Comparing The Swimmer And The Ice Wagon Going Down The Street

When writing a collection of poems, most poets chose to focus on maintaining certain themes throughout their literature and Cornelius Eady is not an exception. Cornelius Eady’s collection of poems in Brutal Imagination focus on issues such as racism, family crisis, internal conflict, and death. The first part of the collection circles around a servant who works for Susan Smith and is the caretaker for her children. The story centers around the perspective of the servant who is also the overarching narrator. The story describes old version of United States when racism was still bluntly present and affected individuals identities and financial opportunities. Based off the information presented in the collection, the servant can possibly be male. The general plot follows deeply into the difficult life of the male servant through examining the issues he faces. The first poem within the collection set-ups the rest of the story with context for the readers giving them a few expectations about what they should look forward to reading further. Eady draws the reader through integrating an origin for the male servant and his connection to Susan Smith’s family.

The concept of balance is central to Herman Melville’s “The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids.” The first story of the diptych reflects the opulent and extravagant feasting of a group of lawyers in London, while the second depicts the laborious, cold, and bland life of workers at a paper mill. These polar opposites perfectly illustrate this idea of a worldly equilibrium would have resounded well with Melville’s Romantic, educated, and upper class readership. Though there is much to be learned through this historical context, viewing the juxtaposition of success and struggle through a modern lens yields another perspective that Melville could never have foretold.

Most, if not all, individuals in this world have a life goal; such motivation to achieve this goal begins to govern one’s actions. Giving this individual a clear trajectory in what must be done in order to obtain this life goal; this goal by becoming one’s only objective, it transforms into an obsession, consuming one’s life. Although this obsession is utilized as a mechanism to ease the journey in obtaining this goal; once obtaining it, no longer will it bring satisfaction, but rather, a void is created through a new obsession, aiming to bring fulfillment to the non-satisfaction brought from one’s life goal. Such goal-based obsession is seen in John Cheever’s, The Swimmer, where Cheever uses Neddy Merrill, to illustrate how an obsession with maintaining a suburban wealthy social status leads to ignorance in understanding one’s surroundings—resulting in Neddy forgetting how his actions impact the lives of others. Additionally, there is a certain level superficial savagery the individuals of this community have in regards to one another (primarily their interaction with the people who have fallen in their social standing). Cheever, through Neddy’s journey, critiques the superficiality of the suburban community and reflects on how Neddy’s ignorance will soon fade; forcing him to come to terms with the problems he has caused through his obsession to maintain his suburban status.

In Herman Melville’s short stories, “The Paradise of Bachelors and The Tartarus of Maids,” he juxtaposes the lives of social classes to illustrate the destructive nature of industrialization. Melville demonstrates the separation of classes by his usage of allusions and metaphors. Segregation is a main concern of Melville’s and, the contrast amid the two stories is a representation of the disparity between classes present at that time.

Countless references to Ned’s dependence on alcohol as a “pick-up”, an affair with Shirley Adams and in the end he loses everything-his home, family and possessions; making Swimmer a poignant masterpiece. Here, unlike 5-48 where the emphasis is on clear character development, Neddy recounts his entire life in just a short time while swimming. Both stories are told in a third-person, male point of view narrative; Blake being followed, his relationships with his neighbours who are in 5-48, firing Dent, while in Swimmer it is also similar as we discover how Neddy life has revolved.

The meaning of a happy and prosperous life can take on different forms based on the value and belief of an individual. For Neddy Merrill, the main character in “The Swimmer” by John Cheever, prosperity is solely associated with wealth and social standing. In this essay, I will argue that contrasting images of the public and private pools, encountered by Neddy swimming across his upper-class neighbourhood, reflect his obsession with material and social success, which ultimately deserted him in desperation at the end of the story. In “The Swimmer”, the private pools owned by Neddy’s neighbours are associated with pleasant images, which serve to highlight Neddy’s obsession with affluence and high social standing.

