“I just wish I could go back in time”. This phrase tends to be fairly common among almost any person at some point in their life. Rather it be to just relive a great moment in your life, or to go back in time to change or fix something that was regrettable in your life. This idea of living the past crosses everyone’s mind at some point in their life. This includes some of the main characters from some of the stories that are form the first unit of this class. One overarching theme that can be seen in both John Cheever’s, The Swimmer, and Michael Chabon’s, The Lost World, is the idea of wanting to go and relive the past due to regret of not doing things differently. Similarities of wanting to live in the past can be seen in both Chabon’s and …show more content…
In The Swimmer, Ned swims in different pools to go to a different point in his life, but thinks it is all reality when his reality is actually much worse. Also, as Ned keeps on swimming to different people’s pools, his life keeps on gradually getting worse. Cheever shows how Ned is feeling by saying that, “It was probably the first time in his adult life that he had ever cried, certainly the first time in his life that he had ever felt so miserable, cold, tired, and bewildered” (2050). His friends and family all seem to either disappear or despise him as he swims and his condition gets worse as he begins to get weak physically and mentally. But in The Lost World, Nathan knows what his reality truly is unlike Ned, and he regrets not doing things differently in the past and wishes he could be closer with Chaya. Nathan only reflects on only one past moment of his rather than multiple instances like Ned. When describing a day Nathan spent with Chaya when he was six, Chabon states, “from time to time Nathan still thought about one distant afternoon when he and Chaya had somehow ended up playing together, in the fields behind the Huxley Interfaith Plexus” (189). This one memory that Nathan has is one of his best childhood memories and tends to think about it from time to time as he grew up. Also, Nathan reflects on only one past relationship of his rather Ned, who goes and visits multiple friends from the past. The unique differences these two stories have about living a moment in the past make both stories interesting and enjoyable to
John Cheever uniquely crafted the story “The Swimmer” by using a mix of surrealism and realism throughout the story. Most people when they read “The Swimmer” they have to reevaluate it to comprehend what is happening. The reason for that is because Cheever shifts between surrealism and realism so much that the reader does not even notice. The story starts out with Neddy being so strong and youthful, but as the story goes on he weakens and ages. When he was youthful Neddy decided to swim every pool in his neighborhood. As he ages and weakens, the pools get harder to swim and the seasons pass without him even noticing.
Dwelling on the past will make the future fall short. When longing for the past one often fails to realize that what one remembers is not in actuality how it happened. These flashbulb memories create a seemingly perfect point in time. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s modernist novel the Great Gatsby, the ill-fated Jay Gatsby wastes the present attempting to return back to that “perfect” time in past. Acknowledging the power of the imagination, Nick states that, “No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart” (Fitzgerald 101). Nick realizes that because the past is irretrievable, Gatsby’s struggle, though heroic, is foolish. Gatsby’s great expectations of Daisy leads to great disappointments. Through Gatsby, Fitzgerald tries to instill his
In today’s society compared to The Great Gatsby, there’s a lot of people that are very much so like Jay Gatsby. They tend to relive their past thinking that one day they’d do something from their past over again. For example, Gatsby told Nick in chapter six, “Can’t repeat the past?” he cried incredulously. “Why of course you can!” He believed that his past was supposed to be repeated like five years ago just with money this time around. Today people in society think living in their past would make them feel good again but it actually
Foremost, both stories are about men who once were very prosperous, but created their own demise. In “The Swimmer”, Neddy, the main character, initially seems to have a perfect life. “His life was not confining and the delight he took in this observation could not be explained...” (Cheever 216) He had a perfect family, high social status and very few problems in his life, or so he thought. His life is so wonderful that anything objectionable is repressed. Not until he takes the “journey” into realization, where he learns through others that his life has fallen apart. Neddy’s character is very similar to Charlie from “Babylon Revisited”. Charlie was very splendid in fortune until, he lost both his wife and his daughter due to his uncontrollable alcoholism. However, after “controlling” his drinking problem, he decides that he wants nothing to d...
