It takes time to learn how to swim, yet one must learn how to tread the waters first. In the short story ‘Through the Tunnel’ by Doris Lessing, Jerry and his mother go through significant changes throughout their vacation in France. Childhood is similar to a shore on a beach; the sand is comfortable and safe from the rough waves beyond the sand. Adulthood, on the other hand, is where one would be jostled constantly by the waves until they learn to stay afloat. Life, which from afar would look black and white, consists of shades of grey in between where a child could tread before moving forward. Adolescence is the bay. The transition from childhood to adolescence is difficult, yet so is letting go of a child and allowing them to stray away …show more content…
She asks him if he is ‘tired of the usual beach’ (Lessing 2) and despite denying his desire to wander off at first he soon tells her that he would like to go ‘have a look at those rocks down there’ (Lessing 2). It is important to notice that when Jerry’s mother asks him for her opinion, her arm is slightly reddened from the previous day, symbolizing the changes she has been through since the beginning of their vacation. She has loosened her grip on Jerry, becoming less protective while gaining more trust in him. At this point, Jerry has made his way to the water in the bay and is treading the water when he sees a group of French boys jumping off of a cliff. The most dominant feature of these boys is their skin; a ‘smooth dark brown’ (Lessing 2) from the sun. Their skin is a symbol of their experience as they have already made the transition from childhood to adolescence. The french boys soon spotted Jerry, and accepted him into their group as they knew he was a ‘foreigner’ (Lessing 2). He dived with them, feeling as though he had been accepted until one of the boys made their way through a tunnel under the water and Jerry began acting childish in an attempt for attention. He had lost the french boys attention all together, and they soon left
Adolescence is a monster that lurks in the dreams of parents. It’s a strange new world to children and they never see coming. It’s the time of life when a world that never changes is thrown upside down. Yet, it affects more than the adolescent. It can impact families as a whole, such as the owl family shown in Larry Shles’ book, Aliens in My Nest. Squib the little owl, comes home to find his loving brother Andrew gone. Instead, it appears he has changed into a strange new creature with bumps on his beak, and clumpy feathers. His temper is short and he doesn’t appear to love his parents or brother. In response, their parents are at the ends of their ropes, and they even take Andrew to be diagnosed with owlescence, a play on adolescence. The
The story describes the protagonist who is coming of age as torn between the two worlds which he loves equally, represented by his mother and his father. He is now mature and is reflecting on his life and the difficulty of his childhood as a fisherman. Despite becoming a university professor and achieving his father’s dream, he feels lonely and regretful since, “No one waits at the base of the stairs and no boat rides restlessly in the waters of the pier” (MacLeod 261). Like his father, the narrator thinks about what his life could have been like if he had chosen another path. Now, with the wisdom and experience that comes from aging and the passing of time, he is trying to make sense of his own life and accept that he could not please everyone. The turmoil in his mind makes the narrator say, “I wished that the two things I loved so dearly did not exclude each other in a manner that was so blunt and too clear” (MacLeod 273). Once a decision is made, it is sometimes better to leave the past and focus on the present and future. The memories of the narrator’s family, the boat and the rural community in which he spent the beginning of his life made the narrator the person who he is today, but it is just a part of him, and should not consume his present.
We all experience a rite of passage in our lives, whether it be the time we learned to swim or perhaps the day we received our driver’s license. A rite of passage marks an important stage in someone’s life, and one often times comes with a lesson learned. Three selections that provide fine examples of rites of passage that individuals confront include “The Bass, The River, and Sheila Mant” by W.D. Wetherell, “On Turning Ten” by Billy Collins” and “First Lesson” by Philip Booth.
...r the threshold from childhood into adulthood. Puberty is not only a time of physical metamorphosis, it is also a time where one sheds his or her childish inhibitions – the “death” of childhood.
The ocean is mysterious to mankind. The unfathomable vastness of the ocean intrigues humanity into exploring it. In life, the immense possibilities that lie in the future compel us to reach for the stars. In the poem “The Story” by Karen Connelly, an individual willingly swims into deep waters even though they are fearful of what may exist in the waters. The swimmer later finds out that their fears were foolish, which illustrates the human tendency to venture into the unknown. The theme conveyed in this poem is that life is like a rough, uncertain, uncontrollable ocean that we must find get through with experience.
