Through the tunnel summary
Answers
Explanation:
Doris Lessing's Through the Tunnel: Summary. The story, Through the tunnel, is about a boy named Jerry and is 11 years old. In this story a Jerry goes to the beach with his mother on vacation. In this story Jerry tries to impress several foreign boys by attempting to swim through a tunnel.
Answer:
The story begins with Jerry and his widowed mother on vacation from their native England to a coastal town in an unnamed foreign country. They seem to have visited the area many times before, as they already have a routine in place of visiting a certain popular beach. On the stroll down to this beach, Jerry notices the “wild and rocky bay,” set apart from their usual area and down a separate fork in the path. Partly out of a sense of adventurous curiosity and partly out of a desire to spend time away from his doting mother, Jerry sets off on his own to explore the rocky bay.
Already a strong swimmer, Jerry goes into the water and drifts far enough out that he can see his mother in the distance, just a small dot on the crowded beach. On his way back to the rocks, Jerry sees a group of local older boys who are diving and playing in the water. They motion for him to join them, so he does. Once the boys realize that he can’t speak or understand their native language, though, they ignore him. The biggest boy dives into the water and doesn’t come up for several moments. Jerry is surprised and yells out to the others, but they don’t seem concerned about the other boy’s disappearance. When the boy eventually surfaces in the water on the other side of a large rock, the rest of them follow suit and dive off the rock. Jerry goes in after them but can only see the surface of the rock. When they, too, suddenly reappear on the other side of the rock, Jerry realizes that they must have passed through an underwater tunnel.