Through the Tunnel: A story of Self-Discovery and Reflection

About the author

Doris Lessing is a Zimbabwean British novelist, short-story writer, playwright, and biographer. She won the Nobel Prize in 2007 for her literary contribution.

Introduction to the story

● The story ‘Through the Tunnel’ depicts the journey of a boy who struggles to surmount all the obstacles in the way of fulfilling his goal, and fulfils his purpose with flying colours.

● The story presents to us the themes of self-discovery, courage, dedication, and struggle.

● This is a fictional story that is told from the third-person point of view.

● There are three characters in the story-(i)Jerry (ii)Jerry’s mother (iii)local boys from France

Word-Meaning:

♦amusements-funs, ♦ swinging-moving back and forth, ♦conscientiously- attentively, ♦contrition-repentance, ♦anxious-worry, ♦sunbathing-sitting in the sun to make your skin hot and darker

Summary

Jerry along with his mother went to a beach in France to spend his vacation. He was an eleven-year-old English boy, and his mother was a widow. He was an only child as well as the sole companion of his mother, so he and his mother were so much conscious of each other. On the first morning of his holidays, he played on the beach he knew from other years. He looked at the wild bay and took his mother’s permission to go there. This way he left his mother on the safe beach and stood on the rocky bay where he saw many native boys who were older than him. He introduced himself to them and desired to be with them. The native boys did not pay too much attention to him after knowing he was a foreigner.

The boys started diving from the rocks, and Jerry followed them. The older boys swum effortlessly through a tunnel, but Jerry failed to find the opening of the tunnel, and could not swim. He felt rejected by them and acted before his mother as a clown to get her attention. Later, he told his mother to buy goggles and after getting them he adjusted the goggles and dived, but met a new failure with a new lesson. Then he came back to the villa, and trained himself to hold his breath for a long time. It was the last day before he left France. After preparing for a long time, Jerry started to swim through the tunnel again. He faced many challenges in his deed but swam through the tunnel as the native boys had swum.

Then Jerry went back to the villa where he used to stay with his mother. He did not talk about what he had done. His mother saw his bloody nose and told him not to practice more on that day. Jerry also did not feel the need to swim through the tunnel.

Theme

The story ‘Through the Tunnel’ depicts the themes of individualism, courage, willpower, self-respect, identity, and self-discovery. In the story, Jerry isolates himself from the safe beach and his mother and tries to become a part of a group of native boys from France,but fails to swim through the tunnel as the native boys had swum. Then, Jerry starts learning new lessons, faces several challenges, becomes confident, and swims through the tunnel. Hence, the story reveals to us all the phases we need to face to achieve success after we set our goals.

Disclaimer: This content is created solely for educational and informational purposes. It draws upon publicly available educational materials, literary texts, and the author’s own interpretation. All summaries, analyses, and explanations are original and intended to support learning. No copyright infringement is intended.