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Through The Tunnel Symbolism

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A famous psychologist named Mary Pipher once said, “Adolescence is a border between childhood and adulthood. Like all borders, it’s teeming with energy and fraught with danger.” The story, “Through the Tunnel,” is a mirror like representation of this quote. It is about a young English boy named Jerry, who learns about a tunnel underwater that leads to another part of the bay he is in. He prepares to take on the challenge of traveling through the tunnel by learning how to hold his breath underwater for a long period of time. In this short story, the author, Doris Lessing, uses two literary elements, symbolism and imagery in order to represent adolescence and the challenge that it presents to the main character to overcome. Doris Lessing uses symbolism in order to show the challenging time of a person’s lifetime which is adolescence. The tunnel presents itself as a way out of childhood since most of the older children swam through it, showing how it is not for the young. As Jerry is about to jump inside of the water and go in the tunnel, he starts to think it was not such a good idea. “He was trembling with fear that he would not go; and he was trembling at that long, long tunnel under the rock, under the sea”(Lessing 363). The tunnel, which represents adolescence, is a menace to Jerry, making him …show more content…

One of the best parts of the story is when Jerry receives a chance to leave the tunnel. However, instead of taking the easy way out, he powers through the tunnel and reaches the other end. The author uses many literary elements in “Through the Tunnel,” in order to create a story about an English boy who prepares himself and powers himself through a tunnel underwater. This story represents the challenges of transitioning from childhood to

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