The Swimmer

In the short story “ The Swimmer,” John Cheever expresses the idea that Neddy Merrill can lose everything if he denies reality. Cheever achieves this by employing various symbols during Merrill's cross county journey. The main symbol is the climate. Cheever uses the changes in weather to distort the character’s sense of time and show the progression of Merrill’s life. In the beginning of the story the setting is described as a midsummer day and by the end of the story, Merrill is able to see the constellations of late autumn, meaning winter is near. The illusion of time allows the reader to understand the extent of Merrill’s state of denial, as his beliefs begin to contradict the reality around him. To emphasize Merrill’s state of denial, Cheever

employs the motif of alcohol in “The Swimmer;” the reader notices that when Merrill is presented with a reality that he deems unpleasant, he uses alcohol to enhance his state of denial. Through the critical lens of New Historicism, the reader can infer the author’s purpose for writing “The Swimmer” is to criticize the lifestyles of affluent people in the 1950s and early 1960s. Cheever focuses on the party lifestyle of affluent communities and how the use of alcohol allows them to deny the reality around their current misfortunes.
After World War II, American communities saw a shift towards the development of affluent suburbs.

Most were in the North Eastern part of America. Along with the rise of the upper-middle-class many social changes and different lifestyles arose as well. Through New Historicism, the reader can view “The Swimmer” as a criticism of upper-middle-class lifestyles and communities. This is supported by how Cheever introduces the setting in his story. Cheever introduces the story in Bullet Park, a suburban community in Northeastern America. The author describes the county as having people playing golf and tennis while others enjoy parties by the poolside of their houses. Neddy Merrill is described as a typical upper-class American initially having a high social status and giving the impression of “youth, sport, and clement weather.”(Cheever 776). Merrill also drinks a lot of gin, a drink at the time that was perceived to be preferred by the rich. Throughout the story, every major event is accompanied by the use of alcohol. This is where Cheever focuses most of his criticism: that the rich escape their reality by excessive amount of parties and use of alcohol. This counters the common believe that affluent people are happy because they can acquire anything with wealth. Cheever uses “The Swimmer” to show that some rich people find themselves depressed and have many problems of their own that they use alcohol to deal with. Cheever uses Neddy Merrill as a symbol for people in affluent

communities, in order to show that although the upper-classes might be able to temporarily elude reality, their misfortunes will eventually catch up to them.
Cheever uses alcohol as a motif throughout the story to show Merrill's state of denial and despair.

The character is first introduced holding a glass of gin which suggests his dependency on alcohol. As he embarks on his journey across the county, he is given a drink upon his arrival at the first house. Halfway through his trip, he would have already had four or five drinks. The more he drinks, the more time seems distorted and the weaker Merrill becomes. When Merrill reaches the Halloran’s he is dazed by the news of his misfortunes. After receiving the bad news, the narrator describes Merrill’s fatigue: “His arms were lame. His legs felt rubbery and ached at the joints. The worst of it was the cold in his bones and the feeling that he might never be warm again”( Cheever 784). The weaker Merrill became, the more he desires a drink. Cheever uses alcohol in his short story to provide Merrill an escape from his reality: “He needed a drink. Whiskey would warm him, pick him up, carry him through the last of his journey...”( Cheever 784). The narrator describes how Merrill perceives alcohol a solution to his problems as the journey gets harder. He becomes displeased as it becomes increasingly harder to obtain a drink, being denied at the Halloran’s, Saches’ and Shirley Adam’s houses. The difficulty of obtaining a drink mirrors Merrill’s difficulties with facing the reality of his misfortunes. Cheever also uses alcohol as a motif to represent social status. At the beginning of