In one of the many tall tales that lies within the movie Big Fish, a journey out of Edward Bloom’s hometown symbolises a journey from adolescence to adulthood. Through this symbol, it is suggested that the transition from adolescence to adulthood can be precarious. However, the more troublesome the road, the more rewarding it would
The smell of the restaurants faded and the new, refreshing aroma of the sea salt in the air took over. The sun’s warmth on my skin and the constant breeze was a familiar feeling that I loved every single time we came to the beach. I remember the first time we came to the beach. I was only nine years old. The white sand amazed me because it looked like a wavy blanket of snow, but was misleading because it was scorching hot. The water shone green like an emerald, it was content. By this I mean that the waves were weak enough to stand through as they rushed over me. There was no sense of fear of being drug out to sea like a shipwrecked sailor. Knowing all this now I knew exactly how to approach the beach. Wear my sandals as long as I could and lay spread out my towel without hesitation. Then I’d jump in the water to coat myself in a moist protective layer before returning to my now slightly less hot towel. In the water it was a completely different world. While trying to avoid the occasional passing jellyfish, it was an experience of
E.E Cummings once said, “ it takes courage to grow up and become who we really are.” Growing up can be scary and is a difficult transition. “Through the Tunnel” is a children's short story written by Doris Lessing. The short story is about a young boy who challenges himself to go through a tunnel at the beach on his own. In “Through the Tunnel” the author conveys the difficulties of adolescence through personification and symbolism.
In fact, the daily life of human beings is at the mercy of the uncontrollable waves of the sea; while, at the same time, the essential part of reality remains unknown to feeble, helpless humans. The human voyage into life is feeble, vulnerable, and uncontrollable. Since the crew on a dangerous sea without hope are depicted as "the babes of the sea", it can be inferred that we are likely to be ignorant strangers in the universe. In addition to the dangers we face, we also have to overcome the new challenges of the waves in the daily life. These waves are "most wrongfully and barbarously abrupt and tall", requiring "a new leap, and a leap."
“The Swimmer,” a short fiction by John Cheever, presents a theme to the reader about the unavoidable changes of life. The story focuses on the round character by the name of Neddy Merrill who is in extreme denial about the reality of his life. He has lost his youth, wealth, and family yet only at the end of the story does he develop the most by experiencing a glimpse of realization on all that he has indeed lost. In the short story “The Swimmer,” John Cheever uses point of view, setting and symbolism to show the value of true relationships and the moments of life that are taken for granted.
Adolescence refers to the transition period experienced by children that occur between childhood and adulthood (Shefer, 2011). Identity is first confronted in adolescence between the ages 12 – 19 years old, because of physical and hormonal changes in the body. It is also due to the introduction of formal operations in cognitive development and societal expectation that this contributes to an individual’s identity to be explored and established (McAdams, 2009). The forces within and outside (family, community) the individual that promote identity development usually create a sense of tension. The basic task is, in Erikson’s terms, “fidelity or truthfulness and consistency to one’s core self or faith in one’s ideology” (Fleming, 2004: 9), in a nutshell: "Who am I and where am I
Adolescence. The. The instinctive phenomenon that delivers many suspicions and guilty pleasures that haunt the young minds of adolescents until the coming of age. However, the absence of adolescence delivers the vacancy of knowledgeable wings that fly up to moral intelligence. It epitomizes the meager amount of light that provides sight to the step directly in front of one’s self, rather than light radiating upon the rest of the staircase; the unknown world of adulthood.
Throughout our life, it can be marked by developmental changes in every domain of life: our physical, cognitive, social, personalities, and morals. Due to some important researchers such as Erickson, Freud, Piaget we are able to understand the development of each of these domains. Each stage of it’s life has it’s own difficulties and events that can determine a person’s life (Mogler, 2008). During the stages of adolescence, they are very vulnerable to a lot going on in their life such as fitting in, peers, family, school, activities, and society, and not to forget the ups and downs of puberty. Adolescence can be viewed as a huge part of many children’s lives where in this part of their life they try to find teenagers experience physical, cognitive,
During this stage adolescents develop a better understanding of self and belonging or they face identity crisis and role confusion. During this stage in my life I felt that I was rebelling and doing things that were not age appropriate. I did not respect authority and thought it was ok to do what I wanted to do. Even though I was a young teenager I did not think of myself that way. I thought of myself more like an adult. Through my negative experiences in this stage I suffered identity crisis and role
A childhood is the delicate phase of every adolescent's life where they must mature into their own person, with their own responsibilities. Although every individual will eventually bloom with their own personality, morals, and perspectives, the education and values we learn and see along the way add to the fingers that mold. We begin when we are born, and are taken in by strangers. These priceless people show us love, and just how strong attachments can be. Family ties snare us in their loving webs and become the support network to catch us throughout our youthful falls. They are our first real pictures of people, and their actions and emotions immediately become examples.