The protagonists, Holden Caulfield and Neddy Merrill struggle with the conflict of society’s norms which expects one to grow up and follow the social class structure as well as the association with wealth and money. Their struggle with such norms produced negative results even though they change and realize their mistakes. However, it is too late for Neddy.
Through symbolism the author shows us how Neddy goes from social drinking to destitution. Each stop at a neighbor’s pool gets progressively harder, but he keeps on. Neddy ignores these signs and becomes beaten and finally alone. This truly is a sad journey of a man who destroys himself through alcohol. As the story ends, Neddy realizes that he is alone. Will he change? Get help for his alcoholism? The author leaves us hanging, but at this point we know he is alone, everyone has abandoned him. Neddy has followed the stereotypical footsteps of an alcoholic.
Whether it is miniscule things like Tom’s character and Daisy’s sobriety or larger scale things like buying a house or throwing extravagant parties, the past and the experiences it holds are a major component in people’s present and future lives. Considering all this, I think it’s appropriate to consider what this realization can mean and how one can use it for the better. If it’s so evident that the past affects one future, there must be ways to use this positively and take advantage of the phenomenon. In The Great Gatsby, after all drama had been completed, Nick Carraway ends his narration by deciding to take what has happened and try to move on. Nick affirms, “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past” (Fitzgerald
In the short story The Swimmer by John Cheever, one of the dominant themes is the passage of time. In this short story time seems to pass as reality does with us unaware of its passing. The main character is the protagonist hero, Neddy Merrill who embarks on a traditional theme of a homeward journey. The scene opens on a warm mid-summer day at an ongoing pool party with Neddy and his wife Lucinda. The pool is “fed by an artesian well with a high iron content, was a pale shade of green.
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
Many individuals believe that history repeats itself and is on a never ending loop doomed to be repeated once again. However, the past cannot be recreated. The past is the past and while some characters in the novel The Great Gatsby realize this others simply do not. Gatsby has spent the better part of five years trying to recreate the time when him and Daisy were together. Furthermore, Gatsby fails to realize that things have changed and are no long the same as five years ago. The uncertainties of times before are not grounds to repair a current situation in an individual’s life. Reality now is not the same as once before. The old days should be left in former times and when an individual attempts to reconcile these events then corruption
“I wouldn't ask too much of her," I ventured. "You can't repeat the past. “Can’t repeat the past?" he cried incredulously. "Why of course you can! “He looked around him wildly, as if the past were lurking here in the shadow of his house, just out of reach of his hand” (Fitzgerald 110).
Through the story of Mrs. Bentley’s growth and acceptance of the present, he articulates the individual’s inability to combat the powerful hands of time. One is stuck constantly between its fingers, indefinitely pushed into the future with only physical reminders left of ages passed. Here, Bradbury’s account of time mingles with his analysis of conceptual happiness, as he implies that physical reminders of the past distort one’s understanding of the present, leaving it undeniably unsatisfying. The worn adage “comparison is the thief of joy” rings true in Bradbury’s telling of Mrs. Bentley’s story, and he expands the idea to apply not only to comparison to others, but comparison to oneself at a different stage in life. He illustrates that since one can never return to the past or predict the future, the stages of one’s life are as foreign and irrelevant to one another as one’s current situation is to a stranger’s present. In fact, he writes that Mrs. Bentley herself feels freedom when she gets rid of her past self’s belongings and allows herself to open up to the unique experiences of her present. In releasing herself from reminders of passed joys, she opens herself to new, potential
...ople may feel that they want to return to the past and relive moments that they cherish, despite this being virtually impossible.
The past is a time that is no longer happening and one can never go back to it. Maybe one can remember the past, but it can never be relived. Trying to relive the past can really mess with one’s head; as one starts reminiscing and if it gets to the extremes, one can become quite obsessive. In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the theme of hope and seeking an unattainable dream is constantly recognized throughout the novel, the leading character Jay Gatsby is trying to recreate the past, but it got the best of him.
“It was a new discovery to find that these stories were, after all, about our own lives, were not distant, that there was no past or future that all time is now-time, centred in the being.” (Pp39.)