The Delusion of Time
Within John Cheever’s short story, The Swimmer, fiction estranges the reader from the timeline of events because the information given by the protagonist, Neddy Merrill is unreliable. As the story progresses, the audience can observe how Neddy becomes aware of the changes in his surroundings, his physical transformation, as well as a shift in the way others interact with him. All of these developments deceive the rate at which time is passing throughout the story.
The reader can immediately identify that Neddy is misleading through the small clues concerning his environment, that he notices, but instantly dismisses. During Neddy’s journey, he sits in the Levy’s gazebo and waits out the storm when notices that, “The force of the wind had stripped a Maple of its red and yellow leaves” but concludes that “Since it was midsummer the tree must be blighted” (Cheever 176). The minute Neddy begins to sense that something is not quite right he neglects his suspicions and continues on his voyage. Even as he notices different constellations in the sky, he questions, “What had become of the constellations of midsummer?”(Cheever 180). Neddy is unable to comprehend the amount of time that had passed since he commenced his journey down the Lucinda River; therefore the reader is alienated from the
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At the beginning of the story, “he never used the ladder,” (Cheever 174) because he was youthful and physically fit. Neddy eventually grows so weak that he can’t even lift himself out of the pool anymore. When his pants are too loose, he wonders if, “During the space of an afternoon, he could have lost some weight” (Cheever 178). Even as his body ages and weakens Neddy cannot comprehend the amount of time that is passing, therefore, leaving the reader with confusion regarding the
The timeline carries on chronologically, the intense imagery exaggerated to allow the poem to mimic childlike mannerisms. This, subjectively, lets the reader experience the adventure through the young speaker’s eyes. The personification of “sunset”, (5) “shutters”, (8) “shadows”, (19) and “lamplights” (10) makes the world appear alive and allows nothing to be a passing detail, very akin to a child’s imagination. The sunset, alive as it may seem, ordinarily depicts a euphemism for death, similar to the image of the “shutters closing like the eyelids”
Throughout the story, John Cheever uses the the literary device of symbolism to illustrate the theme of a cyclic human experience that erodes away every day. Throughout the story "The Swimmer," Cheever uses this device to represent a plethora of symbols. For example, the main and initial symbol perceived in everyones minds are the aqua swimming pools. While wasting the day drinking at his neighbors house, he has an epiphany to swim through all the pools on the path back home. Before this however, the main character, Neddy, complains about the days where everyone just moans that they drank too much last night. The day is tedious, and nothing out of the ordinary occurs on the horizon. Neddy's trip turns out to be not much different. For that every pool the stereotypical suburban scrub swims through, he only just goes through a period of time and monotony. These pools are all the same, and when he comes out the other side of one, he isn't even aware of what has just passed. Analyzers of this poem have muttered, “He has been swimming in the Westerhazys' pool. And what does one swim in a pool but repetitious laps? Even the stroke he uses is repetitious” (Blythe & Sweet). This is backed up by Cheever's writing: "He swam a choppy crawl, breathing either with every stroke or every fourth stroke and counting somewhere in the back of his mind the one-two one-two of a flutter kick" (Cheever). Cheever’s intentions along with Blythe and Sweet in these quotes are that nothing is new, everything is the same. For that many can relate to this idea, and for that everyone is a swimmer in their own way. Swimming unvaried strokes in similar pools of lost time and repetition.
People often use the expressions “a New York minute”, “time flies” and “wasting time” to describe the passage of time; however, these idioms indicate time is something that can be controlled, altered, or differentiated. Jennifer Egan’s A Visit From the Goon Squad presents time exactly how it is: relative. Egan breaks away from the structurally conventional form of traditional novels and presents time as a “goon”, a foolish entity that controls every character in this story and hinders them from becoming successful individuals. This “goon” leaves no one unscathed; everyone faces the wrath of time and all that comes with it. Egan uses music, as well as the non-linear structure of the book,
Blythe, Hal, and Charlie Sweet. “Man-Made vs. Natural Cycles: What Really Happens in ‘The Swimmer..’” Studies in Short Fiction 27.3 (Summer 1990): 415-418. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Jelena O. Krstovic. Vol. 120. Detroit: Gale, 2009. Literature Resource Center. Web. 21 Jan. 2014.
