The story “The Swimmer” by Cheever takes place during midsummer Sunday where everyone sitting around and saying “I drank too much.” Most of the story takes place at when Neddy goes on a journey by traveling through many pools. Neddy belongs to white upper-middle class social standing. The story does changes over times when Neddy travels through different pools with new experiences. At the beginning of the story, everyone is talking about their hangovers. Throughout the story, alcohol is defined as a drug or poison. The protagonist is dealing is obsessed with alcohol, to which he could not stop drinking and it had become his habit as he continues his journey. In the story, alcohol is defined as the poison.
Plot:
When Neddy takes his journey
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As he traveled he met so many different people, who were rude, mean, and does not accept his acceptance. However, they are few who didn’t accept his habit of drinking. Which he could not stay away from. Many people have different roles in this try to contain situations towards the antagonist, so the antagonist figured himself properly, what really he is.
Point of View:
The story was told by third person point of view who reveals about the main character Neddy. The story had covered the main character thoughts and see his actions throughout the story. Also, the author was telling the story as someone was observing Neddy’s journey. It had shown the reactions of his friends and neighbors as he travels through their pools. “Neddy asks for a drink when he gets to Helen and Eric Sachsen’ pool, but Helen says they haven’t been drinking since Eric had an operation three years ago. Neddy has no recollection that Eric had been sick.” His feelings changes as he continuing his journey.
Theme:
The theme of the story is about that life continues and changes over time. Time passes and things do not stay the same. As Neddy finish his journey he becomes cold and his life cycle of happiness is shutting down while he is entering the winter world. “He shouted, pounded on the door, tried to force it with his shoulder, and then looking in at the windows, saw that the place was
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The story delivers the message that life is short and don’t waste your time. Spend this worthy time to achieve something good or reach your goals. Rather than him who had spent all his life in luxury and at the end he found there no one behind him everything he had gone. He wasted his life on things which were not worthy, such as drinking all the time. Which brought him close to death.
Critique/Analysis:
The story made me feel sad because the antagonist had suffered after entering the real world from his fantasies. The strongest aspect of the story is when Neddy learned the lesson from his journey that time pass quickly and life is too short. The weakest aspect of the story is Neddy attitude and feelings had changed as he went through his journey by meeting people. The story thought me that life is short and don’t waste time on things which are not worthy, besides, focus on your goals which can make you and
The theme of this novel is to look at the good you do in life and how it carries over after your death. The moral of the book is; "People can make changes in their lives whenever they really want to, even right up to the end."
Life is a complicated process. It’s filled with many things that keep it interesting but at the same time, very dull. Life’s what you make it and for many, it’s something we all strive for. In the story, The Space Between, the author takes full advantage of the premise as there’s rarely a dull moment- as in life. The book is filled with many literary devices that work nicely with the plot and dialogue. These include; metaphors, similes, irony, personification, and many more. We follow a young man who is finding his way in the world. He has only a week to change his life for the better. But he will face many obstacles on the way that brings the readers into a startling and fun journey.
John Cheever does not merely state the theme of his story, he expresses his theme, as a good writer should, in a variety of metaphors and analogies coupled with powerful imagery. In The Swimmer, Cheever writes and underscores his primary theme of alcoholism in many ways, such as his use of autumnal imagery and the color green. However, there is also some very prominent symbolism and allusions that serve to highlight the theme while also augmenting the artistic and poetic nature of the story. One very important use of symbolism is in the “perverted sacraments” as originally pointed out by Hal Blythe in 1984. Along side these symbols, Hal Blythe, along with Charlie Sweet, later discovered a clear allusion to Ponce de Leòn in 1989.
If you’re one of the many people who has a family member who simply can’t live without alcohol, then John Cheever’s “The Swimmer” is a story that you would like to read. The story is about a guy named Neddy Merrill who is simply in love with alcohol. Throughout the story, Neddy goes from someone's swimming pool to the next because he wants to make his way home by ‘water.’ This is not normal for an ordinary dude to do. Throughout the story, Cheever hides in plain sight symbolic clues that foreshadow a conclusion that Neddy has a serious issue.
