Social Addiction In The Swimmer, By John Cheever

Anyone can be addicted to something. Addiction is where someone takes a substance that can be pleasurable but leads to compulsion and interference of what the person’s ordinary life, relationships, and health. Once a person is addicted to something, there is no stopping it. There can be causes to how an addiction starts. Depression is a major cause of addiction. When someone suffers from depression, they are at their lowest part of their life. Like addiction, depression affects how people live their life. In “The Swimmer” by John Cheever, Neddy Merrill becomes addicted to alcohol. To be better in social standings than everyone else, his addiction causes him to lose all what is important to him.

First off, being depressed can cause people to

The need for Neddy to drink was to measure his social standing, “He was not a practical joker nor was he a fool but he was determinedly original and had a vague and modest idea of himself as a legendary figure. The day was beautiful and it seemed to him that a long swim might enlarge and celebrate its beauty” (Cheever 74). At each pool there are new and fresh drinks for him. Neddy’s need to have a drink grows stronger throughout his journey that having the pools as his alcoholism. The alcoholism he consumes blinds him from the actual time and also shows his unhappiness. When Neddy’s journey becomes more difficult because of the amount of alcohol he has consumed so far can be explained of the emotional state Neddy is at by the end of the story. Neddy cannot go on his journey without his alcohol. This is very similar to Gemini 3 astronaut John W. Young who had sneaked a corned beef sandwich on board with the help of Walter Schirra. Food was treated more as a liability during that time in space age. They were afraid that the crumbs of the food can get stuck and clog important equipment and also affect the astronauts if they breathe it in (O’Neil). Just how Neddy’s alcoholism came harm to him and his family, the sandwich that John brought on board came harm to the mission and to his job. Neddy’s alcoholism gets the better of him on how he needs to drink each time he swims through a pool to where just like astronaut John W. Young had to sneak on his sandwich onto the space ship. The both of them let their judgement for something cloud what is really the right thing to do. Neddy’s addiction to alcohol let that cloud his better judgement and at the end of it all lost friends and his