“I just wish I could go back in time”. This phrase tends to be fairly common among almost any person at some point in their life. Rather it be to just relive a great moment in your life, or to go back in time to change or fix something that was regrettable in your life. This idea of living the past crosses everyone’s mind at some point in their life. This includes some of the main characters from some of the stories that are form the first unit of this class. One overarching theme that can be seen in both John Cheever’s, The Swimmer, and Michael Chabon’s, The Lost World, is the idea of wanting to go and relive the past due to regret of not doing things differently. Similarities of wanting to live in the past can be seen in both Chabon’s and …show more content…
Cheever’s texts, evidenced through each stories main character. In The Lost World, Nathan wishes he could go back in time when he was friends with Chaya when they both went to school together instead of breaking apart. Early on in the story, Chabon explains Nathan’s view of Chaya post Hebrew school and explains, “In the three years since his liberation from Hebrew school he had seen Chaya twice, from a distance, coming out of a movie with her parents and her sister, Mara. Now Nathan was suddenly afraid of her” (190). Nathan actually became scared to even confront Chaya even though they used to be friends in the past and wishes he could change his friendship with her. Meanwhile in The Swimmer, Ned goes and relives his past events where everything was better in his life by swimming in pools instead of facing his current reality. At the beginning of the story Ned explains how, “Making his way home by an uncommon route gave him the feeling that he was a pilgrim, and explorer, a man with a destiny, and he knew that he would find friends all along his way; friends would line the banks of the Lucinda River” (2044). What Ned is really doing is revisiting his friends of the past by swimming in pools that for him, allow him to relive the past. In both of the main character’s situations, they want to go back in time to a point where they were happier and felt that they were enjoying life more. This can be seen as the case for anyone who has ever thought of reliving the past and going back to a great moment in your life. Otherwise, people want to go back in time to change a mistake they made and fix it. In Nathan’s case, he wishes he could have stayed close with Chaya and started a relationship with her eventually instead of fading apart after they left grade school. By the end of The Swimmer, Ned wishes he would have stopped swimming earlier on in the story so he could have stayed close with his friends instead of continuing to swim and eventually lose ties to all of his friendships. But in the end, both main characters cannot do anything to change what they want to change. Even though these two stories are significantly different, they do share some commonalities including reliving the past. Although both stories have a living in the past aspect about how the main character feels, each story has a different way of showing this major theme.
In The Swimmer, Ned swims in different pools to go to a different point in his life, but thinks it is all reality when his reality is actually much worse. Also, as Ned keeps on swimming to different people’s pools, his life keeps on gradually getting worse. Cheever shows how Ned is feeling by saying that, “It was probably the first time in his adult life that he had ever cried, certainly the first time in his life that he had ever felt so miserable, cold, tired, and bewildered” (2050). His friends and family all seem to either disappear or despise him as he swims and his condition gets worse as he begins to get weak physically and mentally. But in The Lost World, Nathan knows what his reality truly is unlike Ned, and he regrets not doing things differently in the past and wishes he could be closer with Chaya. Nathan only reflects on only one past moment of his rather than multiple instances like Ned. When describing a day Nathan spent with Chaya when he was six, Chabon states, “from time to time Nathan still thought about one distant afternoon when he and Chaya had somehow ended up playing together, in the fields behind the Huxley Interfaith Plexus” (189). This one memory that Nathan has is one of his best childhood memories and tends to think about it from time to time as he grew up. Also, Nathan reflects on only one past relationship of his rather Ned, who goes and visits multiple friends from the past. The unique differences these two stories have about living a moment in the past make both stories interesting and enjoyable to
read. Along with relating reliving the past to different texts from this unit, I can also relate to this theme on a personal level. One thing that I wish I could go back and do over again is playing on a baseball team. The last time that I played on a competitive team was in the eighth grade. Playing the game was truly a large part of my childhood and I loved every second of it. From the age of three to fourteen, baseball was a part of my summer. When I tried out for the high school team and didn’t make it I was extremely disappointed and did not know what to do with myself. I ended up not playing any more games until the summer of my junior year of high school when I decided to play on a summer baseball team. Getting the chance to play again made me realize how much I truly missed playing the game and made me think what it could have been like if I was more committed to the game and made the high school team. To me, this can be related to Nathan’s situation because he hadn’t seen Chaya in multiple years, and once he saw her again and realized how beautiful she looked, he wished he could go back in time and stay friends with her and not drift apart. Both of our wants to go back and relive the past are based off of a realization of how much we loved someone or something after a fair amount of time of not being with it. An overall theme that is found in both The Swimmer and The Lost World, is wanting to go back to a previous life event and relive it due to disappointment of not doing things differently in the past. Nathan and Ned have their different reasons for wanting to relive the past, but in the end, they both want to do it so they can live a better time in their life. Not only is this theme relatable to these two main characters, it is also relatable to me and to almost anybody else at some point in their life. Reliving the past is something pretty much every one wishes they can do during their lifetime, but at the end of the day, it is impossible to do and all we can do is just keep on wishing and waiting.
