Through The Tunnel

Initially Mai holds a negative perspective in “Mai closed her eyes and tried to recall her father's stories— but they rang shallow against the dense roaring slabs of water she'd just seen.” The hydrographia personifies the natural elements creating a pathetic fallacy, which reflects Mai’s initially pessimistic attitude as her hope is crushed by the harsh reality of her experiences on the boat. However, this provocative experience catalyses a transformed perception, as upon reaching the shore she thinks: “The boat would land - they would all land.” The epistrophe of “land” and high modality of “would” shows her renewed hopeful perspective, which would not have been possible without physically experiencing the harshness of being on the boat. Thus, the ability for discoveries to be far-reaching and transformative is seen through these provocative and confronting external experiences that transform individual perceptions.

Strength in obstacles lies in how individuals take stand and take in the harshest circumstances, and like that, their overcoming in such circumstances makes a new identity. Strength, fondness, and will power are resulting traits to becoming a better version of one’s self. In “Typhoid Fever" an excerpt from the memoir, "Angela's Ashes," by Frank McCourt, Frank, the typhoid fever burdened protagonist, was deprived of a good life because happiness, “...could be doing serious damage to your internal apparatus,” (McCourt 3). Throughout the excerpt, he realizes his newfound passion for literature due to his infatuation with Patricia Madigan. Despite all circumstances, Frank fought with all his might to obtain his happiness, and that is knowing the ending of “The Highwayman.”

For this essay, I am going to be discussing the short story “Swimming” found on the New Yorker, and written by T. Cooper. I have chosen this story for many reasons, and among those reasons is the personal sadness I felt when I first read the story, almost as if the universe was placing a certain theme in my life, that only the main character could possibly understand. I am talking about running, the god given instinct felt by all men, inherent in the nature of fear, and brought out in all who feel sadness in its full intensity. Though in my short life I can not compare the sadness I have felt with that of losing a child at my own hand, but if I had been placed in that situation, if fate had tempted my soul with such a sequence of events, I would like to think I could find the strength to endure and the courage to not abandon all I had previously known. Yet I am able to reconcile the themes of grief, the mode of recovery, and the longing to escape such a terrible tale. I think in this piece, as I will discuss in later parts, the author was able to put into words a transformation we rarely get to observe in closeness, the kind of transformation that turns a kind man into a “just man” the kind of death that turns this world from a beautiful and happy place into a world that is closing in on our main character, that is forcing him to surface temporarily and gasp for air, much like he does when he finds peace in the water, wading breath after air, after sea. I firmly believe that

In the short story "Through the Tunnel", Doris Lessing describes the adventure of Jerry, a young English boy trying to swim through an underwater tunnel.  Throughout the story, the author uses the third person omniscient point of view to describe the boy's surroundings and to show us both what he and the other characters are thinking and what is happening around them.  By using this point of view, the author is able to describe the setting of the story, give a detailed description of the characters, and make the theme visible.

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.

In the story “Through the Tunnel” by Doris Lessing the main character Jerry is young and sees a group boys do something that he finds interesting, Going through the tunnel. The problem is he is too young and too weak to do it. The boys were Judging and excluding him and it made him sad. Jerry used the negative actions of the french boys as motivation to set a goal of swimming through the tunnel before he leaves. Although Jerry is not physically strong or mature he has a large amount of mental strength and uses what should be his weakness be his strength.

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

The symbolism of the color brown and the struggle of Jerry going through the tunnel represents the signs of maturity. Jerry describes the boys as having “burned smooth dark brown” skin. In Jerry’s point of view, they are described as “big boys, men, to Jerry”. The two quotes associate the brown skin with being older and mature. In the time span between Jerry seeing the boys and Jerry and his mother leaving the beach, he trains himself to swim through the tunnel in order to be like the big boys. Jerry suffers through many hardships in order to pass through the tunnel and he does it all by himself without his mom or anyone to help him. Swimming through the tunnel is like the transition from an immature child to a sophisticated, young adult. After Jerry swims through the tunnel all by himself, it is said that his mother puts her hand on “his warm brown shoulder”. Describing Jerry’s shoulder as brown shows that Jerry is now like the older boys. The symbolism of the brown skin emphasizes the maturity of Jerry, and the symbolism of the tunnel emphasizes that becoming a young adult is a journey one has to go through on his or her own and with a lot of struggling on the way. The effect of the symbolism illustrates that growing up will include some hard times, but it is worth it in the end because people know that they can do things on their own now.

