Michela Rieck

Literary Analysis
Through the Tunnel
Mrs. Van Duyn
English 10 Honors
April 27, 2013

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Through the Tunnel

Through the Tunnel is a short story written by Doris Lessing. An eleven year-old,
English boy, Jerry, is on a holiday vacation with his widowed mother. Jerry is faced with the
dependence with his mother and the independence achieved at the bay. I believe that this story
can be taken as a journey from one stage in life to another.
The two conflicts within Through the Tunnel are man verses himself and man verses
nature. Jerry is faced with an external conflict with nature in the forms of the water, and the
tunnel. He is not able to hold his breath underwater for the time needed to get through the
tunnel. Jerry also has an internal conflict of being capable. Jerry does not believe that he is
capable of doing tasks on his own. His mother is very protective over him because she is a
widow herself. Jerry has a lot of pressure with wanting to become independent, but he also does
not want to leave his mother. In the exposition, we learn about Jerry and his mother. The story
tells us that Jerry is an eleven year-old, English boy, who is on a holiday vacation, which means
he has limited time. Also, it is noted that his mother is a widow. Many characteristic about both
characters are given that are important for the rest of the story; such as Jerry is a good swimmer
and his mother is very protective. The inciting incident of Through the Tunnel is when Jerry
sees the group of boys, who are native to the area, swim through the tunnel in the rock under
water. If Jerry would not have seen the boys swim through the tunnel, then there would not have
been a complication within the story, and Jerry would not be put against nature. The
complication of the story is the training that Jerry puts himself through leading up to his dive. It
is Jerrys top priority to train himself to hold his breath for the time needed to make it through
the tunnel and, That day and the next, Jerry exercised his lungs as if everything, the whole of
his life, all that he would become, depended upon it. (p.5T) Jerry tries to find the tunnel by

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going down in the water, but he cannot find it so he gets goggles. As Jerry is in the tunnel, he
gets stuck. When he looks up, he sees a crack in the rock and there is light coming through.
This part of the story is the turning point because at that moment Jerry decides he needs to keep
moving to get out of the tunnel because he realizes that he is going to die if he does not. He
could not let all of his hard work slip away; he had to fight to make it through. The falling action
of Through the Tunnel is after Jerry realizes he needs to keep going through the tunnel. He
fights his way through the rest of the tunnel and reaches the waters surface having the ability to
breath. Jerry heads home to clean up from his nose bleed and tells his mother that he can hold
his breath for two minutes. The resolution of the story is when the conflicts are resolved. The
conflict Jerry has with nature is resolved because he was able to make his way from one side of
the tunnel to the other. The internal conflict with Jerry was also solved because he proved to
himself that he is capable of accomplishing tasks by himself because he has made it through the
tunnel.
As the main character of Through the Tunnel, Jerry is a round character who is
developed directly and indirectly in the story. The story tells that Jerry is an eleven year old,
English boy, but we are also shown that he is still a child who is dependent on his mother. The
thoughts of Jerry also help with the indirect presentation because we can piece together more
about him. We are told more about Jerry as a character than anyone else in the story. Jerry is the
only dynamic character within the story because he changes from the child that does not believe
in himself, at the beginning of the story, into a young adolescent who can handle situations on his
own. The quote, Fifty-one, fifty-two. His chest was hurting, (p.4B) shows that Jerry is not
perfect which makes him a believable character. Jerrys mother is also presented directly and
indirectly, but she is a static character. She is a static character because at the beginning, and at

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the end of the story, she wants Jerry to become more independent. Jerrys mother is also a flat
character because she is only described enough for us to be able to understand more about Jerry
and the conflicts that he is in. We are shown that she is a protective mother by the statement,
When she felt he was not with her, she swung around (p.1M). There is also a group of boys in
the story that would be considered as just one character. They are given a direct presentation
when presented as natives to the area. The boys are also static and device because they are
hardly told about, and they are not in the story for a significant amount of time; only enough to
set up the external conflict.
There are two main settings in Through the Tunnel. The story starts out with Jerry on
the beach with his mother. And all morning, as he played on the safe beach, he was thinking of
it, (p.1B) shows that he was on the beach with his mother, but he was longing to go to another
place which was the bay. We know from the hint from the natives, who speak French, which
Jerry and his mother are on the coast such as the Mediterranean. The time frame is not certain
but it is set in the twentieth century. The beach as a setting shows the safety and a place where
Jerry can be a little boy because his mother is there. The bay is the second setting of the story,
and one of the most important ones. Jerrys mother lets him go off by himself, and he chooses to
take a trip to the bay because he finds it intriguing. The trip down to the bay is not the easiest
walk in the park. The except, As for Jerry, once he saw that his mother had gained her beach,
he began his steep decent to the bay, (p.2T) tells us Jerry made his way to the new setting while
his mother stays at the first setting. The bay brings danger and risk to the story, and also serves
as part of the conflict. If Jerry would have never gone to the bay, then he would have never been
in danger; meaning that there would have not been a conflict.