In today’s society compared to The Great Gatsby, there’s a lot of people that are very much so like Jay Gatsby. They tend to relive their past thinking that one day they’d do something from their past over again. For example, Gatsby told Nick in chapter six, “Can’t repeat the past?” he cried incredulously. “Why of course you can!” He believed that his past was supposed to be repeated like five years ago just with money this time around. Today people in society think living in their past would make them feel good again but it actually
“It was a new discovery to find that these stories were, after all, about our own lives, were not distant, that there was no past or future that all time is now-time, centred in the being.” (Pp39.)
Foremost, both stories are about men who once were very prosperous, but created their own demise. In “The Swimmer”, Neddy, the main character, initially seems to have a perfect life. “His life was not confining and the delight he took in this observation could not be explained...” (Cheever 216) He had a perfect family, high social status and very few problems in his life, or so he thought. His life is so wonderful that anything objectionable is repressed. Not until he takes the “journey” into realization, where he learns through others that his life has fallen apart. Neddy’s character is very similar to Charlie from “Babylon Revisited”. Charlie was very splendid in fortune until, he lost both his wife and his daughter due to his uncontrollable alcoholism. However, after “controlling” his drinking problem, he decides that he wants nothing to d...
Many individuals believe that history repeats itself and is on a never ending loop doomed to be repeated once again. However, the past cannot be recreated. The past is the past and while some characters in the novel The Great Gatsby realize this others simply do not. Gatsby has spent the better part of five years trying to recreate the time when him and Daisy were together. Furthermore, Gatsby fails to realize that things have changed and are no long the same as five years ago. The uncertainties of times before are not grounds to repair a current situation in an individual’s life. Reality now is not the same as once before. The old days should be left in former times and when an individual attempts to reconcile these events then corruption
“The Swimmer” is an allegory that is narrated in third person point of view as someone who is observing Neddy’s journey. This enables the reader to discover the reactions of friends and neighbors as Neddy arrives at their homes while still revealing the shift of the round character’s own attitude and feelings as his journey through life continues. Cheever wisely tells the story from a perspective in which the reader can still be connected to Neddy from the beginning to the end of the story while learning how his actions have disappointed others and not just himself. It also uncovers the involvement of each character and their relationship with Neddy before and after his mid-life crisis. If this story was told from any other point of view then the reader would only be obtaining one sided, in a sense a close minded, version whereas with a third person point of view the reader is approached to the entire situation given all perspectives. It guides the reader from one meaningful piece to another on an even level without any bias impressions while the story is being delivered.
Through symbolism the author shows us how Neddy goes from social drinking to destitution. Each stop at a neighbor’s pool gets progressively harder, but he keeps on. Neddy ignores these signs and becomes beaten and finally alone. This truly is a sad journey of a man who destroys himself through alcohol. As the story ends, Neddy realizes that he is alone. Will he change? Get help for his alcoholism? The author leaves us hanging, but at this point we know he is alone, everyone has abandoned him. Neddy has followed the stereotypical footsteps of an alcoholic.