As Benjamin Disraeli once said, “Through perseverance, many people win success out of what seemed to be destined certain failure.” (Disraeli) The Odyssey, by Homer, “The Journey,” by Mary Oliver, and The Cruelest Journey, by Kira Salak, are all works with complex characters that all undergo a particular quest, and face numerous conflicts and adversities along the way. The Odyssey tells the tale of Odysseus as he undergoes a long and harrowing journey back to his homeland of Ithaca. In “The Journey,” the speaker is aiming to break away from living for others, and journeys to find her confidence and her voice. The Cruelest Journey details the true story of Kira Salak’s physical and mental journey as she embarks on a 600 mile journey from

In the book, A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park, Salva realizes that perseverance is key when facing life’s challenges.

Ernest Hemingway uses the characters in The Old Man and the Sea to demonstrate how perseverance is necessary for survival. After battling with the fish for several days, Santiago wishes the circumstances could be different: “‘Be patient, hand,’ he said. ‘I do this for you.’

However, all of this is not to say that experience is the cure all to tunnel vision. If it was, then cases like Michael Morton's would not have happened. Loyalties, cognitive biases and emotional commitments are here to stay; they are part and parcel of the human condition.i But there are other recommendations for how to address tunnel vision on several levels. Bandes recommends that institutional directives should be made clearer and more concrete, and institutional culture and incentives should be addressed.ii That review mechanisms should exist at every level of decision-making.iii While also pointing out that, however that review may become simply a way of reinforcing group norms.iv In order for that to work the process needs to be explicitly structured to perform a critical role.v Banes takes note that, review will be ineffective without transparency, rules governing record keeping, record sharing and discovery must strive to ensure that a full investigative record exists and is accessible for review.vi Banes finally believes that, training of both supervisory and lower level personnel must explicitly address the dynamics of tunnel vision.vii That if these dynamics can be better understood, they can be flagged, and, that perhaps, with sufficient will and sufficient knowledge, we can correct for them.viii

I recently read Daniel James Brown’s riveting, captivating, and inspiring nonfiction story The Boys in the Boat. The author’s message that was conveyed throughout the book was that triumph can be achieved against the greatest of odds, and that nothing is impossible when matched with the power of hard work and persistence. The Boys in the Boat is the story of the rowing crew of the University of Washington and their incredible journey from a somber beginning in the Great Depression-struck city of Seattle to victory in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. The story has a great focus on one specific member of the team, Joe Rantz, and his own personal struggles, from losing his one and only mother, to being virtually abandoned and left to live on his own at a very young age. It also shines light on the never-ending adversity the University of Washington crew had to overcome as a whole. Both of these concepts, along with a lot more, greatly contribute to the powerful message that was conveyed by the author.

Then Jerry looks up and sees that the source of light is not the end of the tunnel, but only a crack in the rock. Hopeful terms are used to describe the break in the stone. “Sunlight,” typically associated with warmth, life, and comfort, falls through it, illuminating the “clean” rock of the tunnel, and as Jerry gazes he sees a single mussel shell, the only sign on life in the tunnel. Ahead of him is “darkness,” but that is his only way out, although he thinks he has reached “the end of what he could

A powerful storyteller will successfully create their characters and novel structure to keep readers engaged. Doris Lessing’s short story “Through the Tunnel” uses literary techniques and structure to display the external conflict. She is able to enhance the story with her stunning vocabulary and use of literary devices while introducing, describing, and resolving the conflict. Doris Lessing uses some foreshadowing to introduce the conflict. By writing “his head knocked against something; a sharp pain dizzied him”(5)