The story “The Swimmer” by Cheever takes place during midsummer Sunday where everyone sitting around and saying “I drank too much.” Most of the story takes place at when Neddy goes on a journey by traveling through many pools. Neddy belongs to white upper-middle class social standing. The story does changes over times when Neddy travels through different pools with new experiences. At the beginning of the story, everyone is talking about their hangovers. Throughout the story, alcohol is defined as a drug or poison. The protagonist is dealing is obsessed with alcohol, to which he could not stop drinking and it had become his habit as he continues his journey. In the story, alcohol is defined as the poison.
Plot:
When Neddy takes his journey
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As he traveled he met so many different people, who were rude, mean, and does not accept his acceptance. However, they are few who didn’t accept his habit of drinking. Which he could not stay away from. Many people have different roles in this try to contain situations towards the antagonist, so the antagonist figured himself properly, what really he is.
Point of View:
The story was told by third person point of view who reveals about the main character Neddy. The story had covered the main character thoughts and see his actions throughout the story. Also, the author was telling the story as someone was observing Neddy’s journey. It had shown the reactions of his friends and neighbors as he travels through their pools. “Neddy asks for a drink when he gets to Helen and Eric Sachsen’ pool, but Helen says they haven’t been drinking since Eric had an operation three years ago. Neddy has no recollection that Eric had been sick.” His feelings changes as he continuing his journey.
Theme:
The theme of the story is about that life continues and changes over time. Time passes and things do not stay the same. As Neddy finish his journey he becomes cold and his life cycle of happiness is shutting down while he is entering the winter world. “He shouted, pounded on the door, tried to force it with his shoulder, and then looking in at the windows, saw that the place was
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The story delivers the message that life is short and don’t waste your time. Spend this worthy time to achieve something good or reach your goals. Rather than him who had spent all his life in luxury and at the end he found there no one behind him everything he had gone. He wasted his life on things which were not worthy, such as drinking all the time. Which brought him close to death.
Critique/Analysis:
The story made me feel sad because the antagonist had suffered after entering the real world from his fantasies. The strongest aspect of the story is when Neddy learned the lesson from his journey that time pass quickly and life is too short. The weakest aspect of the story is Neddy attitude and feelings had changed as he went through his journey by meeting people. The story thought me that life is short and don’t waste time on things which are not worthy, besides, focus on your goals which can make you and
In conclusion, the story describes that life changes, and nothing stays the same throughout it. It is in the hands of the people to decide that how they want their life to be. They can make it as beautiful as they want to and they can also make it worse than it has ever been
The theme of this novel is to look at the good you do in life and how it carries over after your death. The moral of the book is; "People can make changes in their lives whenever they really want to, even right up to the end."
Life is a complicated process. It’s filled with many things that keep it interesting but at the same time, very dull. Life’s what you make it and for many, it’s something we all strive for. In the story, The Space Between, the author takes full advantage of the premise as there’s rarely a dull moment- as in life. The book is filled with many literary devices that work nicely with the plot and dialogue. These include; metaphors, similes, irony, personification, and many more. We follow a young man who is finding his way in the world. He has only a week to change his life for the better. But he will face many obstacles on the way that brings the readers into a startling and fun journey.
It is a fact of life that Alcoholism will distort the victim’s view of reality. With authors, they put parts of their personality and symptoms of their condition into their characters sometimes, flawed distortions included, with varying degrees
These changes getting older weaker, act as a metaphor for a larger portion of Neddy’s life than the literal journey he undertakes on this afternoon. He has lost his social standing, his money, his wife and children and possibly his mind. In other words, his entire life.
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.
Neddy’s character is very similar to Charlie from “Babylon Revisited”. Charlie was very fortunate, 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 do with his past life.... ... middle of paper ... ...
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.
The entire story was a symbol of Needy’s life. The setting in the story was symbolic to the way Needy was feeling. Needy’s life was diminishing right before his eyes, and he did not realize it. The different changes in the story represented how much Needy’s life had gradually changed over time. By reading the story the reader can tell that Needy was in a state of denial.
There are many times where the narrator describes his actions towards his loved ones while under the influence of alcohol. Since the narrator is trying to draw the attention to his consumption of alcohol, he tries to make sure that his actions trace back to it. In the short story, the narrator says "But my disease grew upon me -- for what disease is like Alcohol !..."(Poe 23) which shows his addiction for alcohol becoming stronger. The narrator's madness seems to be heightened by the alcohol. He begins to chan...
The kids seem innocent and full of life in the beginning of the story but soon after they lose all of there… well basicly there childhood. When Finny falls from the tree it basically gives a point from the beginning of the story about how they were being very irresponsible and uncareful until the point where he learns his lesson and understands to be responsible and give more care about things. When were first introduced to the book it's the summer and everyone is having fun but when Finny falls it comes to the end of summer and it also introduces how the winter is gonna come with responsibilities and hard work. It also makes the point of when Finny falls from the tree all the fun, excitement and happiness all the kids and everyone had before have now changed depression,sorrow and hardship come into the story. Gene shows remorse and felt very bad after he confessed to shaking the branch which made Finny to fall.
Jellinek, E. M. (1960.) The Disease Concept of Alcoholism. New Haven, Conn.: College and University Press.
1. My first impression of the story was the setting reminds me of a fall day in Michigan. It was dark and cool so it reminds me of my childhood in the mornings getting ready for school. At first I thought it was something like a family trip for the guys before the characters where describe. The thought of a young boy on a trip into manhood with his father and Uncle. As the story goes along my impression changes over time to its a story about life circle and the development of a young man 's understanding about life at the hands of his father.
This short story is a type of story that one cannot fully understand until the end, there is constantly things thrown in, changing your thinking of the theme or the point of the story. While I was reading through the story, I became to slowly make connections with each
story is told from the point of view of a teenager who is the narrator of the