"Through the Tunnel" was first published by the New Yorker magazine in 1955. Lessing had moved from British-controlled Rhodesia in South Africa in 1949. Six years later, little had changed. Apartheid, a legal system of racial segregation structured every aspect of life for both black and white people there, and racism exploded violently in the United States, Europe and many other parts of the globe. White tourists like those in the story were able to afford vacations, while the native black population of many countries, victims of racist economic exploitation, could generally never afford to take such vacations.

In the context of this racist structure, the interaction between Jerry and the "smooth dark brown"

boys takes on greater significance. Jerry is bested by "natives," an event that contradicts the entire structure of colonial racist supremacy. The British and French, among other nations, justified their colonization of Africa and...