"The Swimmer" is a short story written by John Cheever and was published in 1964. The protagonist, Neddy Merrill, is a seemingly energetic and cheerful husband and father. He decides one summer afternoon that he will swim home from a cocktail party through the public and private swimming pools scattered throughout his neighborhood. As the story continues, it becomes clear that Neddy’s journey may represent more than meets the eye. His strange encounters with his neighbors and resurfacing ideas of some serious life problems are explored through his journey. This essay will look at how the use of imagery, symbolism, and foreshadowing illustrates how life difficulties can lead to self-deception and the inability to recognize and accept reality …show more content…
In the beginning, “the day was beautiful and it seemed to him that a long swim might enlarge and celebrate its beauty.” (Cheever 78) The passage is a representation of a beautiful midsummer’s day. The protagonist was obviously happy as he began to embark on his new journey of swimming across pools. However, this tone is soon replaced by a gloomier scene. When Neddy comes across the Welcher’s house, he sees pool furniture stowed away, the house closed up, and a “For Sale” sign nailed to a tree (Cheever 81). The sudden change in imagery addresses Neddy’s disconnection from reality. It is here the reader notices that not all is what it seems in the story. Cheever mentions that Neddy’s damaged “sense of the truth” may be due to the “repression of unpleasant facts” (Cheever 82). This is where Neddy begins to recognize his own disorientation. Neddy’s unwillingness to face reality is the reason he fails to notice that his neighbors have disappeared one by one. Neddy’s continuous inability to recognize his reality is shown through Neddy’s disorientation when he refers to his neighbor as a native of a foreign land. Neddy, a man on an adventure with only “remembered” and “imaginary” maps, calls himself an explorer and a pilgrim even though he is traveling home through a very familiar place (Cheever …show more content…
Neddy alludes himself from the harsh reality so the reader does not truly know until the end that his family has left him. Mrs. Halloran states, “We’ve been terribly sorry to hear about all your misfortunes, Neddy” (Cheever 84). Neddy is confused and acts as if he does not know what she is speaking of. The fact that the woman apologized for his family clues in the reader that something has gone wrong with his family. As Neddy travels around to different places, people tell him that they will not give him money. His mistress states, “If you’ve come here for money, I won’t give you another cent” (Cheever 87). This quote shows that Neddy has lost everything. He no longer has any money, a house or a family. The foreshadowing throughout the story leads to the fact that Neddy does not have a home to go back
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.
It is certainly true that the characters of ‘The Great Gatsby’, ‘Ethan Frome’, and ‘Howl and Other Poems’ turn to illusions in order to escape from the harsh realities of their lives. Becoming increasingly impuissant at coping in the process. The question is whether it is the act of turning to illusions for comfort, that is ultimately responsible for their inability to cope and ultimate downfalls; or if the characters themselves bear ultimate responsibility and are merely hiding behind their immersion in fantasy in attempt to remove any culpability for their actions, of lack thereof, from themselves.
While some stories are more relevant in today 's society I think they are all equally important, despite the amount of attention each topic gets in American society’s media. In “The Swimmer” the clever metaphor using Neddy’s slowly digressing swim journey on the “Lucinda River” compares to how his real life and his relationship with his wife Lucinda and his children goes downhill. It is clear that Neddy is living a la...
Blythe, Hal, and Charlie Sweet. “An Historical Allusion In Cheever's 'The Swimmer'.” Studies In Short
Neddy’s character is very similar to Charlie from “Babylon Revisited”. Charlie was very fortunate, 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 do with his past life.... ... middle of paper ... ...
Throughout the story Cheever’s character, Neddy, describes the various colors of each pool. Starting at the Westerhazy’s, their pool is “a pale shade of green” His first stop, after deciding about his adventure, is at “sapphire-colored waters” at the Bunkers’ (298). Some pools later he comes across the Welchers’ where “he found their pool was dry” (300). The next waters described are “murk” and “opaque gold” (301). The last one Neddy comes across has “a wintry gleam” (303). The narrator describes Neddy as “a slender man—he seemed to have the especial slenderness of youth…far from young…” (297). He has already started drinking at the Westerhazy’s and the youthful description portrays the beginning effects of alcohol—as though he can accomplish anything he wishes. The sapphire water gives the impression that the Bunkers’ are well off and Neddy can help himself to their bar. When he arrives at the Welchers’, he finds they have packed up and drained their pool. This hints at a look at reality where alcohol doesn’t cure anything and foreshadows tha...
The most prominent example of this is the imagery of the wallpaper and the way the narrator’s opinion on the wallpaper slowly changes throughout the story; this directly reflects what is happening within the narrator’s mind. At the beginning of the story, the narrator describes the wallpaper as “Repellent.revolting. a smoldering unclean yellow” (Gilman 377). As the story continues, the narrator starts to become obsessed with the wallpaper and her opinion of it has completely changed from the beginning. Symbolism plays a big part in “The Yellow Wallpaper” too.
...d his own ruin. His family is gone, and the thunderstorm that he headed towards has knocked a gutter “over the front door,” (Cheever 12) blocking his entrance.
In “Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving he writes about a simple man, Rip Van Winkle, who does just enough to get by in life. He lives in a village by the catskill mountains, and is loved by everyone in the village. He is an easy going man, who spends most of his days at the village inn talking with his neighbors, fishing all day, and wandering the mountains with his dog to refuge from his wife the thorn on his side. On one of his trips to the mountains Rip Van Winkle stumbles upon a group of men who offer him a drink, and that drink changes everything for Van Winkle. He later wakes up, twenty years later, and returns to his village were he notices nothing is the same from when he left. He learns that King George III is no longer in charge,
...ome the dream of attainment slowly became a nightmare. His house has been abandoned, it is empty and dark, the entryway or doors are locked. The sign of age, rust comes off in his hands. His body is cold, and he has deteriorated physically & emotionally. He is weathered just like his house and life. He is damaged poor, homeless, and the abandoned one.
For centuries humans have been drawing parallels to help explain or understand different concepts. These parallels, or allegories, tell a simple story and their purpose is to use another point of view to help guide individuals into the correct line of thought. “The only stable element in a literary work is its words, which if one knows the language in which it is written, have a meaning. The significance of that meaning is what may be called allegory. ”(Bloomfield)
The main ideas that are expressed in John Cheever's The Swimmer, is how Neddy lives through a variety of stages of alcoholism and how they each affect his everyday life. In The Swimmer, Neddy takes daily swims through multiple swimming pools. This represents the journeys in his life. He goes from being cheerful to complete sadness and depression. When Neddy is or is not swimming also represents the emotions he is going through. For example, when Neddy is not swimming, he will feel down or angry for no apparent reason. Because of his alcohol addiction, he is usually looking for alcohol during this period of time. Once he has had a few drinks, he is feeling much better and is ready to swim again. “He needed a drink. Whiskey would warm him, pick him up, carry him ...
Piper’s use of imagery in this way gives the opportunity for the reader to experience “first hand” the power of words, and inspires the reader to be free from the fear of writing.
...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.”
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.