ipl-logo

Characterization In John Cheever's The Swimmer

1515 Words7 Pages

On July 18, 1964, The New Yorker published a short story entitled “The Swimmer” (Wilhite 215). Edited thoroughly and heavily compacted from its original form, “The Swimmer” represents John Cheever 's most acclaimed and recognized work. The protagonist of the famous and momentous short story, Neddy Merrill, undergoes a watery journey of self-exploration, acceptance, and tragedy while swimming in various pools as he makes his way home from a party. Slyly and allegorically, the short story dramatically demonstrates the possible density of the literary technique called characterization. Containing many cliffhangers open to the reader 's individual self-interpretation, the short story effectively uses the strong power of language to illuminate …show more content…

The first pool visited by Neddy is Ms. Graham 's, whose land borders that of the Westerhazys '. Through the adroit usage of a similar name, Cheever furtively identifies West Chester, Pennsylvania as a semi-autobiographical inspiration influencing the setting of his masterpiece. Ms. Graham excitedly and felicitously greets Neddy, promptly offering him an alcoholic beverage. Quickly and purposefully, Neddy swims the length of Ms. Graham 's pool and leaves the harmonious scene eager and motivated for the long journey ahead. After successively swimming through a few of the neighbors ' pools, Neddy hears the noise caused by the festive scene taking place at the Bunkers '. The leisurely, relaxed, and comfortable atmosphere at the Bunkers ' inspires Neddy to feel warmhearted and effervescent, inducing the muse, “Oh how bonny and lush were the banks of the Lucinda River!” (Baym 1180). However, the acknowledgment of thunder resounding in the distance metaphorically warns of coming troubles for Neddy. Nevertheless, Neddy causes the alert reader to feel ambivalence concerning the impending storm when he asks, “... why did the first watery notes of a storm wind have for him [Neddy] the unmistakable sound of good news, cheer, glad tidings?” (Baym 1181). Shockingly, the water imagery present in the previous line accurately demonstrates Neddy 's sanctimonious, self-righteous, yet auspicious perspective. Due to the identification of his appreciation of raging storms, the clever reader induces that Neddy usually encounters storms in his life, yet somehow compensates for the impending negativity by embracing positivity. Additionally, Neddy appears to be losing a proper orientation of time, because his muddled mind fails to accurately recall when Mrs. Levy purchased the Japanese lanterns. Masterfully and innovatively, Cheever bends the definition of time, leaving the reader constantly questioning the true amount

Show More
Related
817 Words | 4 Pages

After reading this passage, the reader is informed of the scary, ‘out of the blue’ situation which includes the protagonist, Paul Fisher. The sinkhole incident that is described by similes, affects how Paul sees his town, Tangerine; and not in a beneficial

Read More
906 Words | 4 Pages

Laurie Colwin (1944-1992) was born in Manhattan, New York. She was a prolific writer and her very first works were published in the New Yorker. Her first short story collection was published in 1974. Her stories were written about love, relationships, and being happy in general, however, this story “The Man Who Jumped into the Water” is quite a bit different from the others. Hiding behind a persona to get away from reality can lead someone to a breaking point because a person 's troubles catch up to them.

Read More
763 Words | 4 Pages

Mastery Assignment 2: Literary Analysis Essay Lee Maracle’s “Charlie” goes through multiple shifts in mood over the course of the story. These mood are ones of hope and excitement as Charlie and his classmates escape the residential school to fear of the unknown and melancholy as Charlie sets off alone for home ending with despair and insidiousness when Charlie finally succumbs to the elements . Lee highlights these shifts in mood with the use of imagery and symbolism in her descriptions of nature.

Read More
618 Words | 3 Pages

In Stanley J. Kozikowski article, “Damned in a Fair Life: Cheever’s ‘The Swimmer’”, infers that The Swimmer is a “spiritual allegory in the fashion of Dante” (367). He also argues that Cheever’s story is autobiographical on Neddy’s part and “reveals itself as an uneasy pilgrimage to hell” (367). Kozikowski draws very specific sections and details of The Swimmer and presents the parallels in Inferno, such as: the attitudinal similarities between Neddy Merrill and Dante the pilgrim, the likeness Cheever’s multiple pools and their environments share with the different circles and rivers of Dante’s hell, and references some of The Swimmer’s speech and characters that uncannily reflect that of Inferno. Kozikowski takes The Swimmer bit by bit,

Read More
558 Words | 3 Pages

Many other short stories, such as “The Dangerous Game” , is full of detailed descriptions to pull in the audience. In this story the character Whitney explains his experience, “There was no breeze. The sea was as flat as a plate-glass window. We were drawing near the island then. What I felt was a--a mental chill; a sort of sudden dread” (2).

Read More
742 Words | 3 Pages

He could imagine his deception of this town “nestled in a paper landscape,” (Collins 534). This image of the speaker shows the first sign of his delusional ideas of the people in his town. Collins create a connection between the speaker’s teacher teaching life and retired life in lines five and six of the poem. These connections are “ chalk dust flurrying down in winter, nights dark as a blackboard,” which compares images that the readers can picture.

