Sixteen By Maureen Daly: Character Analysis

In every story, characters play an imperative role, so much so that a story can not exist without them. A story is often largely directed by its characters, so it is no surprise that the characterization of the actors on the stage of a story differs widely. In the story “Sixteen,” by Maureen Daly, the main character is the narrator, a sixteen year old, unnamed girl, and the story consists of her experience skating with a boy one night, her anticipation of his call, and her realization of and disappointment in the fact that he is not actually going to contact her again. In “Through the Tunnel” by Doris Lessing, the main character is eleven-year-old English boy Jerry, and the story consists of his mental and metaphorical transition from boyhood

However, that does not mean that the narrator of “Sixteen” and Jerry from “Through the Tunnel” do not have their similarities. For one, they are both young -- the narrator of “Sixteen” obviously being sixteen, and Jerry being four years her younger. Both children are inexperienced and going through the painful process of growing up and learning the hard and sometimes painful lessons that lead to adulthood -- by the end of their trials, both children have been brought to tears. The narrator of “Sixteen” says, “I can sit here now forever and laugh and laugh while tears run salty in the corners of my mouth” (Daly 3). As Jerry comes home just after passing through his tunnel, he thinks his mother “must not see his face with bloodstains, or tearstains, on it” (Lessing 7). Both characters, also, obsess over their trials. “I can’t think of anything, anything but snowflakes and ice skates and a yellow moon and Thursday night,” says the narrator of “Sixteen” (Daly 3). When Jerry has made up his mind to train himself to get through the tunnel, “all night, the boy dream[s] of the water-filled cave in the rock...Jerry exercise[s] his lungs as if everything, the whole of his life, all that he would become, depend[s] on it” (Lessing 5). Nonetheless, the characters are extremely different from each other as well. “Sixteen”’s narrator displays naivety and lack of thought, while Jerry portrays innocence and pensiveness. “Sixteen”’s narrator learns a lesson, while Jerry teaches himself a lesson. The former is assumptive and reads into things: “Then he sat up straight and said, ‘We’d better start home.’ Not ‘Shall I take you home?’ or ‘Do you live far?’ but ‘We’d better start home.’ See, that’s how I knew he wanted to take me home. Not because he had to but because he wanted to” (Daly 2). The other believes in himself with a slow, patient caution. “He sat by the clock in the villa and checked his