In a story by John Cheever, a man decides to go from his friend’s house and swim across the county to his own home. Since there is a lack of a large body of water such as a lake or river, Neddy Merrill decides to make his path go through his neighbors’ pools. The narrator only takes a couple of hours to complete Ned’s journey, but the seasons change and time passes as though several years have gone by. In these changing years, Ned descends from youthful ecstasy into loss and suffering. The main character of “The Swimmer” can be classified as a gambler and alcoholic because of the choices he makes, the thoughts narrated for him throughout his expedition, and the way his life ends up falling apart. The choices Ned make play a huge part in how …show more content…
An addict will always be thinking about their next “fix”. “[H]e stood by the bar for a moment, anxious not to get stuck in any conversation that would delay his voyage.” (7.) Ned is anxious to continue his journey because at the next pool awaits another drink. Oftentimes when addicts are denied a fix, they become violent and angry. Lashing out due to a lack of alcohol would cause problems or, symbolically, a storm. “Why did he love storms…why did the first watery notes of a storm wind have for him the unmistakable sound of good news, cheer, glad tidings?” (9.) The storm of Ned’s lack of alcohol would make him fly into distress. The storm brought “glad tidings” because it was a sign that another drink was soon to come. In one point of the story, the narrator states plainly that Ned needs an intoxicant. “He needed a drink. Whiskey would warm him, pick him up, carry him through the last of his journey, refresh his feeling that it was original and valorous to swim across the county…He needed a stimulant” (26.) In an addiction, a fix makes a person feel whole again, which is what Neddy means when he says the whiskey will refresh him. Addiction, like what Ned is dealing with, tears lives …show more content…
“‘We’ve been terribly sorry to hear about all your misfortunes…Why, we heard that you’d sold the house and that your poor children…” (19.) It is possible that Neddy’s alcoholism was triggered by the misfortune involving his children. This is not his only calamity. “‘They went for broke overnight−nothing but income−and he showed up drunk one Sunday and asked us to loan him five thousand dollars…’” (37.) The most likely explanation for Ned going broke overnight would be that he made a big bet on something, feeling assured he would win, but in a turn of events he lost everything. After losing his children, his fortune, his home, and settling into addiction, there wasn’t anything left for him. “The house was locked… He shouted, pounded on the door, tried to force it with his shoulder, and then, looking in at the windows, saw that the place was empty.” (49.) Despite trying to force himself back into his life and his home, Ned would come to find out that while he was wasting his life and money on alcohol and gambling, the world was moving on and there would be no relief at
All humans have their sufferings and Jack is no expectation, he has problems with drinking depression and denial. Once Ian realized this, he reassured him and tried to ease away the pain. This is shown in the book when Ian stated to Jack “It’s just that I think you should stop drinking.”(Walters 166) Ian likewise said that if Jack could stop drinkin...
Water is a powerful medium for introspection. This truth is evident in the short story, 'Greasy Lake,' by T. Coraghessan Boyle. In this story, water serves as a catalyst for self-reflection, as it propels the protagonist into a certain degree of conflict, and ultimately works to reveal and confront the character?s inner struggle.
The story describes the protagonist who is coming of age as torn between the two worlds which he loves equally, represented by his mother and his father. He is now mature and is reflecting on his life and the difficulty of his childhood as a fisherman. Despite becoming a university professor and achieving his father’s dream, he feels lonely and regretful since, “No one waits at the base of the stairs and no boat rides restlessly in the waters of the pier” (MacLeod 261). Like his father, the narrator thinks about what his life could have been like if he had chosen another path. Now, with the wisdom and experience that comes from aging and the passing of time, he is trying to make sense of his own life and accept that he could not please everyone. The turmoil in his mind makes the narrator say, “I wished that the two things I loved so dearly did not exclude each other in a manner that was so blunt and too clear” (MacLeod 273). Once a decision is made, it is sometimes better to leave the past and focus on the present and future. The memories of the narrator’s family, the boat and the rural community in which he spent the beginning of his life made the narrator the person who he is today, but it is just a part of him, and should not consume his present.
Finding home boarded up; a sensation of coldness and unwelcoming takes over. Sudden misfortunes arise from what was once a perfect life, and the world appears upside-down. Attempts to 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 pools in his county to reach his own house. The neighbors welcome him at first, until a storm passes and everyone begins to regard him negatively. When he finally reaches home from his journey, he finds his house empty and boarded up. Just like the author, Ned suffered after he put aside his issues. John Cheever develops his theme that changes will inevitably come as time passes by in his short story "The Swimmer" through his use of symbolism, tone, and irony.
Blythe, Hal, and Charlie Sweet. “An Historical Allusion In Cheever's 'The Swimmer'.” Studies In Short
The swim is presented to the reader as an enormous challenge that only the brave and desperate would face, such as a player in a challenging computer game. Diction such as ‘dangerous’ and ‘trouble’ used throughout the swim maintains the risk the swimmer must face. The line“whirled pearl smoke,'; signifies confusion which heightens the unsureness of the situation. Vulnerability becomes evident as the swimmer suffers “cunning furtive spasms.'; The challenge heightens and the swimmer is represented as an “angry isolate.'; Like a computer game special affects are added in to increase the danger such as the lightning and the darkness.
