Throughout John Cheever’s “The Swimmer”, Cheever uses Neddy’s decisions and thought processes to show conformity to the culture he lives in, versus the idea of nonconformity usually conveyed in existentialism influenced realism. The first and most notable aspect in the story is the journey that Neddy takes where he plans to swim across the county. The way it sounds, he is going to jump in a river or creek and swim down it. Instead, he simply swims in the pools of the people in the community. It is as if the idea of actually swimming in a river versus the neighbors’ pools is too obtuse. Another example is his knowing of all the houses and the owners along his journey. This knowledge is evident when Neddy goes over the mental map in his head, …show more content…
The list goes on for a few more names but this list is enough to realize that being in the know of who people are and the houses they occupy is of importance in order to make sure he conforms within his social circle. Neddy’s drinking habits at each of his stops along his journey is another noteworthy example. At each stop, he makes sure and partakes in some sort of alcoholic beverage. It is as if he is socially drinking at each stop to not draw attention to himself and thus conform to the rest of the party. As the story progresses and readers start to see a turn in the story, there is another example of Neddy’s conformity. The narrator of the story explains, “His was a world in which the caterer’s men kept social score, and to be rebuffed by a part-time barkeep meant that he had suffered some loss of social esteem” (1185). The story lays it out very clearly that in Neddy’s culture or his “world” that social esteem and score are very important to people. This is revealed later in the story when Neddy is reflecting on his journey, “He could not understand the rudeness of the caterer’s
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.
water, curved and smooth and green.'; This seems to illustrate the peacefulness of the situation, almost creating a lazy, calm atmosphere. However, the imagery within “The Swimmer'; is quite opposite. “The Swimmer'; tends to portray a scene of force, as there is no evidence of the peaceful interaction between man and water as found in “Lone Bather.'; Evidence of such force ...
Cheever, John. “The Swimmer”. Short Fiction: Classic and Contemporary. 6th ed. Ed. Charles Bohner and Lyman Grant. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2006.
The Swimmer by John Cheever begins at Helen and Donald Westerhazy’s pool when Neddy Merrill makes the decision to journey eight miles home by swimming through a series of pools, he calls the “Lucinda River” (297) and walking when unable to swim. While he making his way back home, he stops at fourteen old friends’ houses and drinks before continuing on if possible. By the end of Neddy’s journey, he is exhausted and comes to the realization that he has lost not only his house but also his wife and daughters, and also his so-called friends and even a mistress. Cheever suggests that alcoholism is a destruction of life through the use of symbolism, imagery, and characterization.
Cheever, John. "The Swimmer." The Northon Anthology American Literature. 8th ed. Vol. E. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. Print.
In John Cheever’s short story, “The Swimmer” he conveys the transformation of the character through the use of the literary element of setting. The story begins in an American, middle class, suburbs. After what seems to be a night of partying and drinking. Neddy Merrill, the main character initially appears very optimistic; he has a perfect family, high social status and very few problems in his life. In spite of his age, he feels young and energetic therefore decides to swim across town through the neighborhood pools. However, his journey becomes less and less enjoyable as the day unfolds. The water become murky, uninviting and he becomes exhausted. Also the people in his surrounding become less cordial including his mistress who wants nothing to do with him. His voyage then comes to an end when he arrives to an empty, abandoned home. The central idea suggests that an unhealthy obsession with the materialistic aspects of life can lead to alienation.
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.
In the first stanza, Connelly sets up the extended metaphor that compares swimming in the ocean to life. There exists a reality
In John Cheever's story The Swimmer, Neddy Merrill is a successful man. His success is measured by the prestigious neighborhood he lives in with tennis, golf and swimming pools. Neddy has made it socially and financially. He is never without an invitation to social events, which always include drinking. He is at the top of his game. While attending the party at the Westerhazy's house with his wife, he has the desire to swim home. He sees the line of swimming pools that stretch eight miles to his home, he calls them the “Lucinda River” (297) . He is a confident man and thought "of himself as a legendary figure" (250-251). He dives in and when he gets out on the other side, he informs his wife he is swimming home. Cheever uses each pool that Neddy visits to show the passage of time in Neddy's life, and reveals how his alcoholism, infidelity and continual denial of his actions led to the destruction of his American dream.
...his story the main message that life is short and he succeeded by using point of view, setting and symbolism. “The Swimmer” can teach many readers not to waste valuable time like Neddy did when drinking, caring about insincere relationships among social status, and taking his family for granted. Cheever’s usage of literary elements not only displays the theme of “The Swimmer”, but also organizes passages of events for the reader to experience throughout the story. John Cheever once said, “The need to write comes from the need to make sense of one's life and discover one's usefulness” (Good Reads). He perfectly illustrates this objective in “The Swimmer.”
Cheever, John. "The Swimmer." The Northon Anthology American Literature. 8th ed. Vol. E. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. Print.
During the summer of Edna's awakening, the sea's influence increases as she learns how to swim, an event which holds much more significance that her fellow vacationers realize. “To her friends, she has accomplished a simple feat; to Edna, she has accomplished a miracle” (Showalter 114). She has found a peace and tranquility in swimming which gives her the feeling of freedom. The narrator tells us that as she swims, "she seem[s] to be reaching out for the unlimited in which to lose herself" (Chopin 74). She sees the freedom t...
In John Cheever’s, “The Swimmer”, on a hot summer Sunday ,while sitting by the pool with his wife and neighbors, as they all complained about their hangovers, a man of higher status named Needy Merrill decides to get home by swimming through the pools in his county. When Needy first starts off his journey he feels young and enthusiastic; he is then greeted in a joyous manner by his neighborhood friends. Apparently, Needy is a well-known and respected man. As his journey progresses he starts seeing red and orange leaves; he then realizes that it was fall. In the middle of his journey he starts to endure some turmoil, but he does not let that stop his journey. As his journey ends, Needy starts to come encounter with some people who constantly mention his misfortune and struggle with his family. Needy does not remember any of the turmoil that had been going on in his life, and starts to wonder if his memory is failing him. Towards the end, many of the people that came encounter with treated him rudely. Needy realizes that something must have went wrong in his life. When Needy arrives home, he sees that his house is empty and that his family is gone. In “The Swimmer “, John Cheever uses setting to symbolize the meaning of the story.
For countless years the American dream has been the golden opportunity for every person. An issue that John Cheever created in “The Swimmer,” is the obsession of the American dream. He portrays Neddy Merrill as a wealthy male with a family. Neddy is also a alcoholic and has a mistress he goes too. The story starts off with him being self center by choosing invitations that he wants to go to. He begins to swim through his neighbors pools to get to his house. As Neddy Merrill swims through the pools, it shows how his life is deteriorating into something worst. The author John Cheever shows the dream everyone wants by the lavishing parties with cocktails, big pools and houses, and the invitations that Neddy receives to these gatherings. John Cheever was an alcoholic as well and never received an official education and never graduated college. Some of his stories are based on the average middle class Americans trying to find their specific versions of the American Dream. Neddy Merrill becomes obsessed with his American dream and surely loses everything in the process.
Swimming is an amazing exercise and it is one of those rare workouts that never bore us. This is primarily because swimming involves a variety of styles and techniques and learning and practicing each is fun and relaxing with a lot of positive benefits for the mind and the body. Now, out of the four main styles of swimming namely, breaststroke, backstroke, front crawl and butterfly, backstroke is the only one that is swum on the back. It is a comparatively slower style of swimming than front crawl and butterfly but faster than breaststroke swimming.