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Symbolism In The Swimmer

900 Words4 Pages
The Swimmer
Nature. “The phenomena of the physical world collectively, including plants, animals, the landscape, and other features and products of the earth, as opposed to humans or human creations.” That defi-nition sets up two contrasts that are central in The Swimmer by S.J. Butler: man vs. nature. In order to explain how the two perform side by side in this short story, I will analyze setting and the devel-opment in the protagonist of the story as well as symbolism of a few somethings.
The author of the story creates a hot and summery location, where the main character, a girl, works in her office. It is beautiful and almost idyllic. The girl is very tempted to go swimming in the near-by river.
“If she goes now, she’ll have the river to herself. No one will see. Why she minds this, she doesn’t know? Every day she looks out at the river, and longs to swim in it.” For some reason, she fights the natural urge inside of her to go swimming. Inside her head, she tries to figure out, why she is scared of swimming in the river. “An unnamed fear stirs her thoughts, takes a shape. Is the current stronger than it looks? […] Might it be too strong for her even today? Where might she be swept to?” She’s afraid of getting too far away from what she knows, her office and her work. Perhaps she is afraid of seeming lazy by her surroundings, if she spends too much time in nature and too little time work-ing hours to get her pay. The river is a symbol of nature, peace and tranquility,
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