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The Swimmer Compare And Contrast

Decent Essays

The Swimmer is a short story written by John Cheever. The story follows Neddy Merrill as he attempts to swim across town using his neighbors' pools. On the surface, it is just the story of an afternoon, but it is meant to represent the course of Merrill's life. Each swimming pool is meant to represent a different time in his life. It was adapted into a film of the same name in 1964. The film stars Burt Lancaster as Merrill. Both versions focus on themes of aging, nostalgia and the search for meaning in one's life. The short story and the film have different characterizations, dialogue and visual effects. The story is an allegory for many different journeys, including the journey from youth to old age and from fantasy to the truth. The film …show more content…

After this, Julie runs off and he is once again left by himself on his journey. This then rips away his very egotistical self image as this overly masculine great adventurer and gives us a glimpse of who he really is, a deluded old man. Another character that was in the film but not the short story is Kevin, who is a little boy sitting beside his empty swimming pool. He is scared of the water and never learned how to swim, so Merrill decides to show him the motions in the empty pool. The water is representative of life and he is trying to teach him how to wade through it. Before Merrill leaves, the kid begs him to stay, but he says that he has to get back to his adventure. But before he leaves, he sees the kid about to jump into the pool from the diving board. He stops him, but this is supposed to represent diving into life before you are ready and that eventually will lead to a premature death. In both versions of the story, Merrill speeds through his journey, which is supposed to represent his life, without making any meaningful connections with those around

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