What Makes Jerry's Through The Tunnel: Unrealism

Jerry and his moms relationship affects his swimming because he does not want his mom to worry about him while she is at his beach so he is careful at first. Jerry also does not tell his mom about the tunnel

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.

Initially, our first thoughts of Jerry at the beginning of the story, is that he acts immature and is burdened within a circle of maternal protection. During the opening of the story, the author conveys Jerry’s relative childishness by labeling him as “the boy”. The author also uses the mother to demonstrate his youth and how he is trapped in a circle of maternal protection which leads us to think that he is lonely due to that reason. In this part, “His mother walks in front of him, carrying a bright white strap in one hand” tells us that because the mother was walking in front of him, it gives us the impression that the mother still thinks of him as a boy that needs to be protected from any potential harm. We see more of Jerry’s immaturity and how the burden of protection leads his actions as we go through the story. During the part where Jerry sees the group of boys acting free-spirited, we see that he is overcome with desire to be with them, probably because he feels that because he is always in the circle of protection making him feel lonely and isolated from everyone. At first, he is added into the group and begins to have fun jumping from the cliff into the water with the other boys. Later on however, he starts to act immature when he realizes he could not do the same thing the other boys were doing. That was, underwater for a long time and going through the dark tunnel and he becomes scared. In this passage,“... In a panic of failure, he yelled up, in English, “Look at me! Look!” and he began splashing and kicking the water like a

He works on his goal none stop doing everything he can to improve his chances of going through the tunnel. He asks his mother to buy him goggles to see the tunnel. He holds his breath under the water for long periods of time strengthening his lungs to get ready for the real thing. Jerry also starts working out so he can be stronger and faster in the water increasing his odds of making it through because it will be shorter time and it will be less time on his lungs. Jerry is now ready not only mentally but physically to swim through the

The characterization of Jerry illustrates the stages of maturing and becoming independent. In the beginning of the story, Jerry is depicted as young and immature. The immaturity of Jerry is shown when he is trying to capture the older boys’ attention. In order to capture their attention, “he began splashing and kicking in the water like a foolish dog.” This action conveys that Jerry is still immature, and wants to join the older kids. After seeing the boys pass through the tunnel, Jerry also wants to pass through in order to be a part of their group. In order

Perhaps if Jerry had a more forthcoming and open relationship with his father, the ending of the story could have changed.

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:

At the beginning of the book, Jerry was introduced as a sad, insecure boy who had his heart broken by the thought of his dead mother. Jerry wanted his mother back and let himself think that it was all just a dream, and he would have his mom back soon. Jerry tried out for the football team very undetermined of even making it. The coach wanted him to come back tomorrow with a more preppy attitude towards being a member of the team. Archie could see the struggling freshman in football tryouts and wanted to give Jerry an assignment, but Obie thought it was a bad idea because Jerry's mother recently passed. Archie thought that it was the perfect opportunity for a treatment.

The narrator’s life begins to go downhill when Ursula shows up. Not only does he get a hole in his foot, but his own father tries to drown his own son because of Ursula. However, he does not give up and manages to escapes only to get caught by her. The narrator gets back up and says, “I won’t come with you. You can’t make me.” (Chapter 8).

In the portion of “Through the Tunnel” where Jerry is traveling through the tunnel the author uses specific word choice to make the climax of the story dangerous and suspenseful. The author uses phrases like “trembling with fear” and “trembling with horror” to explain the feelings of Jerry under the dangerous circumstances. The author also describe the tunnel in a way that makes it seem almost impossible to go through. The tunnel is described as long, dark and heavy. The suspense is built up even more when the author mentions death because the fact that Jerry is thinking that death is even possible while attempting to go through the tunnel adds to the danger of the task.

Rumble! That was the sound of my stomach aching as if I had just done 100 sit-ups. I was starving. I needed supper, and I needed it now. I was like a little baby crying for its bottle. After Ruby’s family picked up Morgan and I, Ruby’s dad took the curb into Subway. Of course Subway is one of my favorites, I pretty darn excited. As I bit into the soft, crunchy bread, the lime-green juice from the pickle exploded with flavor tingling down my throat. Not going to lie, it was pretty good. Ruby and Morgan are so simple, they just got a regular cold-cut trio sandwich. Eww! Although the food was great, I loved playing our car ride games even more.

In “Through the Tunnel,” Doris Lessing presents water as a deadly challenge to the boy, Jerry. He experiences two of the listed symptoms after freediving; “That night, his nose bleed badly. For hours he had been underwater, learning to hold his breath, and now he felt weak and dizzy” (Lessing 405) and “... his face turned up to the air. He was gasping like a fish. He felt he would sink now and drown; he could not swim the few feet back to the rock” (Lessing 407). Water challenges him on his quest to adulthood and Jerry then experiences rebirth as a man; water is symbolizing

I had two goals in writing this paper. The first goal being to get a good grade. The second was to thoroughly bring out the theme of symbolism in “Through the Tunnel”. I achieved my second goal, and hopefully my first, by carefully analyzing the story and taking notes in preparation for writing my paper. I then took my notes and translated them into something readable, which is much harder than it sounds. During the editing process, I had a peer review sheet that was to help me strengthen the weak points in my paper. Unfortunately, the review sheet helped me very little. On the subject of strong and weak points, I feel the strongest point of my paper is that I always have a quote to back up my point, but on the other hand I feel my weakest

In Jerry's journey through the tunnel in the story "Through the Tunnel," the author chooses words that create a sense of danger and suspense. As he enters the tunnel, he has to turn his shoulders sideways, "wriggling" them in order to get in. Already the tunnel feels claustrophobic, and although it seems he has room to swim once he in inside, Lessing describes the area he is in as "small" and "rock-bound" -- although Jerry is just inside, it is already as if he were trapped. The water is "yellowish-grey," an unpleasant color that may set the reader on edge with its imagery. The water "pushes" him up against the roof, it is unforgiving and unpleasant. The roof itself is "sharp," showing the reader that although Jerry is not yet having trouble breathing, the tunnel is still unpleasant. Then, as Jerry moves forward, a "sharp pain" dizzies him as he knocks his head, and he is suddenly "without light," a distinct transition from the yellowish-grey water at the opening of the tunnel. The use of "weight" to

After Jerry and the other boys have dived in a few times they all have