The first, most noticeable theme, is alcohol. In “The Swimmer”, alcohol represents Neddy’s longing for a high-spirited life and an admirable social status. The drinking, serving, and craving for alcohol became a major influence for Neddy, as well as a way to maintain his social status. The story starts off talking about alcohol. They are all sitting around the Westerhazy’s pool complaining “I drank too much last night”, but as expected they are at the pool the next morning drinking again. Before Neddy decides to leave to swim from pool to pool, he drinks gin and continues to drink on his whole journey home. Almost every pool that Neddy stops at, he asks the pool owner for a drink. Neddy has already had plenty of drinks by the time he gets himself
In “The Swimmer” by John Cheever, Neddy’s view of reality is drastically different from his neighbors. Neddy thinks that the entire story takes place in the time of an afternoon, when in reality many months have passed. Even though Neddy is stuck in the past, his neighbors and the rest of society move on, and at first it causes slightly awkward sympathy, but later he finds himself completely alone, his family, friends and neighbors having left him behind. Neddy’s situation illustrates that the passage of time is inevitable, and even if one chooses to ignore time, it will move on without them.
Our journey starts in the year 1853 with four Scandinavian indentured servants who are very much slaves at the cold and gloomy headquarters of the Russian-American fur-trading company in Sitka, Alaska. The story follows these characters on their tortuous journey to attempt to make it to the cost of Astoria, Oregon. Our list of characters consists of Melander, who is very much the brains of the operation as he plans the daring escape from the Russians. Next to join the team was Karlson, who was chosen by Melander because he is a skilled canoeman and knows how to survive in the unforgiving landscape of the Pacific Northwest. Third was Braaf, he was chosen because of his ability to steal and hide things, which made him a very valuable asset to the teams escape. Last to join our team is Wennberg who we know is a skilled blacksmith who happens to hear about their plan and forces himself into the equation.
In John Cheever's story The Swimmer, Neddy Merrill is a successful man. His success is measured by the prestigious neighborhood he lives in with tennis, golf and swimming pools. Neddy has made it socially and financially. He is never without an invitation to social events, which always include drinking. He is at the top of his game. While attending the party at the Westerhazy's house with his wife, he has the desire to swim home. He sees the line of swimming pools that stretch eight miles to his home, he calls them the “Lucinda River” (297) . He is a confident man and thought "of himself as a legendary figure" (250-251). He dives in and when he gets out on the other side, he informs his wife he is swimming home. Cheever uses each pool that Neddy visits to show the passage of time in Neddy's life, and reveals how his alcoholism, infidelity and continual denial of his actions led to the destruction of his American dream.
For example, the character Timber experienced a tragic event which left his beloved wife, Sylvan, with brain damage, causing her to forget who he was. Her love and support was the driving force in his. Timber says “she’d come home at night and find me there and we’d walk into the house which was our home” (Wagamese, 2009, p. 205). His choice of words convey that the house was only a home when Sylvan was there. When she was taken away from him, he was emotionally homeless. With his wife needing care in an expensive special facility, Timber resorted to selling their belongings and eventually their house, making him physically homeless as well. This, in association with the loss of his wife, caused him to leave his former life. This response is similar to the “fight or flight” response animals and humans have with the presence of stress (Davidson, 2015). Timber chose to flee from his problems as apposed to fight to rebuild his life. With this behaviour, it is not surprizing that he also took up a drinking problem. Similar to the aforementioned Digger, Timber used alcohol as a means to self-medicate. He says about drinking, “it’s all [he] could do because [he] didn’t want to surface to the blackness, the emptiness of [his] life” (Wagamese, 2009, p. 208). Timber’s poor mental health and substance abuse only further contributed to his
What does it mean to be in a state of drunkenness? A person who is inebriated views his surroundings in a surreal fashion; reality exists on the periphery. The drunk is by default interacting with the world on an inferior level as opposed to those who are sober. Alcoholism is also a chronic debilitating disease. It resonates outward from the individual to all those that he has contact within his life. Joyce utilizes the character of the drunk in many of the stories in Dubliners, hardly a story skips a mention of drink. Among despair, isolation and dependence, alcoholism is a theme that runs through all the stories. Alcoholism is the focus in "Grace" where Joyce takes the symbolic alcoholic and shows us what Joyce believes is a part of the problem plaguing Dublin.
This part of the story is used by Carver to display the physical problems that result from withdrawal from alcohol. It is clear that these problems are significant, but overcoming them doesn't compare to the task of repairing the bonds with family members and friends that have been destroyed. In this story, the healing process is quite unique for the characters in that it involves a large group of men, all suffering from the same illness, pulling together and supporting each other through the pain- almost like a modern day leper colony. They are separated from their family and friends, and are forced to keep their focus on recovering from the disease.... ...
Cheever, John. "The Swimmer." The Northon Anthology American Literature. 8th ed. Vol. E. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. 156-65. Print.
There are many times where the narrator describes his actions towards his loved ones while under the influence of alcohol. Since the narrator is trying to draw the attention to his consumption of alcohol, he tries to make sure that his actions trace back to it. In the short story, the narrator says "But my disease grew upon me -- for what disease is like Alcohol !..."(Poe 23) which shows his addiction for alcohol becoming stronger. The narrator's madness seems to be heightened by the alcohol. He begins to chan...