The Stories of John Cheever

happiness. This may be true for most, but not for John Cheever’s protagonist, Neddy Merrill, in “The Swimmer”. John Cheever was born May 27, 1912 in Quincy, Massachusetts. He has written many short stories for various publishers such as The Atlantic, The Yale Review and The New Yorker. In 1930, John Cheever published his first story in The New Republic; and in 1941, he married Mary Winternitz, with whom he had two children, Susan and Benjamin. Cheever served in the army during World War II; and after

Journey of Truth The short story “The Swimmer” by John Cheever, is about a man’s swimming journey home after a long night of drinking. Cheever uses the man’s journey home as a metaphor for the journey of alcohol. Cheever shows the parallels between the man’s journey home and the journey alcohol takes a person in many ways. The main two are the way he feels after each new pool, and the time that lapses on his journey. The first way Cheever uses to show the parallels, is the way the main character

“The Swimmer,” a short fiction by John Cheever, presents a theme to the reader about the unavoidable changes of life. The story focuses on the round character by the name of Neddy Merrill who is in extreme denial about the reality of his life. He has lost his youth, wealth, and family yet only at the end of the story does he develop the most by experiencing a glimpse of realization on all that he has indeed lost. In the short story “The Swimmer,” John Cheever uses point of view, setting and symbolism

John Cheever in "The Swimmer" to make its significance demonstrates a supporter, and the relationship wander has sustained him, as ailing in earnestness and obligation. Neddy considers in the substance to be a pilgrim comprehensively he sets away and keeps on commenting yourselves in that capacity, quietens as the eradicate of the calculation and its abnormal decision make close. Neddy shows someone who is also criticized for focusing its esteems on societal position and realism. As he goes into

Good vs. Evil in John Cheever's The Five-Forty-Eight John Cheever was an award winning American author of the twentieth century. His work often possessed 'psychological and religious vision' with central themes of 'sin, deception, and redemption' (Kennedy, 551). Cheever's short story entitled 'The Five-Forty-Eight' portrays a struggle of good vs. evil. Following the themes of sin, deception, and redemption, we read of a young woman (good) seeking revenge for the evil done to her. Through the

remember what went wrong fail. Memories are unclear and time seems blurry. At one time, John Cheever found himself in this position, using alcohol to ignore his problems. John Cheever was born in Quincy, Massachusetts in 1912. In 1941, he moved to suburban Westchester and eventually became addicted to alcohol, which is a recurrent motif in many of his short stories. He died in 1982 from cancer. In his short story, "The Swimmer," an affluent man named Neddy Merrill decides to swim through all of 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

them step by step. Over the course of his battles with marital and financial issues, John Cheever, author of many short stories and longtime partner of the The New Yorker decided instead to push these issues out of his mind. By utilizing self-delusion he, like many of his characters, were able to cope with the ever changing world around them, but ultimately leading to bigger problems in the future. Therefore, John Cheever’s inner conflictions in the midst of his struggles with marriage and finances

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

Comparing John Cheever’s The Swimmer and The Five-Forty-Eight Two stories by John Cheever, The Swimmer and The Five-Forty-Eight (5-48), will be explored in terms of how the characters, genre and point of view in these stories give rise to classic fiction. The Swimmer is of a suburban man, Neddy Merrill, who decides to return home from work by swimming eight miles through all of his neighbors' pools along the way. At each pool he encounters a former mistress, distant and unfriendly neighbours