He was far from young, (Cheever 1), is how John Cheever describes the

main character Neddy Merrill in his story "The Swimmer." While Neddy is far
from young, his actions say otherwise. On a hot summer day, Neddy decides
to take an adventure across the seemingly perfect suburb back to his home
only to find that it is empty. Cheever is expressing the inescapable of aging
with his use of symbolism in swimming pools, alcohol, ladders, and the empty
house.
Along with multiple symbols in The Swimmer, one can also see reoccurring
themes. The nonexistence of a utopian society is a theme that can be seen in
this short story. He seemed to see, with a cartographer's eye, that string of
swimming pools, that quasi-subterranean stream that curved across the
county (Cheever 1). While everything seems to be perfect in the suburb,
along Neddy's journey one can see all of the problems that the town is
actually facing. Problems in the county include having to sell the house, social
class issues, and denied invitations.
The use of swimming pools as a symbol directly associates to the theme of
the inevitability of ageing. Each swimming pool is a symbol of a period of time
that Neddy passes through as he swims across the pool. The stars had come
out, but why should he seem to see Andromeda, Cepheus, and Cassiopeia?
What had become of the constellations of midsummer? (Cheever 12). The
changing of the assemblage indicates that the time period has changed. One
can see further examples of this time change with the leaves being yellow
and red and then later being stripped from the trees. While only a day is
passing for Neddy, seasons are changing around him.
Symbolism can also be seen in alcohol. The consumption of alcohol shows the
unhappiness and emotional instability of Neddy. He needed a drink. Whiskey
would warm him, pick him up, carry him through the last of his journey,
refresh his feeling that it was original and valor
John Cheever's "The Swimmer" was published in 1964 in the short story
collection The Brigadier and the Golf Widow. Cheever once stated this story was
originally meant to be part of a novel and was pared down from over 150 pages
of notes. He also stated that he originally intended to write a story that paralleled
the tale of Narcissus, a character in Greek mythology who died while staring at
his reflection in a pool of water. However, the author eventually found the
retelling of this myth too restrictive. As published, this critically acclaimed story
takes place in the affluent suburbs of Westchester County, New York, and focuses
on Neddy Merrill. Though no longer a young man, Neddy wants to retain his
youth and believes that he is a vibrant individual and something of a hero. In an
attempt to blaze new trails, he decides to find a new way home. When the story
opens, Neddy is at a cocktail party and realizes that by following the chain of
private and public pools in his affluent community, he can literally swim home.
Praised for its blend of realism and surrealism, the story is respected for its
dreamlike and nightmarish aspects, as well as its thematic exploration of
suburban America and the life cycle. Critics admire Cheever's commentary on

affluence, hypocrisy, and the relationship between wealth and happiness in "The
Swimmer," along with his use of myth and symbolism.
John Cheever was an American writer who grew up in Massachusetts and lived
from 1912-1982. He won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award,
despite having never graduated from college. Cheever was an alcoholic and
closeted homosexual. Commonly known as the "Chekhov of the Suburbs," his
stories often reflected on people's spiritual and emotional emptiness.
This short story was written in the third-person limited omniscient point of view.
In other words, it was written in the third person, but the narrator had
knowledge of all of Neddy's thoughts, impression, and sensations.
Setting played an important role in this short story. Cheever used the seemingly
idyllic suburban setting as a contrast to Neddy's inner turmoil. Neddy himself
derives his identity from his place in suburban society, and the niceties and
advantages that go along with it. He tries to delude himself that...

Shirley Adams
Shirley Adams is Neddy's former mistress. When Neddy arrives at her home, she
is shocked by his presence and warns him that she will not lend him any money.
She is with a younger man.

Grace Biswanger
Grace Biswanger is hosting a party when Neddy arrives and is angered by his
presence, calling him a gate-crasher. Grace regularly invites Neddy and his wife
to her parties, but they consistently decline. Neddy and his wife consider the
Biswangers socially inferior. Grace reveals that Neddy is broke and has attempted
to borrow money from her and her husband.

Enid Bunker
Enid Bunker is an acquaintance of Neddy's and Lucinda's. She and her husband
are hosting a pool party that Neddy interrupts on his swim home. Neddy and his
wife were invited to the party but decided not to attend it. Enid is subsequently
surprised and happy to see Neddy...

Affluence
Set in an affluent county in suburban New York, "The Swimmer" comments on
the wealth associated with the upper classes of American society. The beginning
of.the tale opens with Neddy Merrill at a cocktail party on a pleasant midsummer
afternoon. He has a drink in one hand and is dangling his other hand in a
backyard swimming pool. Although pools are frequently considered a luxury by
most people, in this community they are commonplace. In fact, pools are so
prevalent in his neighborhood that Neddy can make the eight-mile journey home
by swimming. The wealth of Neddy and his neighbors is reinforced by the fact
that one of them even has a riding range that Neddy must cross on his journey
home. The affluence of the upper class is also reflected in Neddy's and his
friends' predilection forand ability to afford parties. At the story's beginning...

