The Swimmer Essays & Research Papers

The Swimmer': Man’s Attempt at Avoiding the Inevitable

Time moves, whether it’s slowly or fast. There are people who embrace time and there are others who try running from it. Those people who do attempt to escape it try many different ways to accomplish, either by delusions or Botox. These attempts, however, will forever end in defeat. In the story titled ‘The Swimmer’ by John Cheever, the audience witnesses the main character Neddy Merril attempting and failing to avoid the impending passage of time. In the second paragraph,...

2 Pages 916 Words

Literary Techniques Used in 'The Swimmer' to Create a Setting of American Suburbia

Literary Devices The Swimmer

The recent rise of suburbia in mainstream media has promoted the suburban lifestyle to be the most desirable and ideal way of life. However, when understood in depth, suburbia often hides a deceptive façade as a means to achieve a sense of social superiority. The short story, ‘The Swimmer’ (Cheever, 1964), explores the social and psychological repercussions of the constant display of a superficial persona in American suburbia. The story concentrates on the middle-aged man Neddy Merrill’s journey through the...

3 Pages 1202 Words

Dark Side of the American Dream in the Stories ‘Winter Dreams’ and ‘The Swimmer’

American Dream Scott Fitzgerald The Swimmer

The American Dream is depicted as an ideal, almost perfect lifestyle mostly centered around money and materialistic possessions. However, it can also be seen as a very flawed and selfish idea. This flawed image is wonderfully portrayed in the stories ‘Winter Dreams’ and ‘The Swimmer’. Both stories use different plot elements and hidden meanings to convey this flawed image of the American Dream. The American Dream is an idea that opportunity is equal for everyone in America, making it possible...

4 Pages 1593 Words

Dissociative Olympics: Swimming with Disorder (‘The Swimmer’ by John Cheever)

Olympic Games The Swimmer

‘The Swimmer’, a short story written by American author John Cheever in 1964, is centered on the journey of a middle-aged man, Neddy Merrill, as he attempts to swim across country in various swimming pools he finds along the way. It emerges from a world in which Merill is an affluent member of society, simply reveling in life’s greatest pleasures with friends. However, as the story progresses, it evokes a landscape of instability and denial in which Merrill knows no...

3 Pages 1141 Words

Review of John Cheever's Short Story 'The Swimmer'

Literature Review Short Story The Swimmer

The story ‘The Swimmer’ by John Cheever is described as the swimming journey of Neddy in the neighborhood, as an active and optimistic father and husband. “It was one of those midsummer Sundays when everyone sits around saying, ‘I drank too much last night’”. Despite joining a cocktail party, he agreed that he would swim his way home through different swimming pools. Throughout his journey, it changes him from a young man to an aged, poor man whose life is...

2 Pages 912 Words