In Lessing's story, the eleven year-old Jerry braves an underwater tunnel while he and his mother are on vacation. The tunnel evolves into an enormous challenge for Jerry, as he deals with his loneliness and his attempts at separating from his mother.
Jerry's beach vacation becomes the site of an intense personal challenge. Jerry must leave his mother at the shore, the shore Jerry sees as "a place for small children, a place where his mother might lie safe in the sun." He leaves the safety of this nursery-like beach and journeys to the treacherous "wild and rocky" bay and the underwater tunnel. An eleven year-old nearing puberty, Jerry is fatherless and approaching adulthood as the sole male of the family. Throughout the story, the interchanges between him and his mother heighten.....
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