Allegory
' "The Swimmer" is often considered an allegory about decline, the aging
process, and the life cycle. An allegory is a symbolic representation through
characters or events of truths or generalizations about human existence. In
allegories, people, places, and events often have more than one meaningthat
is, they can stand for more than one thing. As such, allegories relate a surface
story and a "hidden" story that focuses on other issues. The surface story of "The
Swimmer" concerns the protagonist's swim home. The hidden, allegorical
meaning of "The Swimmer" has to do with aging, physical decline, the life cycle,
and the hypocrisy of the upper classes. Parables and fables are often considered
types of allegories.

Point of View
The point of view of' "The Swimmer" is one of the most intriguing aspects of
story. Because it is told completely in the third person ("I" constructions are
not...
"The Swimmer" was published in 1964, at a time of great prosperity for middleand upper-class Americans. Having survived World War II, which ended in 1945,
and the Korean War, which took place in the 1950s, many Americansat least
white Americanswere enjoying the wealth and affluence of the postwar era. It
was during this time that the American suburbs, the setting of "The Swimmer,"
grew at a rapid pace. This world of the upper classes is the world of Neddy Merrill
as he appears at the beginning of "The Swimmer."
Neddy Merrill's world was in no way, however, one to which most Americans had
access. The civil rights movement was active, and basic liberties were still an
issue of great concern for many Americans. Although slaves had been freed as
outlined in the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and slavery was abolished in
1865 with the enactment of the...
"The Swimmer" is recognized as one of Cheever's best short stories and explores
themes that are considered typical of his fiction as a whole. In this story, which is
set in an affluent community, Cheever chronicles the morals, rituals, and
hypocrisy of the upper class through his focus on Neddy Merrill, who is, at the
beginning of the tale, a vibrant man with a home, a wife, and four beautiful
daughters. The story opens with the protagonist Neddy, his wife, and some
friends sitting around a pool complaining that they had too much to drink the
previous night. Furthermore, when the protagonist tries to do something new
something heroic and legendaryall he can come up with is to swim home
through a chain of 16 pools. The hypocrisy of Neddy's situation becomes more
evident as the tale unfolds. It is revealed that Neddy and his wife...

Watching Don Draper emerge from chlorinated baptismal

waters, gasping for breath in a cavernous public gym,

brings to mind John Cheevers short story The Swimmer,

from 1964. Ive been a little out of sorts, lately, Don
confesses to his date. Likewise Cheevers main character,
Ned Merrill. Beginning at the public pool, Ned, in an attempt
discover Bullet Parks hidden topography, decides to swim
through the private and public schools of his Westchester
neighborhood, creating an aquatic trail back to his home.
Ned starts the expedition with great hope, as he enjoys the
sensation of swimming: He had been swimming and now
he was breathing deeply, stertorously as if he could gulp
into his lungs the components of that moment, the heat of
the sun, the intenseness of his pleasure.
Things turn dark when he encounters the drained pool in
the backyard of an emptied home of his neighbors. Ned
cant remember where they had gone and feels a creeping
despair: Was his memory failing, Ned wonders as he
plods barefoot through the overgrown lawn, or had he so
disciplined it in the repression of unpleasant facts that he
had damaged his sense of the truth? The more Ned swims,
the more comes to light through the comments of his
neighbors, some welcoming, others offering pitying
condolences for all Neds troubles at home. Here emerges a
constant Cheever theme and one of the great paradoxes of
greater New York: where the separation between city
apartment buildings can be as narrow as a pencil, there is
great anonymity, whereas in the seclusion of the suburbs,
behind fences, we can find ourselves the most exposed.

Its in suburbia where Don faces his most punishing

humiliations, like the remnants of his former life packed into
musty boxes, piled on the sidewalk as his ex-wifes new
husband plows the front yard, without a glance or a word as
Don loads up his car to return to the city, further asserting
the quiet cruelty of Ossining.
Here is the best passage from The Swimmer with some
nice parallels:
The next pool on his list, the last but two, belonged to his
old mistress, Shirley Adams. If he had suffered any injuries
at the Biswangers they would be cured here. Love-sexual
roughhouse in fact-was the supreme elixir, the pain killer,
the brightly colored pill that would put the spring back into
his step, the joy of life in his heart. They had had an affair
last week, last month, last year. He couldnt remember, It
was he who had broken it off, his was the upper hand, and
he stepped through the gate of the wall that surrounded
her pool with nothing so considered as self-confidence. It
seemed in a way to be his pool, as the lover, particularly
the illicit lover, enjoys the possessions of his mistress with
an authority unknown to holy matrimony. She was there,
her hair the color of brass, but her figure, at the edge of the
lighted, cerulean water, excited in him no profound
memories. It had been, he thought, a lighthearted affair,
although she had wept when he broke it off. She seemed
confused to see him and he wondered if she was still
wounded. Would she, God forbid, weep again?

