sure that his eyes had burst because of how deep he was (366). Jerry is putting himself in a very difficult situations because he wants to be

    Read More

  • Kaylah's Case Summary

    558 Words  | 2 Pages

    Family: Kaylah has been doing well in her grandmother home. Mrs. King and Kaylah have a loving and close relationship. Kaylah has built a sense of security in her grandmother home. She feels stable and Mrs. King is able to manage her behaviors through loving and nurturing approaches. Kaylah also responds well to her Mrs. King redirections. Mrs. King is very concern about Kaylah’s and her brother’s safety once they are reunified back with their biological mother.

    Read More

  • Symbolism In Through The Tunnel, By Doris Lessing

    796 Words  | 2 Pages

    Also, the final passage through the tunnel acts as a test of life, revealing if Jerry can uphold the challenges that may come his way as an adult. All three of these locations symbolize something different, but they all help shape Jerry into a new, confident

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Coming Into Language By Jimmy Santiago Baca

    731 Words  | 2 Pages

    “I had been born into a raging ocean where I swam relentlessly, flailing my arms in hope of rescue, of reaching a shoreline I never sighted. Never solid ground beneath me, never a resting place. I had lived with only the desperate hope to stay afloat; that and nothing more. But when at last I wrote my first words in the page, I felt an island rising beneath my feet like the back of a whale”.

    Read More

  • Through the Depths of Hell

    1443 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout his life, Dante Alighieri faced many hardships and accumulated many rivals, stemming from his association with the Florentine White Guelphs, who adamantly believed in the independence from the papacy. After being exiled from his home city of Florence on false allegations of being a grafter, he wrote The Inferno, a religious allegory, in which Alighieri blatantly attacks many of his rivals, among them Filippo Argenti and Bocca degli Abbati through use of literary devices as dialogue, imagery, juxtaposition, diction, tone and characterization. However, Alighieri does not show resentment towards all the sinners in his epic poem, he fluctuates between hostility and benevolence. In one specific case, Alighieri shows a sense of pity and compassion towards a specific sinner, one guilty of sodomy, Ser Brunetto Latino. Alighieri’s compassion derives from his great admiration for the fellow writer who had been a lifelong inspiration. His compassion is shown through the utilization of diction, dialogue, and imagery. Alighieri integrates many techniques in his writings to deliver his judgment of the sinners, fluctuating between feelings of hostility and benevolence.

    Read More

  • Father Son Relationship in The Black Pearl

    601 Words  | 2 Pages

    Daniel has always dreamed of going to sea. He?s always wanted to sail across it and be in it's vast blue. So when he hears of her fathers plan to go sailing to England on a ship, to go pearl hunting, he just has to go. At first he was reluctant to let him go, considering he was a new time sailor to the family he would be the only young child aboard. Eventually they were talked into letting him come a long. The ship was fairly old and needed to have a lot of work done on it before it could head out to sea. They stop at Block Island, Long Island, Martha's Vineyard, and a little place close to Cape Cod before they finally head out to sea. Their relationships and patients ate tested out on the ocean. Organized as can be, Ramon and his father once started pearl hunting when they were younger. He works hard on it then sells them in the near my market.

    Read More

  • Karen Connelly

    908 Words  | 2 Pages

    The ocean is mysterious to mankind. The unfathomable vastness of the ocean intrigues humanity into exploring it. In life, the immense possibilities that lie in the future compel us to reach for the stars. In the poem “The Story” by Karen Connelly, an individual willingly swims into deep waters even though they are fearful of what may exist in the waters. The swimmer later finds out that their fears were foolish, which illustrates the human tendency to venture into the unknown. The theme conveyed in this poem is that life is like a rough, uncertain, uncontrollable ocean that we must find get through with experience.

    Read More

  • The Glass Castle Quotes

    618 Words  | 2 Pages

    As Jeannette gets older she realizes that her parents differences are not something to be proud of. She comes to this conclusion at first when she is in the hospital after getting severe burns from her mother letting her cook hot dogs at the age of three. She realizes that it is not right for a parent to let their three year old to be cooking. Another example of when she realized that is when she had to eat food from a garbage can at school while all the others had brought food from home. She decided to hide her shame by eating the food from the garbage can inside the girls washroom. As Jeannette gets older she changes a little bit more by her perspective of things when she meets Billy. Billy is a juvenile delinquent that also has a father for a drunk. When Billy laughs at his own father when he was sleeping from drinking so much the night before, Jeannette argues with him saying that no one should make fun of their own father. Billy

    Read More

  • Similarities Between To Kill A Mockingbird And Through The Tunnel

    929 Words  | 2 Pages

    The story takes place during an annual family vacation to an unspecified country. Jerry looks up to some older boys he sees dive and swim through an underwater tunnel, and he longs to be accepted by them. He sees them as being matured and adult: “They were big boys-men to Jerry” (Lessing 3). In order to become a man of the same stature as the boys, Jerry becomes determined to find his way through the tunnel. The tunnel is used throughout the story as a metaphor for the challenges that shape one into a matured young adult. By striving to meet the challenge of making it through the tunnel, Jerry learns the importance of focus and patience. “A curious, most unchildlike persistence, a controlled impatience, made him wait” (Lessing 7). As he embarks through the tunnel he finds that it’s much more difficult than he expected. He is scarred by the jagged top of the tunnel which he is continually propelled toward by upward currents. When he finally meets the challenge he finds he no longer feels the need to be accepted and validated by the older boys, seen here “He could see the local boys diving and playing half a mile away. He did not want them. He wanted only to go home to his mother” (Lessing 9). This shows that Jerry’s hunger for independence and adulthood had been

    Read More

  • Through The Tunnel Personification

    533 Words  | 2 Pages

    E.E Cummings once said, “ it takes courage to grow up and become who we really are.” Growing up can be scary and is a difficult transition. “Through the Tunnel” is a children's short story written by Doris Lessing. The short story is about a young boy who challenges himself to go through a tunnel at the beach on his own. In “Through the Tunnel” the author conveys the difficulties of adolescence through personification and symbolism.

    Read More

  • Relationship between the Individual and Nature in The Open Boat

    553 Words  | 2 Pages

    In fact, the daily life of human beings is at the mercy of the uncontrollable waves of the sea; while, at the same time, the essential part of reality remains unknown to feeble, helpless humans. The human voyage into life is feeble, vulnerable, and uncontrollable. Since the crew on a dangerous sea without hope are depicted as "the babes of the sea", it can be inferred that we are likely to be ignorant strangers in the universe. In addition to the dangers we face, we also have to overcome the new challenges of the waves in the daily life. These waves are "most wrongfully and barbarously abrupt and tall", requiring "a new leap, and a leap."

    Read More

  • Theme Of Friendship In Perks Of Being A Wallflower

    748 Words  | 2 Pages

    As they drive through the tunnel, Charlie begins living in the moment and soaking up what the present has to offer. Many times throughout his letters, Charlie describes the situations of other people and tries to sink deeper into the causes of their actions, but this drive marks the first time Charlie focuses on himself, his friendship and on how he is feeling infinite in that moment. He feels as if he and his friends can do anything or feel anything. He believes that happiness is not out of reach. The tunnel signifies hardships that Charlie has faced, but the light at the end of the tunnel signifies how he overcomes those obstacles. In the end he emerges with two friends that understand him more than his family ever

    Read More

More about Through The Tunnel

Open Document