Preview

The Swimmer Metaphor

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
508 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Swimmer Metaphor
In the short story “The Swimmer”, John Cheever wrote the story as a metaphor for life. Cheever basically stating that your time here on earth is short; don’t waste your time. Neddy spends his time chasing a social life, alcohol, and a mistress. As Neddy takes his journey across the county why does it take so long for him to realize that his life isn’t what he thought it was? Did he waste his time while on his journey? Through his journey Neddy took glass after glass of alcohol and that’s what made him drown out the reality of his life. In the beginning of the story begins with a series of people stating “I drank too much” (Cheever 99); this states that liquor will be a big part of the story. When Neddy was down and out he would look for liquor
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    The Tired Swimmer Case
    • 613 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Tired Swimmer Case

    2. From the internet, find a picture that shows the mammalian spinal cord in cross section. Include the url where you found it and a statement of why you feel this is a good example.…

    • 613 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Swimmer John Cheever
    • 370 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Swimmer John Cheever

    Does the story reflect John Cheever’s life and experience of alcoholism and addiction? In the short stories that John Cheever wrote over his lifetime he reflected himself in the main characters personality. As an example the short story “The Swimmer”, the main character is portrayed as an alcoholic who loses everything from his friends to his wife. John Cheever was an American novelist and short story writer, he is now known as the most notable short story writer of the 20th century. Cheever growing up had a difficult life from financial problems because of the Great Depression to his father who fell into the stress became an alcoholic. Cheever started expressing his life struggles through the vision of his characters.…

    • 370 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Summary: The Swim Of Deception
    • 947 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Summary: The Swim Of Deception

    The Swim of Deception One day in midsummer, a group of friends, Neddy and Lucinda Merrill and Helen and Donald Westerhazy, are hung over and are complaining about how they drunk too much the previous night. Ned decides that he wants to go swim in the pools that are spread throughout his county and imagines himself to be an explorer. In the beginning of the story Ned is pictured as being happy; however, as the story progresses Ned realizes that the world he envisioned at first was not all it appeared to be. He refers to his journey across the different pools as the traveling across the “Lucinda River.” [pg. 727] Early on as Ned journeys through the first couple of pools, he crosses them with ease, but as reality begins to set in on what is actually going on, the trips in those pools become more difficult to cross.…

    • 947 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Personal Narrative: The BGHS Swim Team
    • 340 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Personal Narrative: The BGHS Swim Team

    When I was on the swim team during my sophomore year, I became a leader and lead our swim team to victory. The first few meets that buffalo grove high school participated in, victory did not seem like a possibility. Fortunately , with intense training from our new coaches and leadership skills from the older swimmers, we were able to turn that losing streak around into a glamorous victory. When the time came around for the practice 5 days before the meet. Ultimately my strategy was the 100 x 100’s. A combination of back to back butterfly , breaststroke, and freestyle, with only 7 second breaks in between each stroke. Unfortanatley, that was one of the most excruciating practices the BGHS swim team had experienced in the 2014 season. Although…

    • 340 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Swimmer Neddy's Drinking Problem
    • 213 Words
    • 1 Page

    The Swimmer Neddy's Drinking Problem

    Throughout the novel, Neddy’s drinking problem was obvious. He would start visiting friends and family who he knew would accompany him with a drink. At one point in the novel, after he arrived at Mrs Grahams home, she had spoke about how it was a marvelous surprise to see him and then said “Here, let me get you a drink”(728). This is clear that the only reason Neddy had shown…

    • 213 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Symbolism Analysis of the Swimmer
    • 302 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Symbolism Analysis of the Swimmer

