Doris Lessing uses the protagonist, Jerry, to convey the importance of maturity in today’s self-reliant world in which each individual controls whether they perform well. In the short story, “Through the Tunnel,” Jerry, a slowly-maturing eleven year-old boy who was very dependent on his widow mother, embarks on a journey to find his way through an underwater tunnel near the shore. He perseveres his entire vacation, attempting to eventually reach the other side of the tunnel. During this time, Jerry also becomes much more independent, and prefers to do whatever he wants without having to accompany his mother. These valuable self-reliance skills shaped him to able to adapt in today’s modern society. To begin, one valuable skill pertaining to the broad scope of maturity that Jerry acquired during his …show more content…
Previous to his visit at the beach, Jerry was very reliant on his mother, meaning that he never really had to work very hard to do something on his own. He was always accompanied by his mother. While at the the beach, however, he chose to set his own goal for only him to accomplish without the help of others. He chooses to put in a substantial amount of effort in hope of achieving his goal. Lessing states in the story, “Again and again he rose, took a big chestful of air, and went down. Again and again he groped over the surface of the rock, feeling it, almost hugging it in the desperate need to find the entrance. And then, once, while he was clinging to the black wall, his knees came up and shot his feet out forward and they met no obstacle. He had found the hole,” (3). In this excerpt,