Through The Tunnel
SHAVING THROUGH TUNNEL ESSAY
When I can look life in the eyes, grown calm and very coldly wise, life will have given me the truth, and in exchange-taken my youth. In this quote Sara Teas suggest that when child-like excitement goes away, your intellectual capacity has grown, and you see things more realistically, that’s when you have matured. In the stories Through the Tunnel by Doris Lessing and Shaving by Leslie Norris the authors suggest that growing in age had=s nothing to do with maturing. They show that maturing comes by developing certain qualities or going through certain experiences.
“In order to mature you must realize that you are the one that has to make things happen for you, it must be a battle within yourself”, Lois Martin …show more content…
parent of two tells me. “I noticed that my oldest son Ken was maturing when he saw a group of boys dunking basketballs at a park. He practiced for hours a day trying to dunk like those boys, I know it sounds crazy but I knew then that he was well on his way to becoming mature.” Lois’s example of her son shows much relation to Jerry from the story Through the Tunnel. Jerry had seen a group of older boys going through an underwater tunnel. Jerry practiced his breathing everyday in order to be ready for the tunnel. Lois’s son did the same instead in his case he shot baskets. Both Doris Lessing and Lois Martin both showed that becoming mature has to do with how much determination and patience you are willing to put into something in order to succeed. As a child you are so set on wanting to do something right then and there, and if you can’t tantrums are thrown and attitudes are giving. Jerry and Ken both show patience and this patience showed maturity.
My mother always told me with maturity came responsibility and that doesn’t mean I tell you to do it and you do it.
It means that you will do because you realize that it needs to be done and it’s the right thing to do. Berry showed this kind of responsibility in Shaving. Berry turned down an invite to have a victory coffee with his friends in order to go help his desperately ill father. That shows that berry was growing mature enough to put others before his self. Berry also decided to shave his father even though he was not asked. He could’ve waited for someone to come but he knew his father was feeling uncomfortable with his growing beard. “You could’ve used your electric razor”. Berry’s dad expected him to do what was easier and convenient because that’s what immature Berry would do. But Berry was getting mature enough to realize that his dad would’ve perfered the razor. The conversation between Berry and his father while berry was shaving his father’s neck was the passing of the torch of being the man of the house. The father tells Berry that he is too young for “this” to happen. I feel that “this” is the moment where Berry is officially a man. The story says that the father had let go of his authority and handed it over. Berry is now a
man.
In Through the Tunnel the opening paragraph gives us descriptions of the beach and the bay that not only show us Berry’s thirst for adventure, but also a metaphor for how he matured. The safe, crowded, familiar beach symbolized youthfulness and immaturity, the bay being wild and rocky showed danger, immaturity, and independence. He was a total contrast of the boys he wanted so desperately to be like. They had dark skin, brown eyes, and were naked; they were men to Jerry. They had symbolized everything that he had wanted to become; older, independent, and adventurous. The tunnel that Berry had wanted to go through so bad was painful, sometimes scary, narrow and long; it’s a metaphor for his journey through childhood. This is now ending, as he is becoming mature.
Both Through the Tunnel and Shaving show that maturity has nothing to do with age. Obviously in the two stories the ages of the main characters had a big gap, Jerry being 11, and Berry being 17. You must face obstacles and challenges and the way you handle or react to them is what truly makes you mature.
When I can look life in the eyes, grown calm and very coldly wise, life will have given me the truth, and in exchange-taken my youth. In this quote Sara Teas suggest that when child-like excitement goes away, your intellectual capacity has grown, and you see things more realistically, that’s when you have matured. In the stories Through the Tunnel by Doris Lessing and Shaving by Leslie Norris the authors suggest that growing in age had=s nothing to do with maturing. They show that maturing comes by developing certain qualities or going through certain experiences.
“In order to mature you must realize that you are the one that has to make things happen for you, it must be a battle within yourself”, Lois Martin …show more content…
parent of two tells me. “I noticed that my oldest son Ken was maturing when he saw a group of boys dunking basketballs at a park. He practiced for hours a day trying to dunk like those boys, I know it sounds crazy but I knew then that he was well on his way to becoming mature.” Lois’s example of her son shows much relation to Jerry from the story Through the Tunnel. Jerry had seen a group of older boys going through an underwater tunnel. Jerry practiced his breathing everyday in order to be ready for the tunnel. Lois’s son did the same instead in his case he shot baskets. Both Doris Lessing and Lois Martin both showed that becoming mature has to do with how much determination and patience you are willing to put into something in order to succeed. As a child you are so set on wanting to do something right then and there, and if you can’t tantrums are thrown and attitudes are giving. Jerry and Ken both show patience and this patience showed maturity.
My mother always told me with maturity came responsibility and that doesn’t mean I tell you to do it and you do it.
It means that you will do because you realize that it needs to be done and it’s the right thing to do. Berry showed this kind of responsibility in Shaving. Berry turned down an invite to have a victory coffee with his friends in order to go help his desperately ill father. That shows that berry was growing mature enough to put others before his self. Berry also decided to shave his father even though he was not asked. He could’ve waited for someone to come but he knew his father was feeling uncomfortable with his growing beard. “You could’ve used your electric razor”. Berry’s dad expected him to do what was easier and convenient because that’s what immature Berry would do. But Berry was getting mature enough to realize that his dad would’ve perfered the razor. The conversation between Berry and his father while berry was shaving his father’s neck was the passing of the torch of being the man of the house. The father tells Berry that he is too young for “this” to happen. I feel that “this” is the moment where Berry is officially a man. The story says that the father had let go of his authority and handed it over. Berry is now a
man.
In Through the Tunnel the opening paragraph gives us descriptions of the beach and the bay that not only show us Berry’s thirst for adventure, but also a metaphor for how he matured. The safe, crowded, familiar beach symbolized youthfulness and immaturity, the bay being wild and rocky showed danger, immaturity, and independence. He was a total contrast of the boys he wanted so desperately to be like. They had dark skin, brown eyes, and were naked; they were men to Jerry. They had symbolized everything that he had wanted to become; older, independent, and adventurous. The tunnel that Berry had wanted to go through so bad was painful, sometimes scary, narrow and long; it’s a metaphor for his journey through childhood. This is now ending, as he is becoming mature.
Both Through the Tunnel and Shaving show that maturity has nothing to do with age. Obviously in the two stories the ages of the main characters had a big gap, Jerry being 11, and Berry being 17. You must face obstacles and challenges and the way you handle or react to them is what truly makes you mature.