I wont spoil the end for you, but like Don about swimming,
you get wrung out.

That sad bastard,

is how Francines husband, the philanderer, describes Don
Draper. The same could be said about Cheever and he
would be the first one to tell you that. Like Don, he kept a
journal. A collection of his journal entries were eventually
published, to much chatter, given that the journals were
remarkably dishy (turns out Cheever was a bisexual who
thought his daughters chubby and his son a sissy) and
soaked in pathos. Cheever was in constant despair about
the doubleness of his life; the competing desires for
comfort and tradition couple with an impulse to assail the
conventions of wealth and family life.
Heres a passage where he describes his weary frustrations
in his latter years while on vacation:
The redness of the marshes makes the blueness of the
water seem to be a thrusting force, and the splendor of the
landscape is emphatic; but I am an old, old man and it

was so different in my youth who finds that the bounty

and splendor of the world fail to cleanse the thoughts of his
heart. My heart is in some motel room, howling at a
consummate lewdness.
All this belongs to time that has already passed by Don
Draper and his cohorts, though these are concerns of and
preoccupations of the Great White Male in literature. David
Foster Wallace argued that Cheever, like John Updike, Phillip
Roth, Norman Mailer, and Frederick Exley were a league of
extraordinary narcissists, whose erudite, philandering, selfpitying protagonists, Wallace claims, were actually standins for the authors. Never attached to any cause, lover, or
clan, the individualism of Cheevers characters, like Ned,
may have at one time seemed heroic but are despicable
today. They dont face the great horror: the prospect of
dying without ever having loved something more than
yourself.
Cheever wrote about the stultification of affluence and
comfort, his ambition to be recognized as a scribe of his
generation and also of humiliating himself at garden parties
because he was drunk, cheating on his wife, and
disappointing his children. Until he died, John Cheever
considered himself lonely.
John Cheever skillfully brings us through the journey of alcoholism
using symbols and metaphors relating to his character Neddy
Merrill. The pools that Ned swims through represent the different
stages of his drinking. Cheever calls these connected points a river

to show it was easy for Ned to launch, but he was swept away and
quickly covered a distance that made his return impossible (127).
Ned begins at a small gathering that includes his wife at the
Westerhazys pool. The narrator explains that Ned is ordinary
because even a priest can drink too much. At this pool, this juncture,
Ned feels happy and accepted, but a massive cloud in the west
serves as a warning. Neds home is south but he chooses to go
southwest, skirting the danger. When Ned leaves the comfort of
conventional drinking, he feels strong, like a legendary figure
(124). He crosses the soft grass, indicating an easy move to the
next stage of drinking.
Mrs. Graham, the owner of the second pool, has been trying to
contact Ned. This reaching out represents Ned is welcome here just
outside of acceptable drinking. However, when Mrs. Graham forgets
Ned, he leaves through a thorny hedge, indicating that traveling to
the next stage is harder.
Neds River ride through alcoholism gets progressively worse. He
goes from being accepted at the Westerhazys to being forgotten.
Then, Mrs. Hammer sees him but wasnt quite sure who it was
(124). Neds drinking is affecting his appearance. The owners of the
subsequent pools hear Neddy, ignore him, and then are not home,
demonstrating that Ned is losing touch with people.
He hears a party, his next drink, and moves forward. The passage
through alcoholism is shown to be more difficult as Ned crosses a

street, goes up a rise and has to climb stairs(125). He feels a

passing affection for the scene [] as if it was something he might
touch (125). This reveals he is no longer one of these people, but
an outsider. Drunkenness is tolerated but only one other person is
in the water (125) besides Ned. The name of this individual, Rusty,
which is the ruin of metal due to moisture, has meaning and we see
this metaphor again. The gravel cuts his feet (125) as Ned leaves.
At his next stop there are warnings for our main character; a literal
private property sign and a figurative no signs of life (125). Neddy
can still stop this wild expedition he has created for himself, but he
ignores these caveats and is pleased at that moment to be alone
(125). The storm, the demise he purposely headed towards as a
social drinker, hits, and he welcomes it.
Ned travels to the Welchers. There is no pool, or drink. Alcohol
dependent, he is disappointed and mystified (126), but is able to
ignore it. Moving to a crossroads, Ned thinks of his wife and realizes
this is serious. He understands moving forward might kill him but
believes it is impossible to return. He chooses the danger and
mockery of the both the road and the consequences of alcoholism.
At the public pool, an representation of drinking in public, our
protagonist can hardly keep his head above water (127). Legal
trouble is implied as the narrator uses words like rules, police,
and trouble (127). Neddy runs into the woods, which indicates
hiding and a much greater level of difficulty than crossing the grass
earlier.

