The Importance Of Maturity In Through The Tunnel, By Doris Lessing

Maturity is something that does not have one specific shape or size. It is something that everyone reaches at a different time in their life, or maybe not even at all. People must go through life to push them towards the direction of maturity. This may be early in life, or much later on. One is truly mature based on character traits, their ability to form independent ideas, and how he or she copes with the hypocrisy and pressure of society. Maturity can be seen through one’s personality traits. This is contrary to the belief that maturity comes with age. Experiences throughout life teach new attributes that one needs to be successfully mature. In Through the Tunnel, by Doris Lessing, Jerry has his life experience as he makes it through the

One can feel secure enough to go against the views of society if it is what they genuinely believe to be right. In “The Sociology of Leopard Man,” Tom Leppard chose to stick out colorfully from the grey mass that is society. He has learned to displace the opinions of others as “[they] especially fears loners, those mysterious creatures who pursue their own values without seeking others’ permission…” (Feys 1). This presses the idea that immature people may be too concerned with the judgement from society to follow their own notions. They base their decisions off of what other people think, even if it is not what they would choose for themselves. This is supported in “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson. In this short story, Tessie can be seen as immature because she is blind to the overwhelmingly corrupt tradition of her town until it is affecting her directly. It was convenient for her agree with an idea that she does not have to form herself. She only begins to see the horror that is taking place when she gets picked and argues that “it [isn’t] fair. You didn’t give him enough time to choose” (Jackson 6). Tessie suddenly begins to care and when she does say something, she acts selfishly. This illustrates how most people only choose to care and start acting “maturely” once they, personally, are affected by a situation. They follow the mass of the crowd blindly and without thought, until there is something personal at stake. The attitude of “Leopard Man” is paralleled by the character Antigone throughout the play Antigone, by Sophocles. Antigone chooses to speak her mind about what she believes to be just, the burying of her brother, after this is forbidden by King Creon. She is the opposite of Tessie in that she is willing to die for her belief, not voice her belief because she was going to die. Antigone does not change even when Creon threatens her to “[pass] then to the