1. Through the Tunnel
by Doris Lessing

2. THEME: The main idea in a work; the writer’s 2
Literary Terms:
THEME: The main idea in a work; the writer’s
perception about life shared with
the reader. Theme is rarely directly
stated.
SYMBOL: A person, place, or object that
stands for something beyond
itself.

3. RITE OF PASSAGE: A story that depicts a life-changing realization. 3
Literary Terms:
RITE OF PASSAGE: A story that depicts a
life-changing realization.
MOMENT OF INSIGHT: When the “light bulb comes on.”
TRIGGER: The event that brings to pass the
Moment of Insight.

4. Literally: swimming through the tunnel 5
Theme: Rite of Passage
Literally: swimming through the tunnel
Figuratively/Symbolically: growing from a child to an adolescent.

5. 4
“…at the wild bay; and all morning, as he played on the safe beach, he was thinking of it” (Lessing 78).
“…over a middle region where rocks lay like discolored monsters under the surface, and then he was in the real sea—a warm sea where irregular cold currents from the deep water shocked his limbs” (Lessing 78).

6. Symbols Mother’s beach—safe, no rocks, sandy (childhood years)5
Symbols
Mother’s beach—safe, no rocks, sandy
(childhood years)
Boy’s beach—rocky,
(adolescent/adult world where one can get hurt)
Mother’s path—easy to walk on
Boy’s path—rocky, hard to walk on
(adolescent/adult world where one can get hurt; stepping out into the world)

7. They were big boys—men, to Jerry. (Pg.79) 6
The boys on the rocks
They were big boys—men, to Jerry. (Pg.79)
(adults doing something that the boy can’t)
Mother
(any nurturing adult who looks after kids)
The Tunnel
dark, rocks all over—nose was bleeding
(choices made moving through the rite of passage; journey toward manhood)

8. 7
TRIGGER:
“To be with them, of them, was a craving that filled his whole body” (Lessing 79).
“Look at me! Look! And he began splashing and kicking in the water like a foolish dog” (Lessing 79).

9. 8
MOMENT OF INSIGHT
“It was no longer of the least importance to go to the bay” (Lessing 84).

10. DISCUSSION: MAKING INFERENCES 8
DISCUSSION: MAKING INFERENCES
Do you think that Jerry's determination in achieving his goal is healthy? Why or why not?
By the end of the story, how has Jerry changed? How does Lessing describe the boy's behavior in the beginning of the story in comparison to his behavior at the end?

11. 9
Series
The author presents three symbols representing Jerry’s transition to maturity: the safe beach (his childhood), the wild, rocky beach (stepping out into the world), and the tunnel (his journey toward manhood).
THROUGH THE TUNNEL
Participles
Suffering through bloody noses and breathing drills, Jerry prepares himself to swim through the mysterious tunnel.
As Jerry plays by himself, swimming and diving in the wild rocky bay, he spies a group of older boys on the cliff above him.

12. 10
Appositives
Jerry, normally a calm and collected boy, decides he needs to impress the older boys by jumping off the cliff.
The tunnel, a symbol of Jerry’s journey toward maturity, is filled with mystery and unknown dangers.
Set-offs
A group of older boys—men to Jerry—that speak a foreign language come to the beach to hang out and have fun.
Jerry’s decision to traverse the underwater tunnel is a courageous (if dangerous) idea.