Through The Tunnel Theme

According to an article by the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP), “between 20% and 30% of adolescents have one major depressive episode before they reach adulthood”. Adolescence can be a very difficult, and sometimes dangerous, time. In the short story, “Through the Tunnel”, by Doris Lessing, the stages and hardships of adolescence are shown through the mind of an eleven-year-old boy. The author uses symbolism and imagery to portray the theme that transferring into adulthood is a difficult stage.
The author uses the calm beach and the rough bay for symbols of different stages of life. In the exposition of the story, Jerry “stopped at a turning of the path and looked down at a wild and rocky bay, and then over to the crowded beach he knew so well from other years” (Lessing 1). The beach represents the boy’s childhood, a haven before the storm, which he had known for years. Afterward, “he went out fast over the gleaming sand, over a middle region where rocks lay like discolored monsters under the surface… then he was in the real sea- a warm sea where irregular cold currents from the deep water shocked his limbs” (Lessing 3). The irregular currents show changing times, and the rocks (“discolored
Jerry sees that “it spread among small promontories and inlets of rough, sharp rock, and the crisping, lapping surface showed stains of purple and darker blue” (Lessing 3). The description of the rocks create an image of the dangers that adults face, and the stains create pictures of “bruises” that resulted from those hardships. As he ran “down the last few yards, he saw an edge of white surf and the shallow, luminous movement of water over white sand, and, beyond that, a solid, heavy, blue” (Lessing 3). Beyond the light-hearted joys of childhood, lies a harsh adulthood. Obviously, Lessing uses tactile and visual imagery to show the dangers of becoming an