John Cheever's Personal Connection to The Swimmer

Why do people read literature? The definition of literature is a writing of some sort in which expression and form are characteristics or features of the writing. It can come in the form of poetry, novels, biographies, or essays. There are a couple of main reasons people usually read literature. People usually read for an escape from life, to learn something new, to confront human experience, or simply for pleasure. One of the more popular of those four is to confront human experience. They use what the author writes down and apply it to their daily life. Authors sometimes do that too. They write down their own experiences to give the audience pleasure, or to realize that they shouldn’t make the same mistakes. When it comes to translating his experiences into books for others to enjoy and learn, John Cheever is the master. By researching Cheever, I was able to understand his background, read his short story “The Swimmer” closely, and make a personal connection.

Author Biography

Known for writing about the world of the American suburbs, John Cheever is one of the greats. It is not because he wrote many great stories, was very rich, and had a fantastic life. He may have been some of those things, but not all of them like he had hoped. Much like most authors, John Cheever had a troubled life behind the books. He had many demons that translated into his stories. But even with all of that, John Cheever is known as one of the most popular short story writers of the twentieth century.

Cheever was born on May 27, 1912 in Quincy, Massachusetts. His family was very well endowed until the Great Depression when the stock market crash affected his father’s shoe factory. After that, his father left the family with no income...

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...story, I found it so easy to connect with the character and setting. This could happen in DeWitt for all we know. It explains a troubled guy who lives in a suburb, which is very common. I related to it a lot.

By reading, understanding, and connecting with John Cheever’s short story The Swimmer, the message of why we read literature became evident. Not only does the audience get to experience a story that they can relate to, but chances are the author is relating to it as well. It is more like a journal: a way to express and reveal emotions. John Cheever perfects the angle of creating yourself in a character. Maybe that is the reason everyone should write, to express their inner, most deep emotions for all to see.

Works Cited

Cheever, John. "The Swimmer." The Northon Anthology American Literature. 8th ed. Vol. E. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. Print.