“Through the Tunnel” is a coming-of-age story that follows the 11-year-old Jerry and his mother as they vacation on a beach in an unspecified foreign country. While it could be interpreted as a man-versus-nature story (Jerry struggles against the natural world), the real heart of the plot is Jerry’s struggle with both his childlike impulses and his desires to become a man. A man-versus-self lens is therefore more apt. The story’s themes of growing up and gaining independence can be seen through at least three critical aspects of the text: the inner thoughts of Jerry and his mother, the contrast between the two beaches, and the mother’s changing arm.

The narrative point of view shows readers the inner thoughts of both Jerry and his mother, revealing one of the story’s key tensions. Early in the narrative, Jerry’s mother senses that he longs for adventure away from her: “She frowned, conscientiously worrying over what amusements he might secretly be longing for, which she had been too busy or too careless to imagine” (Paragraph 1). Sure enough, while Jerry does not stray from his mother on the first day, he longs to visit the rocky bay: “And yet, as he ran, he looked over his shoulder at the wild bay; and all morning, as he played on the safe beach, he was thinking of it” (Paragraph 1).