Fear can be a lot of things. It is defined differently from one person to another. The fear of falling, the fear of being alone. Fear is a wide concept that contains so many meanings that you cannot count them. Fear has the ability to keep us from doing something we want- but at the same time, it can also give us the ability to cross our boundaries. The story “The Swimmer” follows significant themes such as fear, personal development, and unknown territory.
The story “The Swimmer” by S. J Butler follows an unnamed woman, who has a deep fear of the river. The woman sits at her desk in her office and looks outside at the river. At the beginning of the story, it is a hot day and the woman knows that if she goes to the river at this time, she will
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The narrator describes the plot in chronically order, and there are, therefore no jumps between time-frames. There are two important events in this story. The first important event is when the unnamed woman goes into the river, which is where she overcomes her fear. Another important event, which may not be as visible, is when the unnamed woman releases the swan at the end of the story- it is a symbolic ending, because even though it might seem like she has overcome her fear by attending the water it may not be the case. I believe that the woman still fears the water even though she is in it. The way that the woman describes the swan gives us an image of the concealed fear that she may still has; “Her nan used to tell her a swan could break a man’s arm with its wing – what could it do to her, down here, in the water?” – we may get the image that she simply just fears the swan, but I do not believe that. I believe that she fears the swan because she fears the water. – You are able to argue for both parts, but I believe that the swan is a symbol of the hidden fear that the woman has. I, therefore, believe that the ending is closed because the short story ends with the unnamed woman releasing the swan, which from my perspective means that she is also releasing her