These characters are searching for something that will help their own wellbeing. In the story, “Through the Tunnel,” an eleven-year-old boy, Jerry, decides to venture off from his mother at the beach. He finds a part of the beach that’s not very safe. This part of the beach has lots of rocks and looks more adventurous to Jerry. As he’s swimming, he finds some foreign boys diving off of a rock. The boys allow Jerry to go and dive with them: “They were big boys—men, to Jerry. He dived, and they watched him; and when he swam around to take his place, they made way for him. He felt he was accepted and he dived again, carefully, proud of himself” (301). Jerry thinks that these boys were so cool that he wanted to impress them. He sits on the rock as he watches the boys dive again, this time it taking much longer for the boys to come back up to the surface. He realizes that the boys must have found a hole in the rock to swim through. Jerry wants to show these boys that he was cool too so, he has the courage to also swim through the hole in the rock. The first time Jerry tries he gets stuck in the hole. He panics and backs out of the hole, but has the courage to keep trying. Jerry decides, “On the day before they left, he would do it. He would do it if it killed him, he said defiantly to himself” (304). In the end, Jerry isn’t trying to impress the boys anymore, but longs to …show more content…
In the story “A Worn Path,” Phoenix works extremely hard to reach her goal, getting medicine for her grandson. Phoenix runs into many obstacles on her quest to town. She runs into animals, nature, a barbed-wire fence, and many other obstacles. Nothing can stop her from getting to town, especially in regards to the swamp, “The track crossed a swampy part where the moss hung as white as lace from every limb” (227). Phoenix didn’t turn back after crossing a slippery swamp. She is old and fragile and could get seriously injured but she had the courage to continue and to get this medicine for her grandson. Also, many people try to knock her down and encourage her to turn back on her quest. A young white man finds her in a ditch, helps get her out, and states, “‘Now you go on home, Granny!’” But, she has the courage to keep going for her grandson: “‘I bound to go to town, mister,’ said Pheonix” (228). Nothing stops old Pheonix getting to town. She has the courage to get to town and accomplish her goal by getting the medicine for her son. However, in the story “Paul’s Case,” Paul does not show courage to work hard to accomplish his goals. In the story, Paul wants to live a rich life without working hard: “He had not a hundred dollars left; and he knew now, more than ever, that money was everything, the wall that stood between all he loathed and all he