In "Through the Tunnel" Jerry starts out with the desire to feel included. He usually hangs out with his mom, where he is safe. When he sees a group of boys having fun, he decides to join them. They all swim into a tunnel shortly after. When he isn't able to swim through the tunnel, he is ridiculed. He continues to practice by himself on the days where the older boys aren't there, and once he gets badly hurt. Still, he goes and tries again. The main conflict in the story is that Jerry wants to be independent. He wants to prove to himself that he can get through the tunnel. Once he manages to do so, he spends time with his mom again or by himself. It is no longer about impressing the older boys, for he feels independent and doesn't need to do so. The moral of the story is that Jerry gets out of his comfort zone, and he is rewarded by accomplishing his goal as well as earning a sense of independence, something many adolescents struggle with. Therefore, the sentence that best summarizes the story is this: In "Through the Tunnel" Jerry challenges himself for more.
In "A Defence of Poetry," Shelley suggests that emotions experienced in life are constantly changing. The enthusiasm of virtue, love, patriotism, and friendship, is essentially linked with such emotions; and whilst they last, self appears as what it is, an atom to a universe.