Looking at “The Swimmer” through the Marxist lens suggests that the story is really about how easily social statuses can change under different circumstances and how blinding hubris can be. Neddy Merrill is clearly a man of means in the story. For one thing, it is clear he can afford to spend time during midday to enjoy the afternoon by the poolside. Living in an upper-middle class suburban neighborhood has given Neddy many benefits. But his extravagant lifestyle takes a turn for the worse once he starts his journey home. As Neddy swims home, cold and half-naked, he begins to “crash”

The short story “The Boat” by Alistair MacLeod is narrated by a man who comes from a fishing family. His mother’s side of the family has forever lived and worked by the sea and continues this tradition. The narrator’s father always wanted to be an academic, but worked on the boat to support his family. Through this passage it is evident that the parents’ characters clash in many aspects of their lives and are in constant conflict. MacLeod demonstrates this through the use of repetition, the contrast in other unrelated ideas, and through information that is withheld.

As the Learjet soared into the wide blue yonder, the iniquitous tempest that Carlton Hislop had created, over many years, were now gathering pace. Despite that, he was relieved to have left behind his troubles: for him, it was like changing from faded, worn-out clothes into something finely crafted; nevertheless, this simple allegory was basically false, for no matter how exceptional the cloth it could never truly hide the imperfections of the person wearing it. Even so, Carlton could now indulge to epicurean excess, as it naturally follows that people of that privileged class savor such delights without any feelings of guilt that would otherwise hinder the virtuous person with a certain degree of compunction. At any rate, the money that Carlton had embezzled was, according to him, compensation for having faithfully served the studio. And as he smoked his Cuban cigar – interspersed with moments of sipping cognac – which his scheming had given him, Carlton was, in essence, not fully sated by the accoutrements of wealth. What that dull ache

The first example of society behavior is used through the story of a late thirties white man name Benhard Goetz who shoots four black youths on a subway cart in New York. This anecdote is significant to the novel because it takes place in the mid-80s where society is pointed by drugs, and violent brutality wreaks havoc through the city of New York. Leaving his Manhattan apartment, Goetz hops on the subway and notices four African American youths “horsing around,” and “acting rowdy.” According to the story, Troy Canty, one of the boys, asked Goetz for five dollars. Out of instinct James another one of the boys, “gestured toward a suspicious-looking bulge in his pocket, as if he had a gun in there.”

Society’s external pressure causes most people to act a certain way, but how does the way humans act differ when they are free from society’s view? Morley Callaghan’s The Snob and Two Fishermen introduces a variety of characters; some kind and some not. What influences the characters in the way they act and see things is their ties to social expectations. People who free themselves from society’s judgement will be happier and kinder.

When initiating a conversation, one might say they are “breaking the ice”. But did you know the phrase “break the ice” is derived from small merchant ships attempting to cross waters in order to deliver products? A second ship, nicknamed “icebreakers”, would travel ahead of the merchant ship, creating a path which they could then follow to their destination. Using this procedure as a metaphor for starting conversation, influential figures in literature integrated “break the ice” into their compositions, thus allowing for this phrases modern definition.

In Frank Perry’s 1986 film adaptation of John Cheever’s “The Swimmer” Neddy, portrayed by Burt Lancaster, is an upper middle class man who decides to swim across his neighbors’ pools home only to discover that his house no longer belongs to him and he is no longer a part of his family, is characterized as a very suave and robust man. The first scene of The Swimmer emphasizes Neddy’s vitality by means of; how the camera features Neddy’s body in comparison to his friends, the addition of two characters, and the additional interactions between Neddy and the women in this text. This contrasts the characterization of Neddy in the short story in the sense that Cheever’s Neddy is not presented as this sexual and aggressively masculine figure.

Oscar Wilde once said, “Society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world there are only individuals.” This quote explains that society is corrupt. People will only surround you when you are in the spotlight, but will depart when you hit rock bottom. The painting The Dance of Life, by Edvard Munch, portrays a life from beginning to completion. It is visible that the same woman is cloned, from a happier stage of life, to a dark, gloomy end. The Swimmer, by John Cheever, relates to this idea of the different experiences throughout the course of one’s life. The story is about Neddy, who decides to go home by swimming through the Lucinda River. As a reader, we can see that the story takes place over a

The minute analysis of Somerset Maugham’s short story The Pool, applying three among the many categories of Gerard Genette’s Narrative Discourse, exposes explicitly the dimension