Ned turns to the Hallorans, friends who are outside of the rules.
Mrs. Halloran is nude and brings Neds naked truth to bear. Ned
tries to ignore it, but the narrator suggests he cant. When Ned pulls
up his trunks, trying to reestablish the illusion, it doesnt fit.
Ned could have stopped at the Hallorans, but opts to continue.
Admitting he needs it, he asks his next friend for a drink. He
notices his friends external scars, but perhaps it is Neds own
alcoholic wounds that he is considering.
With no feeling of freedom, Ned moves to the next pool where he
has no social standing and is not wanted. Hearing more of his truth,
in an unkind way, he dives into the pool of repression.
His downfall almost complete, Ned visits his ex-lover. She
previously accepted his faults, like being married, but does not
accept this. She refuses him a drink and explains she has moved
on (130). Ned experiences more of his truth and combined with her
rejection, he is damaged.
He cries, realizing he had swum too long, he had been immersed
too long, and his nose and his throat were sore from the water
(130). The narrator explains that Ned could have cut directly across
the road to his home for some company and some clean, dry
clothes (130). Ned feels defeated as he staggers to the next pool.
He no longer feels like a man. Men hurl themselves into pools
(124), and for the first time in his life, he did not dive but went
down the steps (130).

Ned chose his own path with a cartographers eye (124). When he
arrives home there is rust on his hands. He has created his own
ruin. His family is gone and the thunderstorm he headed towards
voluntarily has knocked a gutter over the front door (131), blocking
his entrance.
Through symbolism we join Neddy Merrill from his social drinking to
his destitution. We experience his journey of alcoholism through the
pools of his neighbors. Each stop, or stage of his drinking, gets
progressively harder to get to, but he keeps on, happily and
unaware at first. He is forgotten and not recognized. Then he is
warned, ridiculed, and in trouble. Ned ignores these signs and
becomes unconnected, beaten, and finally alone. It is a sad journey,
but like diving into a river, Neddy Merrill got swept away.
"The Swimmer"
In a world full of joy, Cheever manages to add deception within the text to create a character
whose life seems diminished in a short period. According to Cheever, when the force of the
storm managed to scatter a maple tree of its red and yellow leaves and showing signs of
autumn when the season is midsummer (237). The significance the leaves show just how
much change is happening within the text even as Neddy seems to deny any real change
occurring throughout the narrative. As soon as the weather gets colder, the character seems
oblivious to the occurrence and gives the reader a sense of denial towards the real timelapse. In "The Swimmer," Cheever symbolizes a time-lapse resulting in despair, loneliness
and denial which disguises a world full of bliss and exploration through swimming pools and
exploration.
The exploration that Neddy created with the swimming pools, provided a sense of familiarity
with the characters life while helping the reader understand his happiness despite the
deception. As the author describes, "His life was not confining and the delight he took in this
observation could not be explained by its suggestion of escape" (Cheever 235). Cheever
explains how Neddy categorized himself as a legendary figure by creating an escape, which
helps the reader visualize Neddy's understanding of life. Many references including the way
the author describes Neddy's maps, shows how imaginary and unrealistic the characters

thoughts are in respect to his social standing. The change from the beginning of the journey
to the end, show the rise in the characters blissful life to a cold and dark ending when he
reaches his once happy home.
The time-lapse within the narrative provides a cryptic significance between the swimming
pools and the climate change, where the character seems oblivious towards time. When
Cheever states, "Then there was an explosion, a smell of cordite, and rain lashed the
Japanese lanterns that Mrs. Levy had bought in Kyoto the year before last, or was it the year
before that?" (237). The author describes the characters amnesia which results in Neddy's
suspicion towards the change of time, and clarifying the readers confusion about Neddy's
dilemma. The change in the authors tone when the character feels the coldness of autumn,
while noticing red and yellow leaves, is one of despair. The symbolic meaning within the
changes of seasons expresses Neddy's transition from a warm and happy summer, to a life
in ending in the coldness of winter.
The loneliness that Neddy faces throughout the narrative is a description of the chain of pools
called the Lucinda River, which symbolizes Neddy's marriage. When the author states, "It
was probably the first time in his adult life that he had ever cried, certainly the first time in his
life that he had ever felt so miserable, cold, tired, and bewildered" (Cheever 241). Cheever
sets the tone by describing the rudeness of Neddy's mistress, and by showing the start of his
despair which leads to his empty marriage. The Lucinda River characterizes a safe and
comfortable passage, that resembles the characters marriage that he seems to take
advantage of. When the Lucinda River leads the character to a dark and lonely home, it
symbolized that Neddy's once comfortable life was nothing more than a mere illusion-far from
reality.
By using the symbolism of swimming pools within the narrative, Cheever sets a dark and
empty tone while creating a bright world to hide all the despair. When Cheever describes, "He
had swum too long, he had been immersed too long, and his nose and his throat were sore
from the water" (241). He is describing Neddy's long journey that seems to vanish before his
eyes, coming to an end and even though oblivious to it he seems to recognize the change.
Showing weather changes within the narrative, gives readers a feeling of time passing faster
than normal which shows the Neddy's amnesia. Overall the unseen events of time change
within the narrative, described the characters disconnect with his life which leads to a life of
despair.

