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The Challangers Quest
The world today can be a dangerous place, causing people to be precautions. To be a risk taker in today’s society involves courage and a willingness to be vulnerable. In the poem“Swimming alone,'; author Patricia Keeney uses diction and imagery to convey that venturing into risky situations requires one to be brave and yet desperate.
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.
Imagery such as “Deliberately fracturing glass moving down through pools'; conveys the mental picture of the water being glass shattered with every stroke. Shattering glass suggesting danger and fear. “Barely missing the moon’s pale hiss,'; portrays the image of a deadly snake, heightening the risk of the challenge. The depiction of “white nudes between each sizzling shaft,'; brings to the reader the vulnerability the swimmer feels running from one danger to another. Also, the affect of a challenging computer game is again played. The swimmer is like a loosing player challenging each feat and then faced with yet another.
Some goodness comes out of taking the risk of swimming alone. Ones“prohibition and expectations are ignored.'; The challenger of this feat has let go of all egoism as a result of the vulnerability faced.
In the short story “Touching Bottom”, the author Kari Strutt uses a variety of examples of symbolism as a way to emphasize important traits about the narrator to the reader. First of all, Strutt uses the yellow towel as a symbol for the narrator’s feeling of comfort and security. For example, when the narrator opens her eyes for the first time underwater as a young girl “[she] [is] afraid”(124), but when her father greets her with a yellow towel after she surfaces “the fear, what [is] left of it, [evaporates]”(124). This shows the reader how the narrator finds safety in her yellow towel since all of the fear that she has trapped in her body is released when she is wrapped in the yellow towel. Furthermore, Strutt uses the contrast between murky
water, curved and smooth and green.'; This seems to illustrate the peacefulness of the situation, almost creating a lazy, calm atmosphere. However, the imagery within “The Swimmer'; is quite opposite. “The Swimmer'; tends to portray a scene of force, as there is no evidence of the peaceful interaction between man and water as found in “Lone Bather.'; Evidence of such force ...
The main ideas that are expressed in John Cheever's The Swimmer, is how Neddy lives through a variety of stages of alcoholism and how they each affect his everyday life. In The Swimmer, Neddy takes daily swims through multiple swimming pools. This represents the journeys in his life. He goes from being cheerful to complete sadness and depression. When Neddy is or is not swimming also represents the emotions he is going through. For example, when Neddy is not swimming, he will feel down or angry for no apparent reason. Because of his alcohol addiction, he is usually looking for alcohol during this period of time. Once he has had a few drinks, he is feeling much better and is ready to swim again. “He needed a drink. Whiskey would warm him, pick him up, carry him ...
Cheever, John. “The Swimmer”. Short Fiction: Classic and Contemporary. 6th ed. Ed. Charles Bohner and Lyman Grant. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2006.
“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.
John Cheever uniquely crafted the story “The Swimmer” by using a mix of surrealism and realism throughout the story. Most people when they read “The Swimmer” they have to reevaluate it to comprehend what is happening. The reason for that is because Cheever shifts between surrealism and realism so much that the reader does not even notice. The story starts out with Neddy being so strong and youthful, but as the story goes on he weakens and ages. When he was youthful Neddy decided to swim every pool in his neighborhood. As he ages and weakens, the pools get harder to swim and the seasons pass without him even noticing.
Cheever, John. "The Swimmer." The Northon Anthology American Literature. 8th ed. Vol. E. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. Print.
The Swimmer by John Cheever begins at Helen and Donald Westerhazy’s pool when Neddy Merrill makes the decision to journey eight miles home by swimming through a series of pools, he calls the “Lucinda River” (297) and walking when unable to swim. While he making his way back home, he stops at fourteen old friends’ houses and drinks before continuing on if possible. By the end of Neddy’s journey, he is exhausted and comes to the realization that he has lost not only his house but also his wife and daughters, and also his so-called friends and even a mistress. Cheever suggests that alcoholism is a destruction of life through the use of symbolism, imagery, and characterization.
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.
In the writings of great authors it is easy to pick out the literary elements used by them. Edgar Allan Poe is one of these authors. He makes use of the same literary elements in many of his stories. Three of the most used literary elements are irony, antagonists and foreshadowing.
A virtuoso of suspense and horror, Edgar Allan Poe is known for his Gothic writing style. His style is created through his use of punctuation, sentence structure, word choice, tone, and figurative language. Punctuation-wise; dashes, exclamation marks, semicolons, and commas are a favorite of Poe. His sentences vary greatly; their structures are influenced by punctuation. Much of his word choice set the tone of his works. Figurative language colors his writings with description. Such is observed in the similarities between two of his most well-known short stories, “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”
Imagery of all kinds is abundant in this passage as Meursault, the main character, pays great attention to and describes in detail the beach environment that surrounds him. Visual imagery is present as he conveys the intense heat by telling how it seemed as though the sky had cracked open and was raining flame, and by personifying the ocean, recounting how it breathed blistering hot air onto the beach.
Edgar Allen Poe uses diction like “descended”, and “passed on” to foreshadow the death of Fortunato in the crypts. The word descent is often used to symbolize going to hell or that a situation has gone downhill. When Fortunato and Montresor are walking further down into the catacombs Poe writes, “We passed through a range of low arches, descended, passed on, and descending again, arrived at a deep crypt.” By saying that they passed on in the middle of this journey, it could represent his actual death, while the first descent is his choice to follow Montresor and the second being his journey to some sort of afterlife.
This pool is my soul, and the slight, gentle waves are the beating of my heart. I stand on the deck looking down at the clear, calm water, and raise my hands above my head. I dive into the water, smooth and straight like an arrow. I enter the water without a splash, and glide underwater, feeling the cool water on my skin, and the scent of chlorine in the air. I feel powerful, immortal, and completely at peace.
After the week of tryouts, I had one more obstacle to overcome: timed trials. If i exceeded the coaches expectation, I would most definitely make the team. Therefore, At the blow of the whistle, I sprung into a dive and swam as fast as I could. Once I finished the race, I glanced around to discover that everybody else had already finished. I assured myself repeatedly that I still had the chance to make the team; however, the anticipation for the results got the better of me,