Irony In The Swimmer By John Cheever

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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…

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

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