The Story
In "The Swimmer," Cheever experiments with narrative structure and chronology.
Apparently realistic on the surface, the story is eventually revealed as reflecting the
disordered mind of the protagonist. When the story opens, Ned Merrill is youthful,

strong, and athletic; by the end, he is a weak and broken man, unable to understand
the wreckage of his life. Proud of his wife and his four beautiful daughters, Merrill
at first seems the picture of health and contentment. This initial image quickly
disintegrates as Merrill weakens and is confronted with his loss. Yet the action of
the story takes only a few hours.
One summer day, Ned decides to swim a series of pools between the home of his
friends the Westerhazys and his own home eight miles away. He imagines the string
of pools as a river, a "quasi-subterranean stream that curved across the county," and
names it Lucinda, after his wife. He begins his peculiar trip with great gusto,
imagining himself "a legendary figure" or "a pilgrim, an explorer, a man with a
destiny." As Ned begins his journey, Cheever establishes the social context of a
typical Sunday in Bullet Park. People go to church, it seems, but once there they
commiserate with one another about their hangovers. Once home from church,
most of their activities are athletic: golf, swimming, tennis, and perhaps some birdwatching at the wildlife preserve. Neds desire to swim across the country is
presented as the quintessence of the athletic optimism that characterizes his whole
community. Yet the ubiquitous hangovers undercut the otherwise rosy picture of
life in this beautiful suburb. Similarly, Neds apparent health and vigor mask the
reality of his psychological distress.
At first Neds trip goes well. He swims unnoticed through peoples backyards, or is
welcomed by surprised friends who are enjoying a Sunday swim, or entertaining at
poolside. At several houses he accepts drinks. By the time he has swum half the
Lucinda, he is tired but satisfied. Yet the second half of the journey goes less well.
He is caught in a sudden storm, which turns the weather cooler and creates an
autumnal feeling. He is disappointed when a friends pool is empty of water, the
bathhouse locked, and a "For Sale" sign nailed to a tree. When he has to cross a
highway, he is embarrassed to be seen in his swim trunks by passing motorists,
some of whom throw beer cans or jeer at him. He considers returning to the
Westerhazys, but finds rather to his surprise that he feels unable to return.
Somehow it is impossible to go back.
The worst part of the trip is yet to come. First, he must swim with distaste through
the crowded, unclean public pool. Then, as he travels from yard to yard, old friends
and neighbors make strange remarks to him. One couple, who happen to believe in
nude sunbathing, offer sympathy for his recent misfortunesyet Ned has no sense
of what they mean. In two places, rude comments are made about his financial
situation. His former mistress, who cried when he broke off their affair, now scorns
him. He even perceives rebuff at the hands of a bartender working at one of the
parties through which he passes. At the last few pools he can barely swim and must
stop repeatedly, holding on to the side. When he reaches his own house, he finds
the garage doors rusty, the rain gutters loose, and the door locked. Looking in the
windows, he sees that the house is empty.

