Through The Tunnel By Doris Lessing

In Robert Cormier’s novel, We All Fall Down, is a young-adult thriller that explores the evil side of humanity through a number of corrupt characters. Cormier, to a large extent, accurately depicts manipulative and dishonest behaviour whilst also showing the evil lurking within the prominent characters of Harry Flowers, Buddy Walker and Mickey Stallings who showcase the dark side of humanity. Cormier explores this through Harry Flower’s manipulative actions that result in the suffering of others. Additionally, the constant dishonest behaviour is shown predominantly through the main protagonist of Buddy Walker, who deceives the one he loves. Cormier continues to depict the evil lurking in society through the theme of appearance

From here, old Stephen is the outer narrator, but the bulk of the narrative is given over to young Stephen. Old Stephen is like an observer of his own past. The past is a separate life and reality from the present.

“Passing,” by Nella Larsen is a novel all about pretending to be something that you are not. It is about giving everyone the impression that everything is in order when in reality everything is falling apart. Passing in this novel refers to the ability of a person to be classified as one thing, normally a social group, while belonging to a different group. Passing is usually done to gain class or acceptance by groups other than one’s own. The primary focus of the novel is on racial passing which is the ability to look white and belong to a white group when in reality the person is an African-American in order to gain privileges that were unavailable to them. Although racial passing is the main focus, another major theme in this novel is sexual passing and identity.

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.

One way the setting has an impact includes the characters. The safe beach is an example of how the setting can impact the character. According to the story, “The boy . . . turned his eyes, which had a frown behind them, toward the bay and back again to his mother” (1). Jerry’s mother wants him to stay at the beach. She feels like the setting of the bay is dangerous, but Jerry feels the pull to explore the more dangerous bay. Secondly, the setting of the water gives Jerry a hard time. Jerry is trying to hold his breath under water so that it will not be hard to breathe while he is swimming (3). He is trying to learn how to control his breathing so he can swim better. He tried to put stones on his arms so he could stay under the water to help him. Also, another example is the tunnel. According to the author, Jerry “…tried to push himself in. He had got his head in, found his shoulders jammed, moved

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.

The environment people grow up in influences their character. Your decisions and the views you have shape your character. The setting influences the characters decisions and views in Montana 1948 and A River Runs Through It.

Jerry is a young boy who has not yet fully matured yet. His mother finally lets him go off on his own when he see the french boys. They are much stronger and older than him but he still hangs out with them and they don’t seem to mind at first. The french boys all swim under the big pile of rocks in long periods of time without air. Jerry is amazed and wants to find out how they did it. The boys laugh and judge him as he sits on the rock, alone without the ability to swim with the boys. This is when Jerry sees the tunnel for himself and sets the goal to swim through it before the end of vacation

“Listen to the mustn’ts, the shouldn’ts, the impossibles, the won’ts, and the never haves. Then, listen to me. Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.” This is a poem the famous children’s poet Shel Silverstein. Now, if he was best known for being a children’s author, how could he even be considered to be controversial? Now, Shel Silverstein, while having no earlier inspiration for his career to draw and write for children, wrote many famous poem books, such as Falling Up and Where the Sidewalk Ends: however, with him writing these books came some controversy with it, such as claims that he promoted cannibalism and suicide.

The story Through the Tunnel is about a young boy named Jerry and his mother going on vacation to a beach resort that they have previously visited. The villa they are staying at consist of two beaches. The safe, crowded beach is where Jerry’s mother goes and the wild Rocky Bay is where Jerry ends up spending most of his time. While Jerry swims in the water at the wild bay, he sees a group of boys diving into the water. Jerry knew right when he saw them, he wanted to be just like them. In his eyes, “They were big boys—men to Jerry” (Lessing 148). To show that he was brave, he found the courage to dive off the

In the book, “ Reign of Error” by Diane Ravitch, Published on September 17th, 2017 the theme is, Educating people about what’s really wrong with our education system. We seem to have this misconception that all kids who are the same age should be on the same standard of intelligence. What some do not realize is that not all kids learn at the same pace or the same way. In the chapter “ The Facts about Teachers and Test Scores” Ravitch says, “ Educators say that every child can learn, but they understand that children learn at different rates and that some inevitably learn more than others” (Ravitch, 99), she is saying that some do not acknowledge that every child and person is different. Everyone is constantly moving at a different pace,

Now comparing these stories, Jerry and the narrator of “Sixteen” are very much alike, just as they are apart. Maureen Daly and Doris Lessing really give the reader a good feel for the characters and mood, making the tone easy to comprehend. In “Sixteen”, the narrator is very serious when talking about how she is, in fact, quite smart, and knows what she’s doing when it comes to life. Along with this, Jerry is very serious about practicing his breath golding and swimming because he wants to be able to get to and go through the tunnel. It’s a goal, not a dream. Both of these characters take the reader on a very personal journey; one into the mind and heart, and one into the process of him becoming a “man”. Two very difficult things to normally talk about. The authors create anxiety for the readers when Jerry is actually in the tunnel. He begins counting, higher and higher, the longer he’s in the tunnel, making the reader think, “There’s no way he’s going to make it out.” There is also a sense of anxiety in

After swimming in the real ocean, Jerry sees a group of boys who speak a different language than he does, immediately he feels a craving to be around them. Seeing that they were diving down into the depths of the ocean, he had to have a look and saw that they were swimming through a hole in a black wall of rock. Jerry then set a goal of completing the task the other boys could do as he set back towards his mother to ask her for goggles. Lessing portrays Jerry’s deep desire to accomplish his goal as he immediately grabs the goggles from his mother's hand when she bought them. In an instant, Jerry was back at the black wall diving down many times until he found the hole. After a day of trying to get through he gave up for a moment, but he knew he must find a way to accomplish this task. The many attempts to succeed show the struggle he faces to progress from a child to an independent adult. Jerry’s nature changed and now he focuses on the task at hand, he even dreams about the cave all night. Four days until they leave and Jerry thinks to himself, that on the last day he will do it even if it kills him. Jerry definitely wants to achieve his goal as his nose starts to bleed and he almost passes out while swimming through the tunnel for over 115 seconds. Jerry felt like this was the end, “he felt he was

“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.