The Swimmer

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

Most were in the North Eastern part of America. Along with the rise of the upper-middle-class many social changes and different lifestyles arose as well. Through New Historicism, the reader can view “The Swimmer” as a criticism of upper-middle-class lifestyles and communities. This is supported by how Cheever introduces the setting in his story. Cheever introduces the story in Bullet Park, a suburban community in Northeastern America. The author describes the county as having people playing golf and tennis while others enjoy parties by the poolside of their houses. Neddy Merrill is described as a typical upper-class American initially having a high social status and giving the impression of “youth, sport, and clement weather.”(Cheever 776). Merrill also drinks a lot of gin, a drink at the time that was perceived to be preferred by the rich. Throughout the story, every major event is accompanied by the use of alcohol. This is where Cheever focuses most of his criticism: that the rich escape their reality by excessive amount of parties and use of alcohol. This counters the common believe that affluent people are happy because they can acquire anything with wealth. Cheever uses “The Swimmer” to show that some rich people find themselves depressed and have many problems of their own that they use alcohol to deal with. Cheever uses Neddy Merrill as a symbol for people in affluent

The character is first introduced holding a glass of gin which suggests his dependency on alcohol. As he embarks on his journey across the county, he is given a drink upon his arrival at the first house. Halfway through his trip, he would have already had four or five drinks. The more he drinks, the more time seems distorted and the weaker Merrill becomes. When Merrill reaches the Halloran’s he is dazed by the news of his misfortunes. After receiving the bad news, the narrator describes Merrill’s fatigue: “His arms were lame. His legs felt rubbery and ached at the joints. The worst of it was the cold in his bones and the feeling that he might never be warm again”( Cheever 784). The weaker Merrill became, the more he desires a drink. Cheever uses alcohol in his short story to provide Merrill an escape from his reality: “He needed a drink. Whiskey would warm him, pick him up, carry him through the last of his journey...”( Cheever 784). The narrator describes how Merrill perceives alcohol a solution to his problems as the journey gets harder. He becomes displeased as it becomes increasingly harder to obtain a drink, being denied at the Halloran’s, Saches’ and Shirley Adam’s houses. The difficulty of obtaining a drink mirrors Merrill’s difficulties with facing the reality of his misfortunes. Cheever also uses alcohol as a motif to represent social status. At the beginning of