Themes and Meanings

"The Swimmer" has as its primary theme the power of the mind to deny unpleasant
truths, or, to put it more positively, the determination of the ego to preserve itself in
the face of events which might erode or obliterate ones self-confidence. In order to
grasp this theme, the reader must figure out roughly what has happened to Ned and
how he has responded to those events.
The recent events of Ned Merrills life can be tentatively reconstructed once the
story has been read. Evidently a few years past he had been living a comfortable
suburban life with his wife, Lucinda, his four daughters, and a house boasting not
only a cook and a maid but also a tennis court. When the story opens, the reader
accepts Neds description of such a life as reflecting his present condition. Yet clues
quickly begin to mount that something has happened to Neda financial ruin
which led to social ostracization and eventually to a psychological breakdown.
Even while his journey is going well, he shows signs of dislocation. He cannot
remember whether a neighbor had been in Japan last year or the year before.
Another family, the Lindleys, has dismantled their riding ring, but he has only a
vague memory of having known this. He asks another friend for a drink only to be
told that "there hasnt been anything in this house to drink since Erics operation.
That was three years ago." When he arrives at the house of his former mistress, he
cannot remember how long ago their affair ended, and he has apparently lost all
memory of having sold his house. In the last paragraph of the story, he still clings to
the idea that his wife and daughters are due to return home at any moment.
Ned is determined to hold on to his past despite the many signs that his former life
has disappeared. This determination underscores the theme of the minds
willfulness in the face of disaster. Ultimately, however, this strength of mind is
impressive without being admirable, since Neds conviction cannot restore to him
his former happy life.
Style and Technique
Despite the many realistic details included in the story, from the detailed
descriptions of the various pools (specifying, for example, whether they are fed by
a well or a brook) to the nuances of suburban social climbing, the story contains an
element of fantasy. Although the action of the story covers at most several hours,
Ned seems to age appreciably. Midway through the journey, he notices that his
swim trunks are loose, and wonders if he could have lost weight in the space of the
afternoon. The youthful vigor he exhibits in the early pages of the story gives way
to a fatigue that leaves him unable to swim even one length of his last pool.
In addition to his own sense of aging, the summer itself gives way with
inappropriate suddenness to autumn. After he is caught in the rainstorm (an event
which exhilarates rather than depresses him), he notices a maple bare of leaves and

feels sad at this sign of autumn, even while rationalizing that the tree must be
blighted to have lost its foliage in midsummer. Yet the signs of autumn persist. He
smells wood smoke and wonders who would be burning wood at this time of year.
Toward the end of his trip, the water of one pool has a "wintry gleam," he smells
the autumn flower chrysanthemum, and the constellations of the oncoming night
are those of the winter sky.
In "The Swimmer," then, Cheever veers from conventional realism to experiment
with a style that emphasizes psychological veracity. Although the structure of the
narrative is unconventional, the story manages both to convey a conventional plot
line (Neds loss of money and status) and to reveal the complexity of a mans
interior reaction to personal disaster. Cheevers juxtaposition of realistic detail and
fantastic plot elements enables him to explore the workings of a mind out of touch
with reality in a broad sense, yet acutely aware of the minor details and realities
that comprise the social fabric of life in Bullet Park.
Thesis Statement / Essay Topic #1: Realism and Surrealism in Cheevers The
Swimmer"
Part of what makes John Cheevers story The Swimmer" so interesting and so
persistent is the way it quickly changes from straight realism to complete surrealism,
almost without the reader noticing it. In fact, when Ned first begins his swim across
the pools (before reaching the empty pool during the storm, which is one of the first
indications that something is wrong) this seems like a jolly task and the reader marvels
that this man, so healthy and proud of himself, despite his age, has undertaken such a
task. However, after the indication that something isnt right, the pools become harder
to swim and are much less inviting until finally, the swimmer has no strength left and is
at the abandoned front of his home. In fact, this process of getting slower and slower
is a narrative device that reflects the growing surrealism. The very act of slowing down
the narrative creates, at least in large part, the sense of unreality, especially because
there was such a fast-paced beginning. For this essay on The Swimmer" trace the
evolution of the narrative from reality to the surreal, keeping in mind the use of
foreshadowing discussed in #2.
Thesis Statement / Essay Topic #2: The Use & Importance of Foreshadowing in The
Swimmer"
The narrator of The Swimmer" does not directly tell the reader that this man is
experiencing a delusion or that something is wrong. Instead, the narrator uses
foreshadowing, by means of his simple description of routine objects and events (the
empty pool, the strange approaching storm despite the perfect sun moments before,
the smell and signs of autumn) to key the reader in. For this essay, you have a couple

