The Swimmer "The Swimmer", a short story by John Cheever, uses both symbolism and irony to express the authors theme that all people look at the world through a colored lens. Then he describes we cannot cope with our reality, we choose to change our view if reality, to see it differently, instead of actually changing it. Summary—the story focuses on Neddy Merrill, a man who is happy and content with his life. After a long day, he chooses to make the journey back to his house by swimming along the Lucinda River. This river is made up of a collection pf pools at his friends' houses. He begins the trip strong and powerful but ends feeling weak and sickly. As he makes his way home the people he once called friends begin to become cold and distant. As time goes on, it becomes apparent that this journey is not happening in a …show more content…
matter of hours but in a matter of years, as the once virile and peppy Neddy Merrill descends into the grips of alcoholism. When he finally reaches his house he finds it to be empty and it becomes clear to him that his family has left him his house is now abandoned. symbolism/irony- One main focus of the symbolism in the story is the Lucinda River.
It represents to Neddy a fun and adventurous way home while actually symbolizing a long destructive journey. A point of irony that also goes with this is that the farther he travels along the Lucinda River the farther he gets from Lucinda, his wife, both physically and mentally. Another major point of symbolism is the stretch of highway he has to cross to return home. While it is never truly stated if he is actually an actual highway or a mental one, the symbolic importance remains the same: This is Neddy Merrill's rock bottom. He cannot perceive that he is in his rock bottom while he stands half naked on the side of a busy highway waiting for what seems to him like an eternity to cross. When he is crossing is crossing over, he is at the worst moment of his life and his only way out is up. It very slowly becomes clearer to Neddy Merrill that something is wrong with his perception. The symbolic nature of him crossing that highway plays a key role in showing the reader that this is actually happening, Unlike Neddy Merrill's confusion about the
truth. Conclusion- "The Swimmer" has the reader question what is reality. The author, uses key plot points and certain techniques to further his general thesis that we see what we want to see. This saddening story about one man's descent into alcoholism is the perfect vehicle. While we may not see the world as it truly is, we can always hope to.
For situational irony I choose the novel or movie .”The Maze Runner.” The situational irony that happened in this story was when Alby and Minho try to examine a weird creature.They wanna bring it back to the glade where they live ,but the griever is actually alive and injuries Alby.Which it makes it difficult to go back to go to the glade.This is situational irony,because now they're trapped inside the maze with the griever with one injured person.
Like salt and pepper to beef, irony adds “flavor” to some of the greatest works of literature. No matter if readers look at old pieces of work like Romeo and Juliet or more modern novels like To Kill a Mockingbird, irony’s presence serve as the soul fuel that pushes stories forward. By definition, irony occurs when writers of books, plays, or movies destine for one event or choice to occur when the audiences expects the opposite; like Tom Robinson being found guilty after all evidences point other ways in To Kill a Mockingbird. These unique plot twists add mystery and enjoyability to hundreds of books. From the very beginning of The Chosen, a novel written by Chaim Potok, to the very end, irony’s presences does not leave the reader at any
...ut Jake in a confused state of his life. His love has always been the river, giving him hope, peace, friendship, brotherhood, and love. The river gave him everything but has now taken away his only brother for no reason at all. No matter how much he tries to get away from his past, the river is his life and has become his home.
In the story “Love in L.A” written by Dagoberto Gilb, the main character Jake is living his life as a lie. Jake is daydreaming about a better car and life when he causes an accident on the L.A. freeway. Instead of Jake driving away, he decides to face the issue and realizes the person he hit is a beautiful young woman. From there Jake begins to tell lies to impress the women but, the truth was, Jake didn’t have a steady occupation or insurance and his fear of the unknown kept him untruthful. In the fiction story “Love in L.A.”, irony is used because, although Jake dreamed about a better life he wasn’t willing to do anything to change his current life, as well as make better decisions.
There are many instances of irony in the short story "One's a Heifer" by Sinclair
Then he has a vision of home, "where his four beautiful daughters would have had their lunch and might be playing tennis" and sees himself as free to be an explorer. In starting his journey he walks away from reality and enters a fantasy world where he is a great explorer about to conquer the Lucinda River that he names after his wife. In reality he ignored his wife, engaged in adulte...