Merill’s journey, he is well liked by the occupants of the pools he swims in. When he reaches the Bunkers' residence the bartender greets him pleasantly and serves him a drink. However, when Merrill is reaching the end of his journey his hosts do not welcome him as warmly as others did before. When he reaches the Biswanger’s party he faces a social blow from the host, Grace Biswanger, followed by the bartender rudely serving him. The bartender rudely serving Merrill shows the decline in Merrill’s social status. This evidence supports the New Historicism critical lense because Cheever criticizes affluent communities where your social status is based on your wealth. Cheever shows this in the story when Mrs. Biswanger is rude to Merrill and later comments on how he begged them for money. Merrill’s action is to deny the reality of his misfortunes requests a drink from the bartender.
Along with the use of alcohol Cheever uses the climate in “The Swimmer” in order to distort time. The climate in the story symbolizes the state of Neddy Merrill's perceived reality. In the beginning of the story, the setting is described to be a midsummer Sunday. The narrator introduces the main character, Neddy Merrill, as “a summer’s day”. The narrator goes as far to say that he gives the impression of clement weather. As he embarks on his journey a storm begins to gather overhead. The gathering of the storm is foreshadowing the changes in the seasons. Prior to the storm taking place, the narrator describes the setting as being warm and summer. After the storm, the setting is no longer described as a summer day but more as fall. The storm is not only a turning point in the weather but it is also a turning point in Merrill’s journey. After the storm his memory seems to be more distorted, since he does not remember his friends, The Welchers, moving. However, not only does Merrill deny the change in climate, but he also denies the reality of his misfortunes. After the storm passes Merrill denies the apparent changess to his environment and continues on his journey: “The force of the wind had stripped a maple of its red and yellow leaves… since it was midsummer the tree must be blighted, and yet he felt a peculiar sadness at this sign of autumn.”( Cheever 780). Merrill notices the change in color of the leaves, however, dismisses the actual cause of change, which would be the changing of seasons. As Merrill gets closer to the end of his journey, he notices color changes in the Halloran’s yard. “ Their beech hedge was yellow and he guessed this had been blighted like the Levys’ maple.”(Cheever 783). Again he denies that season has changed to autumn although the evidence is in front of him. Cheever uses Merrill’s denial of the state of the climate to reinforce the idea that Merrill is in a state of denial.
Cheever not only uses climate to reinforce Merrill’s state of denial but to show the progression of Merrill's life and the distortion of time in the story. Upon first glance, the reader might think that Merrill is making the journey across the county in a day. However it a progression of Merrill’s life. In the beginning, it is the summer, where Merrill is happy, warm, and pleased with life. After the passing of the storm, the season becomes autumn, Merrill is cold and begins to feel sad: “Yet he felt a peculiar sadness at this sign of autumn.”( Cheever 780). After the passing of the storm, Merrill feels sad for the first time in the story. As Merrill approaches the end of his journey he is confronted with various misfortunes and embarrassments. Merrill is now both very cold and weak. The day seems to get darker much earlier indicating that it is closer to winter and the end of Merrill's life. Cheever uses the seasons to show the different stages of his life.
Cheever achieves his idea that the affluent community can lose everything if they deny the reality around them. With the use of motifs and symbols, Cheever is able to distort Merrill’s reality. Through the critical lense of New Historicism “The Swimmer” can be considered a criticism of affluent communities and their lifestyles. Cheever uses alcohol to distort time and show the misfortunes in Merrill’s life. The more Merrill drinks the more the element of time in the story seems distorted. As Merrill’s misfortunes become apparent to the reader, Merrill drinks to comfort himself, showing a dependency for alcohol. The dependency on alcohol is another of Cheever criticisms on affluent communities, as the preferred drink of many characters is gin which is the favored by the rich. Cheever also uses climate to symbol the progression of Merrill's life. The storm is supposed to represent a turning point in Merrill’s life since he feels sad for the first time in the story. As the leaves start to turn yellow Merrill starts to feel cold and weak. After hearing the tragic news of his misfortunes he is approaching the end of his life as the setting appears to be closer to winter as Merrill has become much weaker.