Essay on Troubled Waters: a Commentary on "the Swimmer"

There are several parts of the story where drinking is expounded upon. In addition to Beowulf’s and Unferth’s back-and-forth and Wealhtheow’s offering of the guest cup that we have detailed above, we are given to the details and the importance of drink. Heorot is directly referred to as a “wine hall” in line 994. This is important

By the time the alcohol touches the tongue, the storm has already begun. John Cheever’s relationship with alcohol presents itself throughout the short story “The Swimmer”, and uses the character, Ned Merrill, to represent the struggles he was experiencing. Addiction and the need for alcohol drove this character into a storm he couldn't retreat from. In “The Swimmer” Cheever uses a physical storm and the changes in the weather to show the path of drinking and becoming an alcoholic. The short story begins with joy and excitement, then turns into something casual and frequent, but eventually leads to misfortune and a misery. Nobody desires to be led to an unpleasant storm, that comes with drinking alcohol. Cheever uses nature and the storms to represent the life of an alcoholic.

John Cheever’s short story, “The Swimmer,” describes the epic journey of Neddy Merrill as he attempts to swim his way back home. Throughout the story, readers continually question reality and fantasy while wondering whether Merrill is really experiencing what Cheever portrays or if he is simply stuck in the past. Merrill goes from house to house as he freestyles across each swimming pool along the way. As the story draws to the end, Cheever points out that Merrill’s world is not what it seems and he has really lost everything he loved. An analysis of “The Swimmer” by John Cheever through the liberal humanist and Marxist lenses suggests that the story

“The Swimmer” is an allegory that is narrated in third person point of view as someone who is observing Neddy’s journey. This

In the short story, “The Swimmer,” John Cheever uses precise literary devices to emphasize the true meaning behind what the average reader might first gather. Throughout this short story, Neddy’s journey is recorded through what he does and how the time changes. His actions of “jumping from pool to pool” show Neddy’s incapabilities of growing up and the falsehood that he lives in. John Cheever wants the readers to understand that Neddy’s life is only a downfall as the years go by, and that his outlook on life doesn’t change until he realizes all his actions have left him alone. To set the tone of the story, the author uses metaphors of different objects to show Neddy’s changes in life, change of diction to set a tone from excellence to weakness, and Neddy’s life paralleled through the imagery described in this short story.

Alcohols role within this work does not stop there. Instead we see it have an effect on the confidence of the characters within this work. Unferth for example becomes very loud, and boastful when he is drinking. He even goes as far as to insult Beowulf while drinking. To which Beowulf replies: “Well, friend Unferth, you have had your say / about Breca and me. But it was mostly beer / that was doing the talking” (530-531). Even Beowulf is suspicious that this false confidence is coming from the

In the short story “The Swimmer” by John Cheever, the main character Neddy, is at a friends’ house, but decides to take a new route home. Neddy wanted to swim home by going through numerous neighboring backyards. It was an 8 mile swim home for a man who never did anything for himself. All he ever did was inherit money. it is Neddy’s delusional arrogance and not his loss of wealth that leaves him lost and alone at the end of his journey. Neddy thinks arrogantly about his life and his friends as he plans his journey at the Weterhazy’s. Neddy seems delusional throughout the entire story traveling his journey to the public pool and the Hallorans. After losing his family and friends,

When Victor was a child his parents would drink a lot and would neglect him because they dealt with their pain by drinking. They drank because they were drinking away the problems caused by the generational trauma they and the generation before them had to endure. For example, during the New Year's party, everyone got drunk, even Victor's parents, left Victor by himself. Victor’s father and mother drank more

Men who when stark sober could “let themselves go”, men who were in dread of convention, were utterly different beings when they drank. For alcohol made most men bold. Most timid men like the feeling of boldness (Anonymous 122). As depicted in both stories, alcohol can be used as a tool to help people break out of their shell and discover traits that they never knew existed.

Alcoholism is defined as an addiction to the indulgence of alcoholic liquor and the compelling behaviour which results from alcohol dependency. In the novel “Medicine Walk” by Richard Wagamese and the essay “Mother’s Milk” by Christie Blatchford, the reasoning behind and dire repercussions of alcohol abuse are evident through the characters Eldon Starlight and Christie’s mother. However, Eldon’s reason for alcoholism is much more traumatic and its effect on both himself and those around him is of greater severity as opposed to Christie’s mother. As a teenager Christie’s mother suffers from social nervousness and uses alcohol as a means of reducing her anxiety, whereas Eldon begins drinking after he was forced to leave his home as his mother chose her abusive husband over him. After Christie was born her mother began drinking at a higher degree while Eldon’s alcoholism heightens after he must kill his only friend to ensure his own survival. Occasionally Christie’s mother would quit alcohol for around a month’s time and her health would improve, contrastingly Eldon’s attempt to abstain from alcohol lasts only a couple of days and results in the deterioration of his health. Despite her alcoholism Christie’s mother lives past the age of 80 and even outlives her husband by 15 years, on the other hand due to his alcohol abuse Eldon suffers from liver failure which results in his early death. Her mother’s

Problems with his parents, he would drink. Disagreement with his girlfriend, he would drink. Bad day at work, he would drink. No matter what difficulty he encountered or strain life would throw at him alcohol was always the answer. This, on top of the good times. Favorite sports team won, he would drink. Concert at the coliseum, he would drink. Fishing with friends, he would drink. The problem, he stated, was that his problems only got worse when he drank. So, he figured the answer was to drink more.

In the novel Swamp Angel the main character, Maggie, asserts that "swimming is like living , it is done alone". This is, in fact, a very telling statement with respect to the life of both Maggie and the life of Dunstan, the main character in the novel The Fifth Business. Maggie's comparison of life to swimming raises interesting points about the way in which each of the two characters proceed along the road of life.

Chris Farias was an alcoholic who was arrested several times for driving under the influence. Farias had a family who always celebrated special events consuming large amounts of alcohol, and him as a kid he always watched how they drank excessively like if it was nothing bad. His parents never really taught him the dangers of consuming alcohol because their perceptions and experiences where different from any other person. He and his siblings grew accustomed to celebrating any special event with alcohol. As he got older he began to notice that his father was an alcoholic, and worried about his health he tried to help him better himself, but at the end continued to drink. He seen how alcohol ruined his father life, and he spent most his life

Surrounded by alcoholism by his friends, family, and other relatives, Victor is susceptible to his own dreams of drowning in first rain, then alcohol as it gets more intense. For example, “And of course, Victor dreamed of vodka, whiskey, tequila, swallowing him just as easily as he swallowed them”(Alexie pg. 7). Also, when his uncles are fighting in their yard, it says that, “Victor could almost smell the sweat and the whiskey and the blood”(Alexie pg. 3). The last example in this short story comes when Victor goes to sleep in between his parents, he smells alcohol on the both of them, “His mother and father breathed deep, nearly choking on alcoholic snores”(Alexie pg. 9). These acts of alcoholism are not just for parties they throw to have

"The Swimmer," by John Cheever, illustrates one man's journey from a typical suburban life to loneliness and isolation. This short story is characteristic of John Cheever's typical characterizations of suburbia, with all it's finery and entrapments. Cheever has been noted for his "skill as a realist depicter of suburban manners and morals" (Norton, p. 1861). Yet this story presents a deeper look into Neddy Merril's downfall from the contentment of a summer's day to the realization of darker times.