Setting In Through The Tunnel, By Doris Lessing

The key role in many novels generally is the setting, it helps the author reveal and reinforce characterization and theme. Edith Wharton uses setting in Ethan Frome to help bring out characterization and theme by the isolated life of Ethan Frome and the village in New England as well as the winter landscape surrounded by trees.

A coming-of-age story, Doris Lessing's "Through the Tunnel" employs three major symbols to connote Jerry's state of being and his rite of passage. In the exposition of the narrative, as Jerry is with his mother...

In the story, “Seventh Grade” by Gary Soto and the story, “Charles” by Shirley Jackson the plots play a important role in the way the characters speak and act. The setting in “Seventh Grade” is in school, hallway, homeroom, math,english, french. And the setting in “Charles” is at home for the most of the story, but also takes place at the PTA meeting. The two stories plots are important to the actions of the characters because in every thing the characters say or do it will either positively or negatively affect the plot.

In the story, "The Last Rung on the Ladder", Stephen King does a great job of showing how the setting impacts the characters, and how the setting affects the climax.

Good authors can create wonderful stories, but it all starts with the setting. Without the setting, the story will have no plot and the characters will have no reason to be there because the setting is a crucial element. Barry Callaghan, the author of “Our Thirteenth Summer” can effectively use setting as an important part of a story. The setting of “Our Thirteenth Summer” is in Toronto’s Annex District during the 1840’s, when the Holocaust was occurring. The setting influences the behaviour of the characters and reflects the society in which the characters live.

In life, one must overcome their fears in order to achieve or successfully attain a certain goal in their mind. The short story “Through the Tunnel”, by Doris Lessing tells us about how Jerry builds confidence and maturity throughout the story, by overcoming his fear of going through the dark and scary tunnel underneath the water. The author portrays the idea of overcoming one’s fear to achieve a goal through Jerry, who was once a childish and isolated character, had begun his risky adventure of going through the tunnel to prove his worth to a group of boys and along the way discovers what he truly wants. Over time he becomes more mature and in the end, gain self-acceptance.

The last method I am going to talk to you about is setting makes a big part of the a book because it impacts the character's emotion.For example when francesca has to go to her nona's for a while because of her mum being sick.it changes francescas mood and how they respond to charcters.Like francesca was missing her brother alot because they have’nt seen each other in so long because they where split up for along time a quote from when francesca was at her nonas.“I've been at nonna's for 2 weeks”.This quote shows that she has been at her nona's for a long

Most children are not very fond of reading books in school. I was one of those children until I read a novel called, “The Other Side of Dark” written by Joan Lowery Nixon in the 4th grade. My school had held a book fair during the week of open house. As a child, all children want the toys and games they had at the book fair, not bothering to even glance at the books. My mother told me to look for a book that was not only easy for me to read but something that I would enjoy. I walked around our petite library, which was where the book fair was being held, and scanned the various novels that were displayed until one caught my eye. I was only 10 years old looking for a book without the knowledge of what types of literature that interested me. As I turned the corner at the end of the library I caught a glimpse of a hardcover novel called “The Other Side of Dark”. On the back of novel I read the synopsis which was about a 13 year-old girl who was shot and put into coma until she was 17 years old waking up to discovering that her family was also murdered by the same person who shot her 4 years ago. I was quickly captivated by this summary on the back of the novel and persuaded to read further. Open house was coming to an end and my family and I headed back to our house in La Mirada, California. One of our homework assignments was to read at least 20 minutes a night to improve our reading skills. We quickly arrived at our home and I

In “The Victims” by Sharon Olds it describes a divorce through the eyes of the parents’ children. The first section is shown through past tense as the speaker is a child and the last section is shown in present tense with the speaker already being an adult trying to make sense of past events. The word “it” in the first two lines carries a tremendous weight, hinting at the ever so present abuse and mistreatment, but remaining non-specific. The first part generates a negative tone toward the father who is referred to as malicious by the mother who “took it” from him “in silence” until she eventually “kicked him out.” Through the entirety of the poem the children are taught to hate their father. Who taught them? Their mother showed them that their father was a villain and were taught to have no sympathy for him but “to hate you and take it” and so they did so. Although the poem never directly states what the father did to receive the family’s hated, the speaker gives examples as to why he is hated.

Three specific examples of how setting influenced the actions and attitudes of the characters are: The isolation from a civilized world, the mysteries of an unfamiliar place, and different social types being forced to live with one another. How these examples are to be proven will be developed in the following paragraphs.

Setting is very important because without the setting there is no initial story. As a reader a person cannot read a story without it having some sort of time frame or having a reference to where the story took place. The setting also shows that the characters in this story have to undergo different problems than other people in the world for example, “…complaining about the drought

A part of maturing is finally doing things independently without the supervision from parents. In her short story, “Through the Tunnel”, Doris Lessing conveys the concept of maturing through becoming self-sufficient. Lessing uses characterization and symbolism to show that being self-reliant is a part of growing up.

First, In “Geography Matters” by Thomas C. Foster, he gives multiple examples of the different ways setting can impacted a story. For example, he said that geography can “define or even develop a character”. Barbara Kingslover’s Bean Trees involves an adolescent girl who lived in Kentucky, the girl felt as if there was nothing more for her in Kentucky so she drove away and started her new happier life, “what she discovers in the West are big horizons, clean air, brilliant sunshine, and open possibilities...she seizes the opportunities for growth and development” (“Geography Matters”) . The author goes over how everything would be much more different for her if she had stayed in Kentucky. Foster also explains how setting can mean emotions too as in swamp for sadness or a field of flowers for freedom. Also, setting can reveal the virtual element in the work itself such as theme and plot. Foster rips

Tone is stated to be something that is “a general tone or attitude of a place, piece of writing, situation, ect…” Tone helps represent the writer or Narrator’s point or feeling throughout a story. In “Sixteen” by Maureen Daly, the Narrator of the story is a 16 year old girl talking about love and how blind people can be because of it. “Through the Tunnel”, by author Doris Lessing, on the other hand, is about an 11-year-old boy who creates his coming of age story by, literally, swimming through a tunnel. The distinction of plots and settings in these stories couldn’t be more different but similar tones throughout the stories almost bind them in a way. Similar tones in “Sixteen” and “Through the Tunnel” are:

In the short story “Through the Tunnel” by Doris Lessig, the main character Jerry teaches the reader that you can achieve your goals if you put dedication towards them, because he puts his time into exercising his lungs so he can stay underwater, and he also does not give up even when he does too much and his nose begins bleeding. “Again and again he rose, took a big chestful of air, and went down. Again and again he groped over the surface of the rock, feeling it, almost hugging it in the desperate need to find the entrance”. (3) Jerry, the eleven-year-old boy, wanted to discover the beach in the water as much as he possibly could. He wanted to be just like the boys he discovers.