Use of Point of View, Setting and Symbolism in The Swimmer, by John Cheever

Tim Winton’s short story, ‘The Water Was Dark and it Went Forever Down’, depicts a nameless, adolescent girl who is battling the voices inside her head along with the powerful punishments at the hands of her inebriated mother. The key concerns of life and death are portrayed through the girl’s viewpoint as she compares her life with her sad, depressed mother. Anonymous as she is, the girl constantly makes an attempt to escape the outbursts, that come as a result to her mother’s drinking, by submerging herself into the water. An extended metaphor is used when expressing the girl as a machine and her will to continue surviving in her sombre life.

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.

In The Swimmer, Cheever uses symbolism as a tool to portray the theme of the short story. One symbol the author uses throughout the story is pools. The description of each pool shows the reader how Ned Merrill changes as a character. At the beginning of the story, the pools represent Merrill’s youthfulness and energy. “The first pools Ned encounters represent his life at a high point. These pools are described as a type of paradise”(The Swimmer-Symbols). While stopping at the Welchers’ house, Ned finds the pool drained and

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

In the short story “ The Swimmer,” John Cheever expresses the idea that Neddy Merrill can lose everything if he denies reality. Cheever achieves this by employing various symbols during Merrill's cross county journey. The main symbols are the weather and seasons. Cheever uses the changing of seasons to distort the character’s sense of time and show the progression of Merrill’s life. In the beginning of the story the setting is described as a midsummer day and by the end of the story, Merrill is able to see the constellations of late autumn, meaning winter is near. The illusion of time allows the reader to understand the extent of Merrill’s state of denial, as his beliefs begin to contradict the reality around him. While Cheever uses the weather to describe how Merrill feels. When it is warm Merrill feels happy and youthful. However, when it becomes colder Merrill begins to feel weak and sad. To emphasize Merrill’s state of denial, Cheever employs the motif of alcohol in “The Swimmer;” the reader notices that when Merrill is presented with a reality that he deems unpleasant, he uses alcohol to enhance his state of denial. Through the critical lens of New Historicism, the reader can infer the author’s purpose for writing “The Swimmer” is to criticize the lifestyles of affluent people in the 1950s and early 1960s. Cheever focuses on the party lifestyle of affluent communities and how the use of alcohol allows them to deny the reality around their current misfortunes.

and it was in this book that I stumbled into this piece of criticism which gives more

In The Swimmer a short story by John Cheever a man named Neddy Merrill decides to swim across every pool in the county naming his route the Lucinda River after his wife. As he goes on this journey some of his neighbors are nice, some show pity, and others show distaste for him. Throughout the story Cheever gives subtle hints that Neddy is disoriented as he doesn’t remember key details of things that have happened to his friends in the area. At the end of the story a disoriented Neddy reaches his home to find it empty, with his family gone. Cheever uses this short story to critique the way of life in the upper class suburbs of America that contributed to the social demise of Neddy Merrill

The notion that wealth leads people to live destructive and harmful lives is prevalent in both The Swimmer and Babylon Revisited. John Cheever creates a character in The Swimmer who is a product of this life. Neddy Merrill is a wealthy man who surrounds himself with people of similar financial status. They live their lives fairly superficially and partake in activities they lead themselves to believe are important. For example, Cheever repeats the fact that the characters “drank too much” (1179). This repeated phrase shows the way the rich poison their bodies because that’s the only thing they know to do. Alcohol is also mentioned and Neddy claims “Whiskey would warm him, pick him up, carry him…” (Cheever 1184). The consistency in the idea of alcohol is Cheever’s way of exposing the way rich people attempt to drown or blur their unhappiness with liquor. This ultimately

Neddy’s strong will of swimming across the county is a reflection of The Hero’s Journey. During his long road, there are many times when he questions himself with the meaning of the journey. In spite of his hesitation, Neddy still adheres to his initial purpose--swim back home. This decision is made due to the Call to Adventure from the beautiful midsummer Sunday. Yet later Neddy begins to feel tired of the journey when he approaches the stage of Crossing the Threshold--“a maple of its red and yellow leaves” (Cheever 730), which indicates the coming of autumn. As the season changes, he is growing old and is no longer the young man who “seemed to have the especial slenderness of youth” (Cheever 726). The sign of age forces him to hesitate, “Why was he determined to complete his journey even if it meant putting his life in danger? At what point had this prank, this

