Thomas Bloomberg
5/1/08 Block 4
Shaw


A Test Within a Cave

Imagine yourself descending downwards towards a colossal rock, with a gaping hole in its menacing hull. Try to bear the fear that will inevitably consume you when you are within the black abyss of that gaping hole. When inside, what emotions will take control of your slowly dying body? Doris Lessing’s Through the Tunnel can be seen as a story about a boy and his struggle between familiarity and safety, to danger and adventure.
In the story an English boy, named Jerry watches older foreign boys swim with ease through a towering rock. After watching them do this Jerry wishes to do the same feat. After seeing the tunnel, however Jerry begins to have second thoughts. In time, the cave becomes a symbol of manhood, though Jerry may not realize that it is. By passing through the tunnel Jerry’s life will be complete. He can return home knowing that all of his hard work and physical endurance have been victorious in his internal battle of will.
This story has the classic Good vs. Evil style of writing implied within it, with Jerry’s mother seen as good and the cave seen as the evil. Such references within the story, like Jerry seeing his mother with her bright yellow umbrella, and the black hole leading into the cave exceptionally contrast the light and dark symbols which are directly related to the good and evil symbols within the story. A fine example of the two symbols playing off of each other is when Jerry is atop the rock with the cave running through it and he sees the small speck of his mother on the nice beach. Whereas this may not seem to have importance, but it does give thorough proof of the two opposing sides in Jerry’s internal conflict.
When Jerry is

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The definition of what art is has gone to the heavens. No one knows of its true origin or purpose, but still we pursue it and still do we instill it within ourselves.