What Is The Theme Of Through The Tunnel By Doris Lessing

Parents cling to their children wanting them to stay young forever, wanting endless memories and nothing to change, yet they must be able to part from these feelings to allow the child to grow. In the story “A Private Talk with Holly”, the author, Henry Felsen, uses symbolism to convey the central idea that if you love someone you have to let them go. When Holly, the main character of the story, talks to her Dad about changing her plans, he is faced with a difficult decision, but in the end he allows Holly to chase her dreams for her own good.

In the short stories, “Saving Sourdi,” by May-Lee Chai and “The Moths,” by Helena Maria Viramontes, the main character of each short story goes through their own coming of age experience where they are forced to mature in order to overcome an obstacle. Chai explains her main character, Nea’s, struggle as she is forced to mature and overcome the departure of her older sister, Sourdi, from her life after she gets married and moves away. Viramontes, on the other hand, depicts her narrator’s struggle as she is forced to mature and overcome the death of her Abuelita on her own. Despite their very different approaches, both Chai and Viramontes successfully convey their main character 's struggles in their journey from youth to adulthood.

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 “The Passage” By Dalton Trumbo, the author portrays coming of age and the beginning of a new chapter in life through the dialogue between the protagonist, Joe, and his father. The bond between Joe and his father is exhibited as very stable and happy. Their bond displays the attachment every adolescent acquires with their parents; as we learn almost everything basic to life from our parents. This short story suggests that at one period in time we start to grow out of adolescence into young adults and begin to detach from our forever known guardians and heroes. We begin to mature and become more distracted with friends, school, sports, etc.. Joe, in this short story, depicts this detachment from our parents as we grow for example in paragraph two: “Now he was 15 and Bill Harper was going to come tomorrow… Tomorrow for the first time in all their trips

The other reading of the story might be based on the maturing of a young woman. As it is probably the most important period in every adolescent's life, when they keep searching for their own identity, it should by strongly influenced by their parents. If it is not, a teenager starts looking for directions outside their home, and sometimes has difficulties with distinguishing what is good and evil. They are very often affected by

In the poem “The Writer” by Richard Wilbur and the short story “Saturday Climbing” by W.D. Valgardson, both of them describe children’s growth in parent’s point of view. Somehow, parents realize children always meet difficulty along with their growth, and parents sometimes are unable to help them, whereas both parents and children have to struggle for themselves.

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.

In coming of age stories, the protagonists often experience a pensive and dramatic moment where either they break through to adulthood or retreat to childhood - it is this moment that unveils the magnitude of growing up for the reader.

The setting of Alice Walkers short story” The Flowers” is important for us, the readers to obtain a perspective of how life was like growing up for a 10 year old African American girl by the name of Myop. The title of the story is “The Flowers.” When you think about flowers, you instantly compare them to being beautiful, pure, and innocent. The title of the “The Flowers” is a symbolism that correlates to Myop who is the protagonist of the story. Myop is just like a flower in the beginning of the story. She’s a pure and innocent child but that pure innocence changes when she discovers something that’ll change her life forever.

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.

Linda Pastan made this poem include various forms of figurative language to hide the literal message that it's trying to portray. Figurative language is using figures of speech to make the text be more powerful, persuasive, and meaningful. Figures of speech such as, similes and metaphors, go beyond the literal meanings to give the readers a new way of looking at the text. It can come in multiple ways with different literacy and rhetorical devices such as: alliteration, imageries, onomatopoeias, and etc. With the usage of the literary devices Pastan has used, it introduced the relationship between the mother and the daughter. It shows the memories of how the mother helped her daughter grow from a little girl to a young adult getting ready to go her own way in life.

In this “Autumn” chapter, Claudia MacTeer uses flower imagery to describe how she and Frieda respond to their environment. This metaphor calls attention to the importance of nurture and environment for these young children, especially during these formative years of childhood. Like flowers, we depend on our environment for sustenance, so in turn, Pecola Breedlove, Soaphead Church, and Louis, Jr., inherit the legacy of self-loathing and Claudia and Frieda MacTeer inherit the legacy of self-worth.

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:

Mama is also having to difficulties because of race,she is also struggling because of race . Mama is the mother of Walter and Beneatha, grandma of Travis and mother in law of Ruth. Mama has a plant that represent or symbolizes the younger family and she loves that plant a lot. One quote that shows that she is having trouble because of race, is “ The house they put up for colored in them areas way out all seem to cost twice as much as other houses . I did the best I could ’’ ( Hansberry 93 ). Mama means that in the black neighborhood they would have to pay even more than they payed in the white neighborhood. Also that people don’t want to mix blacks and whites together. Mama didn’t want to waste a lot of money so she bought it where the whites live so the don’t wasted a lot, they expect for dark skin people to pay more than whites should pay. Another quote that I found that relates to race is “ I see ... him … night after night … come in … and look at that rug … and then look at me … the red showing in his eyes … the veins moving in his head … I seen him grow thin and old before he was forty … working and working and working like somebody’s old horse … killing himself … and you you give it all away in one day ”( Hansberry 129 ). Mama is trying to say that in that time there was even less opportunities especially to a dark skin person like big Walter but big Walter did whatever he could to provide for his family even if it takes everything. Also

If you were given the opportunity to slow your childhood down and keep the freedom of youth, you would right? It’s not quite as easy for the main character of the story, The Moustache, written by Robert Cormier. This short story read by the 8th grade class consisted of a 17 year old boy named Mike who insisted on growing a moustache. He went to visit his grandma in her nursing home, and she thought Mike, her grandson, was her husband, because of the moustache he had and the older man look it gave him. Due to this, Mike realized that there is no reason to rush growing up and he should live his free life as long as possible. The author of this thought provoking text uses author’s craft techniques such as symbolism and word choice to reveal the theme, childhood and the freedoms that come with it, should not be rushed but savored.