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The Swimmer Sparknotes

1643 Words7 Pages

Jack Kelley
Professor Pruitt
ENG-112
3/20/2023
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“The Swimmer,” by John Cheever, starts out with Cheever stating, “It was one of those midsummer Sundays.” The story begins with Neddy Merrill at the Westerhazy pool fabricating a plan to get to his house, which is eight miles away, through a series of pools which he calls the “Lucinda River,” named after his wife Lucinda. Neddy has the cliché, suburban lifestyle with a wife and four kids who play tennis. As Neddy travels along the river, the stereotypical suburban, jubilant lifestyle begins to erode as the reader gets brief hints towards his life falling apart through Neddy’s conversations with his neighbors. Through these ruptures in Neddy’s perspective from others, readers speculate …show more content…

A mental illness which may be plausible for Neddy to experience is dissociative amnesia. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders states that dissociative amnesia is a dissociative disorder which can be indicated through a person’s incapacity to recall “autobiographical information” based on possible traumatic experiences (330). Dissociative amnesia is classified into three categories, localized, selective, and generalized (330). Neddy most aligns with the localized classification which is a selected time period which is forgotten mostly due to a traumatic experience (330). Throughout “The Swimmer,” there are references of possible dissociative amnesia. The short story even tells the reader Neddy is experiencing memory loss, stating, “Was his memory failing, or had he so disciplined it in the repression of unpleasant facts that he had damaged his sense of the truth?” and “Was he losing his memory, had his gift for concealing painful facts let him forget that he had sold his house, that his children were in trouble, and that his friend had been ill?” (Cheever). Theses quotes directly tell the reader Neddy uses dissociation, which is when one mentally separates themselves from events or interactions as a defense mechanism for traumatic …show more content…

"Man-Made vs. Natural Cycles: What Really Happens in 'The Swimmer.'." Short Story Criticism, edited by Jelena O. Krstovic, vol. 120, Gale, 2009. Gale Literature Resource Center, link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1420089823/LitRC?u=ncliverockcc&sid=bookmark-LitRC&xid=9e0764f5. Accessed 15 Mar. 2023. Originally published in Studies in Short Fiction, vol. 27, no. 3, Summer 1990, pp. 415-418.
Cheever, John. ““The Swimmer,” by John Cheever.” The New Yorker, 31 December 1969, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1964/07/18/the-swimmer. Accessed 15 Mar. 2023.
Current-Garcia, Eugene. "The Swimmer: Overview." Reference Guide to American Literature, edited by Jim Kamp, 3rd ed., St. James Press, 1994. Gale Literature Resource Center, link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1420001586/LitRC?u=ncliverockcc&sid=bookmark-LitRC&xid=2e4f6ea0. Accessed 15 Mar. 2023.
Graves, Nora Calhoun. "'The Symptomatic Colors in John Cheever's 'The Swimmer.'." Short Story Criticism, edited by Janet Witalec, vol. 57, Gale, 2003. Gale Literature Resource Center, link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1420047405/LitRC?u=ncliverockcc&sid=bookmark-LitRC&xid=79961028. Accessed 15 Mar. 2023. Originally published in Critical Essays on John Cheever, edited by R. G. Collins, G. K. Hall & Co., 1983, pp.

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