of options. On the one hand, you can use elements of this thesis statement for The
Swimmer" with #1 and suggests that it is through foreshadowing that the difference
between reality and the surreal happens. On the other hand, perhaps for a shorter
essay, you can merely point out the significance of the foreshadowing, namely by
discussing how it creates an increasingly hostile world with each new swim" Ned
takes.
Thesis Statement / Essay Topic #3: Suburbia and Class in The Swimmer"
Some have suggested that this story has some parallels with the film The Graduate" in
terms of its representation of East Coast upper class suburbia. At the beginning of The
Swimmer" each yard has a gleaming pool, laughter, drinks, and often, caterers and
bartenders. This is a world of luxury, ease, and tranquility. In many ways, despite this
idyllic description in the story, there is a sense of almost disturbing homogeneityeach
house has a pool and everyone is almost exactly the same. They are all quick to
entertain, to offer up drinks, and to schmooze. However, as Neds swim becomes less
of a joy, he sees the darker side of this supposed suburban paradise as some pools are
empty, some are murky and filled with chemicals, and the residents at this later point
grow increasingly more hostile. For this argumentative essay on The Swimmer" discuss
how Neds final leg of the journey is symbolic of him swimming down" to the murky
bottom, past the glittering surface, of suburbia. For a challenge, you can also discuss
how although reality begins to slip away near the end, how perhaps this later depiction
of suburbia (murkier and less of a veneer) is more realistic that the original picture
painted by the narrator.
Thesis Statement / Essay Topic #4: The Role of Drinking and Alcohol in The
Swimmer"
Alcohol in The Swimmer" is both a motif and a symbol in this story and is important to
the overall meaning because of what it represents on several levels. As a motif, alcohol
is almost like a handshake or a polite, casual gesture. It is the primary object around
which all parties and social action revolve and is even mentioned at the very beginning
of the story when the narrator talks about how nearly everyone drank too much."
Symbolically speaking, this gesture" of alcohol is an invitation to cast aside reality, to
join others in a masking of reality. Interestingly, as the reader comes to find out, Ned
masked reality completely and drinking was part of the cause. By the end of the story,
his constant desire to drink, or to stop and have a drink is tragic as opposed to social
and the reader sees how this culture of escapism and the associated constant use of
alcohol are main themes about suburbia that Cheever might wish his audience to see.

Thesis Statement / Essay Topic #5: The Explorer is Reborn

Ned considers himself to be an explorer or a pilgrim when he sets out and continues to
see himself as such, even as the end of the story and its strange conclusion draw near.
As he goes into one pool and out of another, he is being reborn each time, finding out
that the world is not the cozy womb he once perceived. For this essay, consider in
what ways he is a successful explorerdid he find what he was looking for? In what
ways do these pilgrim voyages into the water and then out again into cold reality
symbolize rebirth?
John Cheever's, The Swimmer, is a short story that is highly praised for its
blend of realism and surrealism. Cheever conducts a thematic exploration of
suburban America and focuses on the relationship between wealth and
happiness. The central theme of the story is a life that focuses on material
successes and social standing results in temporary happiness. Cheever
presents the story in a third-person point of view with a narrator who reveals
the thoughts of the main character, Neddy Merrill, during his journey home
through his neighbour's swimming pools. The reader observes the lack of
genuine relationships formed by Neddy, his changing life circumstances over
time, and the repetitive use of alcohol throughout his journey which shows
that once the sunny faade of wealth is stripped away, Neddy is left an empty
man.
Neddy acts as though he lives a happy and full life, but the reader begins to
realize as his journey progresses that he is empty and isolated due to the lack
of genuine relationships he has in his life. He is living a life that is preoccupied
with material successes and social standing. Neddy and his wife only socialize
with the people they consider to share the same social status. For example,
the narrator states that the Biswangers', [do] not belong to Neddy's set-[the
Biswangers'] were not even on Lucinda's Christmas card list, (390). Neddy
makes a habit of rejecting invitations from people such as the Biswangers.
Due to this practice, it becomes evident that he is out of touch with many of
the people he considers his friends-he cannot even remember personal
details about many of them. This is evident when he stops in at the Sachses'
pool and forgets that his friend Eric had been ill (389). The reader cuts Neddy
off from his relationship with his wife, Lucinda, by virtue of his past,
lighthearted affair, (384) with Shirley Adams. Neddy assumes that Shirley
would welcome him openly which is evident
In the short story, The Swimmer, John Cheever employs water as a symbol for
passing time and as a representation of escapism from life's hardships.
Cheever's main character, Ned Merrill, swims across the county via his
neighborhood swimming pools. The journey Ned takes is later recognized as a
result of denial of what has happened to him and an attempt to keep his
memory repressed.
As the reader begins to gain a perspective on Ned's character, he or she may
be tempted to question his sanity. However, Cheever establishes Ned more as
a carefree and impulsive individual. Ned's "inexplicable contempt for men

