The Swimmer Theme Analysis

The first, most noticeable theme, is alcohol. In “The Swimmer”, alcohol represents Neddy’s longing for a high-spirited life and an admirable social status. The drinking, serving, and craving for alcohol became a major influence for Neddy, as well as a way to maintain his social status. The story starts off talking about alcohol. They are all sitting around the Westerhazy’s pool complaining “I drank too much last night”, but as expected they are at the pool the next morning drinking again. Before Neddy decides to leave to swim from pool to pool, he drinks gin and continues to drink on his whole journey home. Almost every pool that Neddy stops at, he asks the pool owner for a drink. Neddy has already had plenty of drinks by the time he gets himself

He portrays this theme through the setting, the people and Neddy’s journey home. Several families in wealthy suburbs spend their days drinking alcohol, relaxing and throwing parties. This type of lifestyle is even shown through to the priest, “You might have heard it whispered by the parishioners leaving church, heard it from the lips of the priest himself, struggling with his cassock in the vestiarium.” Even the local priest, who is supposed to show a more significant way of living, has become part of this lonely suburban way of living. Neddy also has a seeming, empty life with his friends. His friends are welcoming towards him, when he has a lot of money but it’s not the same when he becomes financially unstable. Neddy’s close friends seemed to fade away when he was going through rough times. Grace Biswanger and Shirley Adams, were both very unpleasant to him. Grace Biswanger knew that Neddy had gone broke, “They went for broke overnight—nothing but income—and he showed up drunk one Sunday and asked us to loan him five thousand dollars....” When Neddy was successful he had friends, but he later finds out he does not have and friends that are close enough to him that will stick with him through hard times. During his success, he made friends built only on social status, for example the rich Hallorans. Neddy’s desire to swim home also shows his emptiness. He sees this idea into something honorable, that he imagines will

He glorifies his life as a luxury with “Prosperous men and women gathered by the sapphire-colored waters while caterer’s men in white coats passed them cold gin.” Cheever differentiates Neddy’s aging with his refutation of aging along with his refutation of many other displeasing matters. At the beginning of the story Neddy views himself as legendary, “He was not a practical joker nor was he a fool but he was determinedly original and had a vague and modest idea of himself as a legendary figure.” When Neddy first started on his journey, his friends believed his views. Neddy was welcomed to the Bunkers’ party like a star, “Oh, look who’s here! What a marvelous surprise! When Lucinda said that you couldn’t come I thought I’d die. She made her way to him through the crowd, and when they had finished kissing she led him to the bar, a progress that was slowed by the fact that he stopped to kiss eight or ten women and hake the hands of many men.” Many of the women at the party greeted him with a kiss, and many of the men greeted him with an energetic handshake. As he gets further along his journey, attitudes start to change and they become unfriendly towards him, which starts to show the untrue self-image. Neddy begins to get shocked when he starts getting welcomed at his friends’ houses with an unpleasant