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Through the Tunnel has an unknown narrator the narrator is never told but it is know
they are not a character in the story. The story is told in the third person omniscient view
because the author use the pronoun he. We also know that the story is in the omniscient view
because; It seemed to him that a long time had passed, (p.3B) which shows that the narrator
hears Jerrys thoughts. The point of view that the story is told in helps us understand more about
the characters since it is not in first person. If the point of view was not omniscient, then we
would not know any of the thoughts that Jerry and his mother have that help us better understand
the feelings in the story.
There are many symbols in Through the Tunnel. One symbol is light. In the quote,
Sunlight was falling through it, showing the clean dark rock of the tunnel, a single mussel shell,
and darkness ahead, (p.6M) Jerry is giving the knowledge that he cannot stop in the tunnel.
Besides, in the tunnel, Jerry has moments of knowledge throughout the story when he has the
goal of finding the tunnel in the rock, and when Jerry realizes how he would be able to fulfill the
challenge at hand. The white sand that he starts his journey on symbolizes his purity as a child,
and the blood symbolizes the passion Jerry has to keep moving forward and not to quit. The
tunnel in which Jerry journeys goes through symbolizes his passage from one side of the rock to
the other, or the case of being a child and the journey to become an adolescent. The word dark
in, Something soft and clammy touched his mouth, he saw a dark frond moving against the
grayish rock, and panic filled him, (p.4B) symbolizes that there are things that Jerry does not
know about in life. There is much unknown to him because at the time he was still a child. The
rock symbolizes that it is cold and unfeeling towards Jerry and his actions of trying to become an
adolescent. Finally, the water on the other side of the rock symbolizes the new birth of Jerry

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because he has finally become an adolescent. If the author had not put these symbols in the
story, then it would have been hard to understand the internal conflict with Jerry.
The fact that the reader knowing about Jerrys accomplishment of his journey through
the tunnel, and no one else in the story knows, is dramatic irony. Jerry never tells anyone about
what he has accomplished even though we think that he would. An example of situational irony
in Through the Tunnel is the fact that Jerrys mother is very over protective of him, and the one
time that she lets him go off and do something by himself he almost kills himself. She was
thinking, of course hes old enough to be safe without me, (p.2T) shows that she is convincing
herself that Jerry will be fine by himself. There is irony of situation when Jerry puts so much
time and commitment into training himself to be able to make it through the tunnel successfully
that he gets suck once he gets in the tunnel. Lastly, it is situational and verbal irony that Jerry
has completed his goal of making it through the tunnel and he does not tell anyone. He does not
tell the boys, if he ever sees them again, and he does not tell his own mother. He just tells her
that he can hold his breath two minutes.
There could be many different themes that can be developed from his story. The first one
is dont ever give up. If Jerry had given up on his goal, then he would not have made it to the
next mile stone in life. Jerry does not stop training his body when he has the bloody noses, and
he does not give up when he is in the tunnel. He keeps fighting onward. Another theme of the
story is the rite of passage. Jerry has the rite of passage to become an adolescent. He cannot
stay a child his whole life, just like every other human being in the world.
The story, Through the Tunnel, is a very comprehendible story which has great
messages ad doesnt hid anything from the reader. Lessing writes everything out very clearly to

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make it hard to misunderstand what is happening. When the symbols come together, they create
a story in itself. This story provides a sense of knowledge that everyone goes through in life.
Maybe not in the same way each person takes the steps through life, but each person will be able
to relate their journey to the Journey of Jerry.