Through The Tunnel Analysis

At a young age, life can feel like a jigsaw puzzle. When taking a look at the pieces, a person may not know where to start. All he/she can see is the different colors, shapes, and the amount of detail on each one. As pieces can be difficult to put together obstacles in life can be challenging to overcome. The longer someone takes to understand why the pieces can’t fit, the longer it takes to reach the end goal. For an individual to move beyond adolescence, he/she must learn from obstacles to ultimately reach adulthood. In the short story, “Through the Tunnel” by Doris Lessing, Jerry is confronted by challenge of choosing to swim underwater to impress a group of boys at the beach. In the video The Wonder Years, the main character Kevin Arnold faces a problem of getting
As each character takes steps towards their goal, changes will start to appear, setting a clear path in the right direction.
Before people can grow, they must face a major obstacle during their childhood. Without this progression, adulthood could never be achieved or developed in life. In “Through the Tunnel” it states, “He could see the hole. It was an irregular, dark gap; but he could not see deep into it” (Lessing 4). At this part, Jerry sees the boys swimming through a long dark tunnel at wild beach. Although he is at the beach it is clear that if he can’t make it through the tunnel, than he can’t be apart of their group. This hurdle becomes symbolic transition from a child to a man. The dark underwater hole in the rock represents the passage into adulthood. As Jerry is facing a difficult problem in his life, so are Kevin and Helen. In the clip of The Wonder Years, Kevin describes how he feels about the breakup with Winnie Cooper. “Believe me nothings happened’ (Kevin), ‘Yes it has (Winnie)” (The Wonder Years). While Winnie has accepted this fact already, their relationship is deeply influenced by