Read More
660 Words | 3 Pages

In his short story collection We Live in Water, Jess Walter echoes the theme that people are products of their environment, despite any effort to escape the adversities that hold them back. This theme clearly appears in the opening story, “Anything Helps,” where a widowed and homeless man, Bit, tries to recover from the death of his wife by making amends with his estranged son. This devastating yet heartwarming story shows how one man goes to great lengths in an attempt to change his life. Walter also exposes the theme in the most prominent piece of the collection. The story “We Live in Water” provides a flashback and flash-forward structure by following Oren Dessens, a man who cheats on his wife and has conflict with the worst man in town and describing the journey of Michael, a lawyer returning to his hometown expecting to find his absent father, but instead, ends up learning more about himself

Read More
826 Words | 4 Pages

Title Throughout history, people have been in pursuit of a ‘currency’ to assess a person’s worth. According to Merriam-Webster, “currency” is defined as a “circulation as medium of exchange.” The ancient Babylonians used silver and grains, the Romans used copper, silver, and gold to assess their worth. Then, there was a radical shift to paper and coin currency as well as ownership of high value commodities like fur, fish and grains to compute worth. However, towards the mid 20th century, America saw the gradual establishment of a revolutionary form of assessing worth, namely societal respect in addition to the monetary worth of a person.

Read More
436 Words | 2 Pages

Connell provides the first look at the general’s home and he clearly creates an ominous mood. After Rainsford has crashed on the island “he forged along he saw to his great astonishment that all the lights were in one enormous building-- a lofty structure with pointed towers plunging upward into the gloom. His eyes made out the shadowy outlines of a palatial chateau; it was set on a high bluff, and on three sides of it cliffs dived down to where the sea licked greedy lips in the shadows” (23). By describing the building as a lofty structure with pointed towers set up on a high bluff with shadows all around, Cornell is using the setting to create an perilous mood for the reader. The building Rainsford describes seems powerful and evil, which also foreshadows the character of the general himself.

Read More
634 Words | 3 Pages

However, this journey takes place over the course of years, although Neddy believes it takes no longer than a day. It is stated that, “He had swum too long, he had been immersed too long.” This not only brings to light the length of Neddy’s swim, but also demonstrates to readers that he has no genuine sense of time or reality. He believes that his family will be awaiting his arrival at home, but when he gets there, it is abandoned, overgrown, and rusted, bringing readers to the conclusion that no one has occupied the house in years. Neddy’s denial is so far ingrained within his mind that he is confused by returning to an empty home, although it has been abandoned for years.

Read More
1010 Words | 5 Pages

Ernest Hemingway, a well-known modernist writer, adopts the iceberg principle, a typical feature of modernist literature in his works. According to this principle, the top represents the given story, while the foot depicts the concealed story. This principle restricts the writer’s dictatorship, the reader however has to pay a price. The writer only provides, mostly vague, information, it is now up to the reader to

Read More
500 Words | 2 Pages

“The Swimmer” is a short story which follows a man named Ned Merrill as he swims home across the “River Lucinda”, a series of swimming pools that form a path to his home. It was adapted into a film titled The Swimmer, which remains quite faithful to the original work, but expands upon several aspects of the original short story. After being unable to swim through the Welchers’ pool due to their property being abandoned, Ned Merrill is forced to cross Route 424, a busy highway. “The Swimmer” follows an epic narrative structure, with Ned encountering several obstacles on his path home. The story is told in a third-person perspective and deconstructs many traditional epics by breaking down the genre into its base components and rebuilding

Read More
1067 Words | 5 Pages

The novel, The Old Man and the Sea, is a story about an old man, Santiago, who experienced great adversity but did not give up. The author, Ernest Hemingway, describes how an old man uses his experience, his endurance and his hopefulness to catch a huge marlin, the biggest fish he has ever caught in his life. The old man experienced social-emotional, physical, and mental adversity. However, despite the overwhelming challenges, he did not allow them to hold him back but instead continued to pursue his goal of catching a fish with determination. Santiago’s character, his actions and the event in the novel reveals an underlying theme that even when one is facing incredible struggles, one should persevere.

Read More
725 Words | 3 Pages

Rich 's "Storm Warnings" has more than one meaning. One being literal, and another being metaphorical. The literal meaning of the poem is that there is an impending storm, and the author is anticipating and preparing for the storm to come. The metaphorical meaning of the poem is the author is suffering from an emotional storm. The literal and metaphorical meanings of the poem are shown to be similar when Rich writes, "Weather abroad and weather in the heart alike come on regardless of prediction.

Read More
724 Words | 3 Pages

Neddy’s decisions to indulge himself in alcohol to forget, led to his physical and emotional downfall in the story. “It was probably the first time in his adult life that he had ever cried, certainly the first time in his life that he had ever felt so miserable, cold, tired, and bewildered. He could not

Read More

More about Characterization In John Cheever's The Swimmer

Related Topics

Open Document