The contrast between the beach and the bay is a perfect analogy to Jerry’s battle between safety and risk. While at the bay, Jerry stumbles across a group of native boys, and his desire “to be with them, of them, was a craving that filled his whole body” (Lessing 2). In the story, Lessing uses the native boys to symbolize the human desire to “fit in” and the idea of conformity. Another example of symbolism in the story is the goggles that Jerry demanded from his mother (Lessing 3). The goggles represent a newly gained perspective of life. In the text, Lessing uses the following quote to explain the goggles: “Now he could see. It was like he had eyes of a different kind – fish eyes that showed everything clear and delicate in the wavering white water” (3). On the other hand, Kathleen Wilson, editor of Short Stories for Students, says, “he risk his life, but does so while wearing swimming goggles, which are symbolic of both his inexperience and his need for protection” (246). Along with Wilson, Kate Holleran, an instructor at Robert Morris College and a writer on literary
The contrast between the beach and the bay is a perfect analogy to Jerry’s battle between safety and risk. While at the bay, Jerry stumbles across a group of native boys, and his desire “to be with them, of them, was a craving that filled his whole body” (Lessing 2). In the story, Lessing uses the native boys to symbolize the human desire to “fit in” and the idea of conformity. Another example of symbolism in the story is the goggles that Jerry demanded from his mother (Lessing 3). The goggles represent a newly gained perspective of life. In the text, Lessing uses the following quote to explain the goggles: “Now he could see. It was like he had eyes of a different kind – fish eyes that showed everything clear and delicate in the wavering white water” (3). On the other hand, Kathleen Wilson, editor of Short Stories for Students, says, “he risk his life, but does so while wearing swimming goggles, which are symbolic of both his inexperience and his need for protection” (246). Along with Wilson, Kate Holleran, an instructor at Robert Morris College and a writer on literary