Swimmer is a short story published in 1964 by American author John Cheever. Most stories can have emotional impacts on the readers but some take the readers in the edge of reality. John’s writing can be categorized as factually movement known as realism. The story is frequently reflected as a symbol about decline, the aging progression, mid-life crisis and the life cycle as a whole.
Bakhtin, M.M. "Forms of Time and of the Chronotope in the Novel: Notes toward a Historical Poetics." Michael Holquist, ed. The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays by M.M. Bakhtin. Trans. Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist. Austin: U of Texas P, 1981. 84-258.
Jennifer Egan’s novel A Visit from the Goon Squad is a series of many short stories revolving around several different characters who all interconnect in one way or another. One of Egan’s main themes seems to revolve around the concept of time, and how short life really is. A most pivotal passage from the novel on pages 123 through 132 surrounds around the character Stephanie, and her interactions with her brother Jules and a once renowned rock star trying to make his comeback named Bosco. Egan’s view on time and its relation to the human lifespan in this passage is dependent upon her use of the following literary tools: tone, figurative and symbolic language, and syntax.
Time’s passage, an unstoppable, eternal occurrence, manifests itself in our daily lives. Everybody has a different outlook on time: we either have plenty of it or are running out of it! Time, a construct developed by man, turns the tables and now controls the lives of its creator. We measure our own successes with how time affects us individually. Objects that are considered timeless are treasured whereas something worn down by time has lost most of its value. In As I Lay Dying, The Working Poor, The Great Gatsby, A Streetcar Named Desire, and The Scarlet Letter, William Faulkner, David K. Shipler, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tennessee Williams, and Nathaniel Hawthorne demonstrate the classes differing attitudes towards time. Though the social classes
foreswearing of getting more established and not having the capacity to face his issues. Generally speaking, Neddy utilizes the water as a physical and mental boundary in the middle of him and this present reality. His steady submersion in water demonstrates his obliviousness. He utilizes the water to separation himself from his companions and
In the short story “ The Swimmer,” John Cheever expresses the idea that Neddy Merrill can lose everything if he denies reality. Cheever achieves this by employing various symbols during Merrill's cross county journey. The main symbol is the climate. Cheever uses the changes in weather to distort the character’s sense of time and show the progression of Merrill’s life. In the beginning of the story the setting is described as a midsummer day and by the end of the story, Merrill is able to see the constellations of late autumn, meaning winter is near. The illusion of time allows the reader to understand the extent of Merrill’s state of denial, as his beliefs begin to contradict the reality around him. To emphasize Merrill’s state of denial, Cheever
I’ve no doubts about the value of Noah Buschel as a film director and a writer. Despite somewhat underrated, he gave us interesting movies such as the indie romantic drama “Sparrows Dance” and the crime thriller “Glass Chin”.
Cheever, John, ”The Swimmer”, Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 12th ed. San Francisco: Longman, 2013.250-257
We examine “William Wilson” in segmented intervals. The narrator begins his story by establishing a mood of suspense and confusion, as he is near
Sports psychology is the study of how psychology influences sports, athletic performance, exercise and physical activity. Some sports psychologists work with professional athletes and coaches to improve performance and increase motivation. Other professionals use exercise and sports to enhance people’s lives and well-being. While finding ways to help athletes is certainly an important part of sports psychology, the application of exercise and physical activity for improving the lives of non-athletes is also a major focus.
Written to follow the natural progression of the mind, the narrator moves from watching the frost form on his bedroom window to thinking about his childhood and how the frost was his only connection to the world outside his school walls. This thought leads him to ponder the great opportunity that his son will have to grow up in nature and, eventually, his mind returns to the frost, once again referring to its “secret ministry” (72). Through this, Coleridge depicts nature as a catalyst for the transcendence of time. The narrator describes the fire as making him a “toy of thought” (23) and allows the frost on the window to connect him to his past memories of “[gazing] upon the bars to watch that fluttering stranger” (25). The narrator, however, is also prompted by the frost to explore his imagination, as he pictures his son enjoying a much different childhood than he in a world where the “seasons shall be sweet to thee” (64). In each of these cases, nature was the cause of intellectual stimulation, and thus, the common link to the past, present and future. Through the continuous connections of the narrator’s thoughts, Coleridge also indicates ones ability to transcend time within the mind. While sitting beside his “cradled infant [slumbering] peacefully” (7), the narrator demonstrates his ability to remove himself from the present and insert himself into the past