John Steinbeck's Through The Tunnel

“Through the Tunnel” is about a boy who is kind of lonely and tries to complete a task that is important to himself that starts out to just be to impress some other boys. This short-story has three main settings that have importance to what it is trying to convey. Each of these settings show a different emotion and feeling for the story and to the boy, Jerry. They give a purpose and visualization to the story along with Jerry’s representation. He is represented in different ways in the three settings: the safe beach, the wild bay and the tunnel. These are places where he will leave his childhood, conquer his fears, and feel accomplished with himself. The first main setting in the story takes place at the safe beach. Before this, it is shown that Jerry doesn’t really want to be with his mom all the time. He wants to be at the beach with friends having fun with them instead. Though, at the safe beach it is obvious this is where his childhood took place and where him and his mother feel safe together because they go there each morning together. Jerry soon sees the English boys after swimming in the water for a bit. He then asks his mother if he can go over by them. With a little hesitation and fear for her son, she lets him go. …show more content…
This is where all the older kids go to swim and mess around, according to him. Jerry meet the two English boys here and has to try to speak French to them. The boys begin diving into the tunnel one by one, coming up at the other end. Jerry tries to dive into the tunnel but can’t hold his breath for long and comes back up, unfortunately failing. He seems to lose some confidence in himself but sets a goal to complete swimming through the tunnel. Jerry then starts to train and practice so he can accomplish his goal. This bay is the beginning of Jerry’s future accomplishments and