The Painful Tunnel to Achieve Maturity.
Archetypal Criticism can be defined as a universal approach that highlights certain patterns within literature uninfluenced by situation, community or culture. In Through the Tunnel by Doris Lessing, the characters are categorized into typical roles based on their actions and roles in the story. This enhances the readers’ understanding of the characters’ goals and source of motivation. In addition, symbolic archetypes are attained through the symbols and imagery used within the story to help describe a deeper meaning. Many of the actions and events that occur in Through the Tunnel can be examined through the four plots; tragedy, romance, comedy and irony. Through an archetypal criticism, characters, …show more content…
In Through the Tunnel, Jerry, the main character, can be considered the initiate of the story as it focuses on him swimming through the tunnel to fit in with the older boys. An initiate has “to go through training before undertaking a quest” (class notes). After Jerry learns how long he would need to go through the tunnel, he spent the rest of his time teaching himself to hold his breath long enough in order to achieve his end goal. Jerry learned the time he needed to train himself to hold his breath for due to the older boys’ tutelage. Therefore, the older boys best represent the archetypal character of a mentor who is illustrated as the “older, wiser teacher to the initiates.” By going through the tunnel while Jerry was around them, the boys gave Jerry the time he needs to learn to hold his breath in order to go through the tunnel. To achieve his goal, Jerry had to train, however, his mother’s constant worrying made it more difficult for him to do this. Jerry’s mother can be seen as a threshold guardian which is the character that “tests the hero’s courage and worthiness to begin the journey” (class notes). Though his mother did not want to be possessive over Jerry, she sees Jerry as a child which he constantly tries to escape. Her efforts to influence his decisions by telling him she worries and to take things easy, he begins to doubt his abilities to go through the
Archetypal Criticism can be defined as a universal approach that highlights certain patterns within literature uninfluenced by situation, community or culture. In Through the Tunnel by Doris Lessing, the characters are categorized into typical roles based on their actions and roles in the story. This enhances the readers’ understanding of the characters’ goals and source of motivation. In addition, symbolic archetypes are attained through the symbols and imagery used within the story to help describe a deeper meaning. Many of the actions and events that occur in Through the Tunnel can be examined through the four plots; tragedy, romance, comedy and irony. Through an archetypal criticism, characters, …show more content…
In Through the Tunnel, Jerry, the main character, can be considered the initiate of the story as it focuses on him swimming through the tunnel to fit in with the older boys. An initiate has “to go through training before undertaking a quest” (class notes). After Jerry learns how long he would need to go through the tunnel, he spent the rest of his time teaching himself to hold his breath long enough in order to achieve his end goal. Jerry learned the time he needed to train himself to hold his breath for due to the older boys’ tutelage. Therefore, the older boys best represent the archetypal character of a mentor who is illustrated as the “older, wiser teacher to the initiates.” By going through the tunnel while Jerry was around them, the boys gave Jerry the time he needs to learn to hold his breath in order to go through the tunnel. To achieve his goal, Jerry had to train, however, his mother’s constant worrying made it more difficult for him to do this. Jerry’s mother can be seen as a threshold guardian which is the character that “tests the hero’s courage and worthiness to begin the journey” (class notes). Though his mother did not want to be possessive over Jerry, she sees Jerry as a child which he constantly tries to escape. Her efforts to influence his decisions by telling him she worries and to take things easy, he begins to doubt his abilities to go through the