In John Cheever’s, “The Swimmer”, on a hot summer Sunday ,while sitting by the pool with his wife and neighbors, as they all complained about their hangovers, a man of higher status named Needy Merrill decides to get home by swimming through the pools in his county. When Needy first starts off his journey he feels young and enthusiastic; he is then greeted in a joyous manner by his neighborhood friends. Apparently, Needy is a well-known and respected man. As his journey progresses he starts seeing red and orange leaves; he then realizes that it was fall. In the middle of his journey he starts to endure some turmoil, but he does not let that stop his journey. As his journey ends, Needy starts to come encounter with some people who constantly mention his misfortune and struggle with his family. Needy does not remember any of the turmoil that had been going on in his life, and starts to wonder if his memory is failing him. Towards the end, many of the people that came encounter with treated him rudely. Needy realizes that something must have went wrong in his life. When Needy arrives home, he sees that his house is empty and that his family is gone. In “The Swimmer “, John Cheever uses setting to symbolize the meaning of the story.
Whether it is miniscule things like Tom’s character and Daisy’s sobriety or larger scale things like buying a house or throwing extravagant parties, the past and the experiences it holds are a major component in people’s present and future lives. Considering all this, I think it’s appropriate to consider what this realization can mean and how one can use it for the better. If it’s so evident that the past affects one future, there must be ways to use this positively and take advantage of the phenomenon. In The Great Gatsby, after all drama had been completed, Nick Carraway ends his narration by deciding to take what has happened and try to move on. Nick affirms, “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past” (Fitzgerald
Dwelling on the past will make the future fall short. When longing for the past one often fails to realize that what one remembers is not in actuality how it happened. These flashbulb memories create a seemingly perfect point in time. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s modernist novel the Great Gatsby, the ill-fated Jay Gatsby wastes the present attempting to return back to that “perfect” time in past. Acknowledging the power of the imagination, Nick states that, “No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart” (Fitzgerald 101). Nick realizes that because the past is irretrievable, Gatsby’s struggle, though heroic, is foolish. Gatsby’s great expectations of Daisy leads to great disappointments. Through Gatsby, Fitzgerald tries to instill his
The protagonists, Holden Caulfield and Neddy Merrill struggle with the conflict of society’s norms which expects one to grow up and follow the social class structure as well as the association with wealth and money. Their struggle with such norms produced negative results even though they change and realize their mistakes. However, it is too late for Neddy.
The past is a time that is no longer happening and one can never go back to it. Maybe one can remember the past, but it can never be relived. Trying to relive the past can really mess with one’s head; as one starts reminiscing and if it gets to the extremes, one can become quite obsessive. In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the theme of hope and seeking an unattainable dream is constantly recognized throughout the novel, the leading character Jay Gatsby is trying to recreate the past, but it got the best of him.
Time’s passage, an unstoppable, eternal occurrence, manifests itself in our daily lives. Everybody has a different outlook on time: we either have plenty of it or are running out of it! Time, a construct developed by man, turns the tables and now controls the lives of its creator. We measure our own successes with how time affects us individually. Objects that are considered timeless are treasured whereas something worn down by time has lost most of its value. In As I Lay Dying, The Working Poor, The Great Gatsby, A Streetcar Named Desire, and The Scarlet Letter, William Faulkner, David K. Shipler, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tennessee Williams, and Nathaniel Hawthorne demonstrate the classes differing attitudes towards time. Though the social classes
“I wouldn't ask too much of her," I ventured. "You can't repeat the past. “Can’t repeat the past?" he cried incredulously. "Why of course you can! “He looked around him wildly, as if the past were lurking here in the shadow of his house, just out of reach of his hand” (Fitzgerald 110).
...ople may feel that they want to return to the past and relive moments that they cherish, despite this being virtually impossible.
Through the story of Mrs. Bentley’s growth and acceptance of the present, he articulates the individual’s inability to combat the powerful hands of time. One is stuck constantly between its fingers, indefinitely pushed into the future with only physical reminders left of ages passed. Here, Bradbury’s account of time mingles with his analysis of conceptual happiness, as he implies that physical reminders of the past distort one’s understanding of the present, leaving it undeniably unsatisfying. The worn adage “comparison is the thief of joy” rings true in Bradbury’s telling of Mrs. Bentley’s story, and he expands the idea to apply not only to comparison to others, but comparison to oneself at a different stage in life. He illustrates that since one can never return to the past or predict the future, the stages of one’s life are as foreign and irrelevant to one another as one’s current situation is to a stranger’s present. In fact, he writes that Mrs. Bentley herself feels freedom when she gets rid of her past self’s belongings and allows herself to open up to the unique experiences of her present. In releasing herself from reminders of passed joys, she opens herself to new, potential