    In the Swimmer the character (Neddy) swims through several pools on a journey he believes would “enlarge and celebrate its beauty” (251). These pools and the journey he swims symbolize the passing of time and the deterioration of his health. He began his journey feeling as though he was young and strong, “he seemed to have the especial slenderness of youth” (250). He seems to be very content with his life and his friendships. As he was swimming in his own pool the character soaked in the moment “the heat of the sun, the intenseness of his pleasure” (250). But, as Neddy begins his journey swimming from pool to pool he starts to become weak “his arms were lame. His legs felt rubbery and ached at the joints” (254). Neddy also felt depressed and saw the water as being “dark” (254). Time had passed as Neddy swam from pool to pool and as he visited and spoke with friends they were sorry for him. He arrived to Mrs. Halloran’s pool and she spoke of his “misfortune” (254). He could not remember selling his house or his children’s trouble and thought “he was losing his memory” (254). When he arrived back home as he “staggered with fatigue” (256) the lights were dimmed and no one was home, his house was empty. Neddy had named the chain of pools the “Lucinda River,” which was his way of expressing his long and reliable marriage. Even though ironically, his wife had left while on his journey on the Lucinda River. Neddy faces the consequences of his actions and harsh reality of the passing years for the first time. He ignored invitations and neglected his family and friends even before the journey took place and is left with the realization of his…

    • 302 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Dante’s Inferno and the Swimmer
    • 663 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Dante’s Inferno and the Swimmer

    Neddy chooses to swim through the chain of pools to clean himself, as if he was trying to baptize himself. However, as he visits people he knew, he takes note of their cryptic comments about his life and their attitudes towards him. By his journeys end…

    • 663 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Best Essays

    Cheever's Allusion
    • 1828 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Cheever's Allusion

    John Cheever’s short story, “The Swimmer,” was first published in 1964, and because of its popularity, a film was produced that told the story on the silver screen. The author, John Cheever, was born on May 27 1912 in Quincy, Massachusetts and began writing at the age of seventeen after being expelled from Thayer Academy. His first story was appropriately titled Expelled. Cheever was eventually made a Guggenheim Fellow, a grant for writers, which gave him money and the free will to write whatever he wanted (“John Cheever Biography”). Cheever’s short story, “The Swimmer,” revolves around a man named Neddy Merrill who sets out on a journey to swim across the county. Neddy sets out on his journey as a young man with great vitality , but as the…

    • 1828 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Best Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Swimmer John Cheever Analysis
    • 742 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Swimmer John Cheever Analysis

    Alcohol, for example, has many consequences when drinking it. John Cheever makes notes of alcohol throughout the novel. Alcohol has different representations. In the story, it can be represented as two things: a self-defense mechanism for Ned to forget his mistakes, or the mistakes itself. "A smiling bartender he had seen at a hundred parties gave him a gin and tonic and he stood by the bar...After swimming the pool he got himself a glass and poured a drink. It was his fourth or fifth drink"(Cheever 279). This quote, for example, explains how he uses alcohol to forget things. Most people who have four or five drinks do not function well with thinking, and Ned Merrill may be one of them. Throughout the story, Ned is written to almost have a drink after swimming; therefore, it is understandable for him to forget things, such as The Welchers moving away. If Ned is able to forget his neighbors moving away, then he is able to forget the mistakes he has made over time without accepting the consequences that go with it. The alcohol could also be used to represent the mistakes Ned has made through his life, and he insists on taking more. Ned goes to the Sachses' house for a drink, but is soon rejected by Helen. "'...I wonder if you’d give me a drink.' 'Why, I’d love to,' Helen said, 'but there hasn’t been anything in this house to drink since Eric’s operation.…

    • 742 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Edgar Allan Poe Substance Abuse
    • 695 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Edgar Allan Poe Substance Abuse

    Alcohol appears frequently in Poe’s stories, usually connected to some following violent act or event: ” One night, returning home, much intoxicated, from one of my haunts about town, I fancied that the cat avoided my presence. I seized him; when, in his fright at my violence, he inflicted a slight wound upon my hand with his teeth. The fury of a demon instantly possessed me. I knew myself no longer. My original soul seemed, at once, to take its flight from my body; and a more than fiendish malevolence, gin-nurtured, thrilled every fiber of my frame. I took from my waistcoat-pocket a penknife, opened it, grasped the poor beast by the throat, and deliberately cut one of its…