In order to arrive at the next port in the Lucinda River, Neddy must pass the Lindleys, where he is surprised to find that the home is vacant and his neighbors once-prized horses are nowhere the be found. At this revelation we first encounter Neddy’s decreasing sense of memory as Cheever acknowledges, “He seemed to remember having heard something about the Lindleys and their horses but the memory was unclear”(4). Rebekah Nydam analyzed this passage in her analysis of “The Swimmer” and concluded that, “This passage reflects not only a passing of time, but also that Neddy’s memory is obviously clouded and inaccurate. Neddy’s inability to remember significant details about his neighbors indicates that he has been dangerously unfocused with his everyday life. Depression or some other type of psychological illness could be distracting Neddy, rendering him incapable of separating his memories from the reality which surrounds him”(1).

Only when Neddy reaches the midway point of his journey do things begin to go awry. Fogelman believes that the thunderstorm marks the turning point in Neddy’s journey (2) as he begins to realize that he cannot find the imagined life he seeks. Oddly enough, Neddy feels a sense of relief from the storm and it encourages him to continue his journey with a renewed sense of purpose (“The Dream…” 9). Then the season shifts from summer to autumn and leaves change colors to further symbolize the downhill slope of Neddy’s journey. Cheever states that when Neddy sees the fallen leaves from the trees, he “[feels] a peculiar sadness at this sign of autumn.” Like the falling leaves, the pools Neddy visits near the end of the middle part of his journey become significantly deteriorated, thus foreshadowing the upcoming failed end to Neddy’s journey. The public pool at the recreation center requires Neddy to take a shower before entering and upon leaving the pool, Neddy feels slightly dirty. In another pool he visits, leaves and scum float on the surface, symbolizing the defeat accumulating as a result of

John Cheever and F. Scott Fitzgerald are both 20th century writers whose story’s thematically reflected the despair and the emptiness of life. In both story’s “The Swimmer” and “Babylon Revisited” the main characters undergo similar problems, although they are presented differently in each story. The subject matter of both stories, pertain to the ultimate downfall of a man. “The Swimmer”, conveys the story of a man who swims his way into reality. He at first is very ignorant to his situation; however with the passing of time he becomes cognizant to the idea that he has lost everything. In “Babylon Revisited” the key character is a “recovering alcoholic”, who return to his homeland in hope to get his daughter back. However, problems from

The short story of “The Swimmer,” by Cheever begins with imagery to provide the backdrop and the setting for the protagonist, Ned Merrill. The descriptions provided by Cheever give us the idea of a suburb where many people engage in playful behavior, individuals are generally wealthy, and in many instances engage in some overindulgence with alcohol.

"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.

As a young boy, Trond’s interactions with water illustrates his innocence, showing his youthful behavior and preservation of innocence. Growing up, water has played a huge role in Trond’s life; He would often go out, “fishing for trout in the river” (15) or “riding logs down the river” (15). These activities that Trond engages in reflects Trond’s close bond with the river and how it brought out his adventurous and youthful behavior. The dynamic environment of the river and the never-ending flow of water is symbolic of Trond’s constant energetic youth. As a kid, Trond was always outside admiring the beauty of nature or out stealing horses, and the river provided him the opportunity to do that. In order to go out stealing horses, Trond had to “row across the river”(32), in which the river acted as the path or gateway that led Trond to his next adventure. In addition, the river also represents Trond’s reluctance to change or grow out of his childhood. Trond recalls, “I could immerse myself in water up to my chin and remain the person I was”(101). This highlights the idea that the river is a comfort zone in which Trond is able to submerge himself in and stay youthful. Trond doesn’t want to grow out of his childhood and the river protects his innocence. Even with the “current pounding away and pulling at his body,”(101) Trond felt untouched and remained the same person. This shows how the river maintains Trond’s growth into a man and it serves to show that Trond is the “anchor of