"Going to the shore on the first morning of the vacation, the young English boy stopped at a turning of the path and looked down at a wild and rocky bay, and then over to the crowded beach he knew so well from other years."
These are the opening lines of "Through the Tunnel," and they help establish the English boy as the central character in the story. This opening also sets up the major theme of separation and turning away from the familiar comforts of childhood, as the boy recognizes his choice between the rocky beach and the populated one he usually frequents.
"When he was so far out that he could look back not only on the little bay but past the promontory that was between it and the big beach, he floated on the buoyant surface and looked for his mother. There she was, a speck of yellow under an umbrella that looked like a slice of orange peel. He swam back to shore, relieved at being sure she was there, but all at once very lonely."
When Jerry does separate from his mother, he still is not without longing for her familiarity. Indeed, he continues to search for her as a comforting presence even as he plays among the rocks. This quotation underscores Jerry's nascent independence at the same time it reinforces the importance of his mother's peripheral presence in his life.
"They were of that coast; all of them were burned smooth dark brown and speaking a language he did not understand. To be with them, of them, was a craving that filled his whole body."
This quotation describes the older boys that Jerry encounters when he explores the rocky beach. Here, the foreignness of the boys renders them all the more intriguing to Jerry, who recognizes their independence and maturity and aspires to be the same way.
"Again and again he rose, took a big chestful of air, and went down. Again and again he groped over the surface of the rock, feeling it, almost hugging it in the desperate need to find the entrance."
As Jerry searches for the same hole in the rock through which the older boys had swam, he continually encounters difficulty and defeat. It takes him multiple tries just to locate the hole, and even more before he successfully swim through it. This repetitive behavior underscores the labor and challenges associated with leaving one's childhood innocence for adulthood, which is fraught with new conflicts and worries.
"Probably now, if he tried, he could get through that long tunnel, but he was not going to try yet. A curious, most unchildlike persistence, a controlled impatience, made him wait."
This quotation describes Jerry's attitude as he prepares to swim through the tunnel. Here, the narrator suggests that Jerry has already started to transition from a state of childlike impulse to mature calculation and control.
"She was ready for a battle of wills, but he gave in at once. It was no longer of the least importance to go to the bay."
After Jerry swims through the tunnel and returns to the villa, his mother is concerned about his tired state and his injuries. She suggests that he stop swimming for the day, and Jerry immediately agrees. This moment is the conclusion of the story, in which Jerry's accomplishment in swimming through the tunnel has led him to a new state of mature self-satisfaction, where he no longer seeks to prove himself to others.