    • 695 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    American Society in The Swimmer by John Cheever
    • 822 Words
    • 3 Pages

    American Society in The Swimmer by John Cheever

    In The Swimmer by John Cheever, the main character Neddy Merrill is introduced at a social gathering at a friend's house with his wife while their children are at home. The story is set in suburbia which, during the time period, was a new emergence in American society and had become a symbol of status. Along with suburbia comes the idea of uniformity so naturally, everyone in the neighborhood had a pool, pools that Ned used as his way to reach home “by water” (American Literature, 2410). Throughout the story as Ned travels from pool to pool, more and more is revealed about him by his neighbors, things that Ned had seemingly forgotten or chosen to ignore. Upon first observation, it would appear that Ned's drinking had clouded his memory of certain things that had taken place recently like “When had he last heard from the Welchers” (American Literature, 2412). However, as the story progresses it is made clear that Ned has the tendency to conceal painful facts, keeping them repressed as a defense mechanism to deal with the real misery of his life. Because of that tendency of Ned's, one of the most prominent themes in The Swimmer is one must face reality eventually. This is exemplified within the story when Ned finds himself at his mistress' house and at the very end when he himself finally makes it home. This theme goes well with the usual John Cheever subject matter like “manners and morals of middle-class, suburban America, and the emotional emptiness of life” ( Liukkonen, 1) showing that Cheerer's work is rooted in Modernism.…

    • 822 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Alcoholism in the Shining
    • 621 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Alcoholism in the Shining

    In “The Shining”, written by Steven King, the reader is exposed to an issue that a lot of families face in the real world that of which is alcoholism. The story’s main character, Jack Torrance, struggles from this issue due to his troubled past regarding an abusive and alcoholic father as well as his struggle of becoming the very man he loved, yet hated as a child. By exposing the reader to alcoholism, they are instantly aware of the outcomes of it and how it can affect someone. King uses this method to help enhance the story, to allow the contents of the book to become real and relatable to the reader, and most importantly, to allow the reader to actually sympathize with the main characters.…

    • 621 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Swimmer by John Cheever
    • 633 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Swimmer by John Cheever

    , and the society that has nurtured him, as lacking in seriousness and responsibility. Neddy, the bewildered protagonist, represents a society satirized for centering its values on social status and materialism. During the course of Neddy's journey, the illusions he has constructed about his life are stripped away, and in the process the truth behind his society is realized. In unveiling the tragedy of Neddy's existence, Cheever reveals the unworthiness of an unexamined life.…

    • 633 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    The American Dream Analysis
    • 1423 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The American Dream Analysis

    True happiness could only be achieved with a balanced point of view of the world, friends and family, and of oneself. Winter Dreams and The Swimmer both critique the American Dream by pin pointing their characters’ weaknesses. Fitzgerald and Cheever have also, in some way, incorporated their own life into these two short stories. Fitzgerald was a middle-class man and after some hard work he became famous just like his character Dexter Green in Winter Dreams. Cheever faced dealing with the battle of alcoholism very much like his character Neddy Merrill in The Swimmer.…

    • 1423 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Metaphors In Life Of Pi
    • 198 Words
    • 1 Page

    Metaphors In Life Of Pi

    In this passage, Pi uses a metaphor to describe what it feels like to be stranded in the ocean. Considering that only a few people have gone through a similar situation, this metaphor puts into perspective what Pi regularly goes through. According to Pi, being a castaway is like being “a point perpetually at the centre of a circle”. Since the horizon always seems the same wherever Pi drifts, Pi (the point) feels as if he is constantly in the center of the ocean (circle). Along with this perspective, this metaphor also shows Pi’s hopelessness and loneliness he is facing as a castaway. Pi hopes for rescue, but at the same time, he loses the hope he still has left. This is because he knows rescue is unlikely. Similarly, Pi experiences loneliness,…

    • 198 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics