The Swimmer By Cheever Analysis

Cheever In “The Swimmer” we begin on a Sunday afternoon with Donald and Helen Westerhazy and Neddy and Lucinda Merrill socializing around the Westerhazy’s pool drinking and enjoying the beautiful day. Neddy is described as “he seemed to have the special slenderness of youth—and while he was far from young he slid down his banister that morning” shows us one example of how Neddy is in denial of his true age. (Cheever 2363). As the story progresses Neddy comes up with the idea that he was going to swim all the way home through the different bodies of water along the way and he named the stream “Lucinda after his wife” (Cheever 2363). After leaving the Westerhazy pool he goes on to the Graham’s and was immediately welcomed by her and was offered

Somehow or another they got on the subject of love and begin to talk about their different circumstances and encounters with love. Terri begins the conversation talking about her ex and how “He beat me up one night. He dragged me around the living room by my ankles. He Kept saying, ‘I love you, I love you, you bitch.’ He went on dragging me around the living room” and how even though he did that to her, he still loved her (Carver 170). Mel her husband disagrees with her, and she says that “But he loved me. In his own way maybe, but he loved me. There was love there, Mel. Don’t say there wasn’t” (Carver 171). And she even goes on to say when he tried to kill himself with rat poison and then by successfully killing himself by a gun shot in the mouth was love too. Then Laura says “Well, Nick and I know what love is—For us, I mean” but never really explains it but uses a gesture of a kiss on Laura’s hand to describe it. Then Mel tells a story where an old couple was in an accident due to a drunk teenager and was bad off with “multiple fractures, internal injuries, hemorrhaging, contusions, and lacerations” “Giving them a fifty-fifty chance, maybe less than that for her” to survive (Carver 178-180). Mel realizes that the man is upset and ask was it because of the accident and he responds with no, it’s because the old man couldn’t see his wife “through his eye-holes” (Carver 183). Throughout the entire story we see several instances of what “Love” could be but see no definitive answer as to what it actually