Through the tunnel by Dorris Lessing

Settings
 It was set in the snow seasons of England.It was during cold times.



Main character

Jerry is an eleven-year old English boy on vacation with his mother on a beach they have frequented in the past. Jerry's mother is a widow and is sometimes overprotective, sometimes not protective enough, of her son. Jerry attempts to make friends with some older boys on the beach, but they ignore him after discovering he is childish. Jerry is jealous of the older boys-he watches them as they swim through a rock in which there is a narrow underwater gap. In an attempt to become equal to them, he begins to persistently practice holding his breath so that he too may swim through the rock. He is determined to be able to hold his breath for a sufficient time so he can accomplish this feat.




Plot story(summary)

This story is about Jerry, an eleven-year-old English boy on the verge of manhood, and his widowed mother. They are on holiday in another country, probably someplace in Africa.In Lessing's "Through the Tunnel," Jerry, a young English boy, and his mother are vacationing at a beach they have come to many times in years past. Though the beach's location is not given, it is implied to be in a country that is foreign to them both. Each tries to please the other and not to impose too many demands. The mother, who is a widow, is "determined to be neither possessive nor lacking in devotion," and Jerry, in turn, acts from an "unfailing impulse of contrition-a sort of chivalry."But there is one things is Jerry don't give up and try and try and try to time how many seconds he can hold under the sea, because he wants to see what's teh underground's tunnel looks like. At last, he can hold 150 seconds under the sea, it was incredicble, but he went to the wrong tunnel.
On the second morning, however, Jerry lets it slip that he would like to explore a "wild and rocky bay" he has glimpsed from the path. His conscientious mother sends him on his way with what she hopes is a casual air, and Jerry leaves behind the crowded "safe beach" where he has always played.Jerry didnt enjoy this and wanted to go back home quickly.