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Jerry
Jerry’s mother is a widow on vacation with her son. She spends her vacation days sunbathing and relaxing at a crowded beach while Jerry goes off to explore the rocky bay. Midway through the story, Jerry’s mother buys him a pair of goggles, but otherwise doesn’t interact with her son again until the story’s end, when she remarks on various changes in his physical appearance—a gash on his head, his pale skin—as they eat lunch in their villa. She hesitantly allows her son a greater degree of independence than she has in the past, worried that perhaps she dotes on him too closely, and by the end of the story seems to understand that Jerry has established a healthy sense of independence from her.
Mother Quotes in Through the Tunnel
The Through the Tunnel quotes below are all either spoken by Mother or refer to Mother. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Through the Tunnel
Quotes
She was thinking, Of course he’s old enough to be safe without me. Have I been keeping him too close? He mustn’t feel he ought to be with me. I must be careful.
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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.
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Again his nose bled at night, and his mother insisted on his coming with her the next day. It was a torment to him to waste a day of his careful self-training, but he stayed with her on that other beach, which now seemed a place for small children, a place where his mother might lie safe in the sun. It was not his beach.
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Mother Quotes in Through the Tunnel
The Through the Tunnel quotes below are all either spoken by Mother or refer to Mother. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Through the Tunnel
Quotes
She was thinking, Of course he’s old enough to be safe without me. Have I been keeping him too close? He mustn’t feel he ought to be with me. I must be careful.
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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.
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Again his nose bled at night, and his mother insisted on his coming with her the next day. It was a torment to him to waste a day of his careful self-training, but he stayed with her on that other beach, which now seemed a place for small children, a place where his mother might lie safe in the sun. It was not his beach.
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