John Cheever does not merely state the theme of his story, he expresses his theme, as a good writer should, in a variety of metaphors and analogies coupled with powerful imagery. In The Swimmer, Cheever writes and underscores his primary theme of alcoholism in many ways, such as his use of autumnal imagery and the color green. However, there is also some very prominent symbolism and allusions that serve to highlight the theme while also augmenting the artistic and poetic nature of the story. One very important use of symbolism is in the “perverted sacraments” as originally pointed out by Hal Blythe in 1984. Along side these symbols, Hal Blythe, along with Charlie Sweet, later discovered a clear allusion to Ponce de Leòn in 1989.
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.
Coming home from the grueling experience of being a soldier in World War I, he felt ecstatic when he saw a trout swimming in the stream. The perils of war took a devastating toll on Nick, as he suffered from a physical wound while in action. The camping trip here is like an oasis, which will let Nick to recover from all the distress. “Nick looked down into the pool from the bridge. It was a hot day. A kingfisher flew up from the stream. It was a long time since Nick had looked into a stream and seen trout. They were very satisfactory...Nick’s heart tightened as the trout moved. He felt all the old feeling.” (178) The healing process begins here with Nick re-acclimating himself with one of his favorite hobbies: fishing. “He started down to the stream, holding his rod...Nick felt awkward and professionally happy with all the equipment hanging from him...His mouth dry, his heart down...Holding the rod far out toward the uprooted tree and sloshing backward in the current, Nick worked the trout, plunging, the rod bending alive, out of the danger of the weeds into the open river. Holding the rod, pumping alive against the current, Nick brought the trout in...” (190,193,195) Nick finally reels in a trout after the big one got away, getting to the feeling of relaxation and washing away the horrors of war. By pitching his tent out in the forest and being able to function by himself so smoothly, Nick shows how he represents the trait of stoicism. He did not complain or stop living, coming back with the trauma of war. Going camping, he is able to relieve himself through using all the nature around him, showcasing his
In the short story, "Guests of the Nation," Frank O'Connor uses irony to illustrate the conflict which men face when their roles as combatants force them to disregard the humanity of their enemies. In both life and literature, irony exists when there is a contrast between expectation and reality. Verbal irony is defined as "a figure of speech in which the actual intent is expressed in words which carry the opposite meaning" (Thrall 248). In dramatic irony there is a contrast between a character's perception of a situation and the actual facts. Often "some of the actors on the stage or some of the characters in a story are 'blind' to facts known to the spectator or reader" (155) . The short story "Guests of the Nation" by Frank O'Connor illustrates both types of irony.
One poem that is full of irony is “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen. The very title is ironic which means it is sweet and right to die for your country. His poem talks all about World War I but nothing about it is sweet or shows the honor of dying for one’s country. In this poem, he shares the harsh conditions and grim reality of war. As a soldier he witnessed his friends choking and dying by gas, no glorified death. He saw the real physical and mental exhaustion of these soldiers. He uses irony to get his point across of the truly horrific experiences of men at war.
Irony can often be found in many literary works. “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin is masterfully written full of irony. The characters of the short story, Mrs. Mallard, Josephine, Richards, Mr. Brently Mallard, and the doctors all find their way into Chopin’s ironic twists. Chopin embodies various ironies in “The Story of an Hour” through representations of verbal irony, dramatic irony, and situational irony.
...or granted. Neddy's desire to swim home does not end the way he would like it to. He is at the end of his journey, and is now faced with reality. He is all alone, and has lost everything he thought made him successful. He started out as a social drinker just like everyone else. He started to need alcohol, and became an embarrassment to his family and friends. He drank more to avoid his problems. His alcoholism led to his affair, and the end of his marriage to Lucinda. His denial led to his desperate pleas for money and alcohol from his friends. He ruined his social and financial standing. In the end, Neddy Merrill destroyed his American dream.
The overarching theme throughout the entire poem is that of choices. The concept of “two roads diverged,” or a split in the road, is a metaphor representing a choice which the narrator must make. Being “sorry [he] could not travel both… [being] one traveler” illustrates that, although he wishes he could see the results of both choices, as seen in saying he “looked as far as [he] could to where it bent,” he is but one pers...