He portrays this theme through the setting, the people and Neddy’s journey home. Several families in wealthy suburbs spend their days drinking alcohol, relaxing and throwing parties. This type of lifestyle is even shown through to the priest, “You might have heard it whispered by the parishioners leaving church, heard it from the lips of the priest himself, struggling with his cassock in the vestiarium.” Even the local priest, who is supposed to show a more significant way of living, has become part of this lonely suburban way of living. Neddy also has a seeming, empty life with his friends. His friends are welcoming towards him, when he has a lot of money but it’s not the same when he becomes financially unstable. Neddy’s close friends seemed to fade away when he was going through rough times. Grace Biswanger and Shirley Adams, were both very unpleasant to him. Grace Biswanger knew that Neddy had gone broke, “They went for broke overnight—nothing but income—and he showed up drunk one Sunday and asked us to loan him five thousand dollars....” When Neddy was successful he had friends, but he later finds out he does not have and friends that are close enough to him that will stick with him through hard times. During his success, he made friends built only on social status, for example the rich Hallorans. Neddy’s desire to swim home also shows his emptiness. He sees this idea into something honorable, that he imagines will
In my mind this particular short story has a very interesting meaning behind it. This meaning is one that many younger people such as myself would benefit most from. I think that the whole point of the story is that you shouldn't just rush along and always be in such a hurry.
The theme of this book is that the human capacity to adapt to and find happiness in the most difficult circumstances. Each character in the novel shows this in their way. For instance, their family is randomly taken from their home and forced to work but they still remain a close nit family. In addition, they even manage to stick together after being separated for one of their own. These show how even in the darkest time they still manage to find a glimmer of hope and they pursued on.
What does it mean to be in a state of drunkenness? A person who is inebriated views his surroundings in a surreal fashion; reality exists on the periphery. The drunk is by default interacting with the world on an inferior level as opposed to those who are sober. Alcoholism is also a chronic debilitating disease. It resonates outward from the individual to all those that he has contact within his life. Joyce utilizes the character of the drunk in many of the stories in Dubliners, hardly a story skips a mention of drink. Among despair, isolation and dependence, alcoholism is a theme that runs through all the stories. Alcoholism is the focus in "Grace" where Joyce takes the symbolic alcoholic and shows us what Joyce believes is a part of the problem plaguing Dublin.
1. My first impression of the story was the setting reminds me of a fall day in Michigan. It was dark and cool so it reminds me of my childhood in the mornings getting ready for school. At first I thought it was something like a family trip for the guys before the characters where describe. The thought of a young boy on a trip into manhood with his father and Uncle. As the story goes along my impression changes over time to its a story about life circle and the development of a young man 's understanding about life at the hands of his father.
He notices that as his father laughs at the other men who drink regularly, he "was becoming stuffed up with spiritual pride and imagining himself better than his neighbors. Sooner or later, the spiritual pride grew till it called for some form of celebration. Then he took a drink... That was the end of Father"(340). This narration reveals not only the boy 's understanding of his father 's drinking habits, but also a great deal about how he views his father. He sees his father as a hypocritical man who is capable of restraint but weak in humility and discipline in the long run. The father 's inevitable bouts of drunkenness always spell misfortune and humiliation for his entire family, and his son knows that he is only going to the funeral to "act as a brake on Father," though he admits that he has so far had little success in this duty (341). At the funeral, the narrator observes that "danger signals were there in full force: a sunny day, a fine funeral and a distinguished company of clerics and public men were bringing out all the natural vanity and flightiness of Father 's character,” all the while knowing that he "had long months of abstinence behind him and an
“When i was a child i played with my cousin outside, where the lamplight fell upon the group and the singing of the old people rose around us and carries away into the darkness.” the idea of dark and light is a motif throughout this whole story not only showing good versus evil but also knowledge and the lack of knowledge. This also encompasses the traditions of singing and dancing. The elders and the singing bring knowledge which is represented through the lamplight which is singing on the children, who will soon gain the knowledge passed down. “Still, it was early in the morning, and the birds sang out of the shadows.” this is when he is older and the birds are the elders, still singing their traditional songs. This time we is in the light because his grandmother dies, and because he is older. In a way he is coming to realizations and the truth is seeping through. His personal experiences in rainy mountain helped his discover partes of himself, both the playful, happy child, and the mourning adult. The change in setting plays a large role in both aspects of his life, the darkness is bing naive and the sunlight is finally gaining knowledge. This is representative of everyone 's oneself. Each person 's experiences shape who they are. Not only the good but also the bad experiences cause you to learn about your innerself. This causes to you to grow as a person
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.
These changes getting older weaker, act as a metaphor for a larger portion of Neddy’s life than the literal journey he undertakes on this afternoon. He has lost his social standing, his money, his wife and children and possibly his mind. In other words, his entire life.
This short story is a type of story that one cannot fully understand until the end, there is constantly things thrown in, changing your thinking of the theme or the point of the story. While I was reading through the story, I became to slowly make connections with each
There are many times where the narrator describes his actions towards his loved ones while under the influence of alcohol. Since the narrator is trying to draw the attention to his consumption of alcohol, he tries to make sure that his actions trace back to it. In the short story, the narrator says "But my disease grew upon me -- for what disease is like Alcohol !..."(Poe 23) which shows his addiction for alcohol becoming stronger. The narrator's madness seems to be heightened by the alcohol. He begins to chan...