who did not hurl themselves into pools, as well as his initial desire "to swim
without trunks are perfect demonstrations of his heedlessness. (Charters, p. 151) This aspect
of Ned's personality is important when trying to understand the reasoning behind Ned's journey in
the first place.
When one uses the expression "things are going swimmingly, he or she is
indicating an ease of mind and an absence of tribulation. Cheever uses this idea to set a lighthearted tone to his story at first. Ned's description of the waters of the first few swims indicates
clarity. The "bonny and lush banks, as well as the "sapphire-colored waters is a well-painted
picture of peacefulness indicating that Ned too, is at ease. (Charters, p. 152) Ned's anticipation of
meeting with friends along his swimming voyage prepares the reader for a quirky, fun-filled
adventure. Indeed, his first few encounters with friends are pleasant. The
Grahams receive him hospitably and the Bunkers express delight in his
appearance at their party. (Charters, p. 151-152) However, as the story
progresses, it becomes evident that Ned's life is anything but carefree.
The tone of the story gradually changes from roguish pool frolicking to
brooding awareness of Ned's plight. Cheever marks the transition very
conspicuously. A storm begins to form in
John Cheever is an American short-story writer and novelist known for his
portrayals of the average middle-class American. The settings for many of
Cheever's short stories are upscale suburban neighborhoods. Very similar to
Scarborough, a northern suburb of Westchester County where he lived with
his wife and three children. This was a world of well-kept lawns, country clubs
and commuter trains. Two of John Cheever's masterpieces that reflect this
environment and the people within it are "The Swimmer and "O Youth and Beauty!
At first glance the stories may appear very different although after analyzing
John Cheever's development of human character the protagonists will be
shown to be very similar.
"The Swimmer takes place in a very wealthy suburban neighborhood. The kind of
neighborhood where parties that flowed with alcohol occurred almost every
night and money came and went. The story begins on a hot summer day after
a night of drinking; Neddy Merrill decided to swim home across the backyard
pools of his neighbors. As he swims through each pool the reader realizes that
Neddy is actually travelling through periods of his life. He encounters
neighbors that were once friendly but now have turned against him,
suggestions of his financial ruin, and ultimately returns to find his house
empty.
One of the most important aspects of writing fiction is characterization. A
writer must have a considerable amount of skill to create characters that are
realistic and believable. John Cheever does an excellent job creating
characters that the reader can relate to. There are two ways an author can
describe a character in literary fiction, indirectly or directly. In "The Swimmer
the protagonist is Neddy Merrill. Cheever describes Neddy directly to the reader when he states:
"He was a slender man--he seemed to have the especial slenderness of
youth--and while he was far from young he had slid down his banister that m

In John Cheever's, "The Swimmer," symbolism is utilized as a powerful

method in expressing Ned's idealistic view of his conflicted life. Ned's empty
house is effectively used as a symbol; his delusions of grandeur regarding it,
is similar to his perspective of life.
Ned's reaction towards the number of bleak characteristics of his house,
creates the idea that his overoptimistic attitude is carried on throughout every
aspect of his life. When he initially approaches his dark house from the
outside, Ned asks himself, "Was it so late that they had all gone to bed? Had
Lucinda stayed at the Westerhazey's for supper?"
Ned was a man who couldn't accept the realities of life, especially not when it
came to his family and his home. He continued to the "locked garage doors, with
the rust coming off the handles onto his hands." Reality was beginning to overtake his
weaknesses, symbolized by the rust surpassing from the house to his hands and
permanently staining him. He could no longer escape reality with his
unrealistic explanations of why his life was miserable; the rusty reality was
slowly creeping up from the back of his mind, completely overpowering him
eventually. The loose rain gutter serves as another component of the house that
symbolizes Ned's contrast of reality and his perception of it. Ned is the loose rain gutter in his
family, knocked away from his family, but another key symbol of his perspective is how he
reacts to it; "It could be fixed in the morning." Similar to the rain gutter, Ned has that
attitude consistently and believes that his family problems are just the same. Realistically, rain
gutters do not take one morning to fix, and families take much longer. Ned checked
again and the house was still locked; this was not going to change and neither
was his sad reality.
Ned persists with his uncompromising stance, but he will soon have to accept
the truth, and will become permanently marked by the rust on h
In The Swimmer and The Purloined Letter, writers Cheever and Poe,
respectively, employ foreshadowing before a significant plotline revelation.
Their vastly unique applications of this literary device create heightened
feelings of suspense, yet at the same time make the revelations predictable.
The Swimmer subtly doles out it foreshadowing in the form of minute
environmental clues that slowly drag the reader away from light comedy into
a nightmarishly believable revelation. The Purloined Letter provides an
obvious foreshadowing in the beginning, so that when arriving at the
revelation readers can only chuckle at themselves for not seeing it coming.
Early in The Swimmer Neddy establishes that the name of the quasisubterranean stream that [curves] across the country is Lucinda (Cheever
174). As keen readers will observe, the river symbolizes the person behind its
namesake and by extension, the pools that Neddy swims in throughout his
journey represent his relationship with his wife. For this reason, the dried up
pool at the Welcher's house is one of the many environmental clues that
foreshadow the weakening relationship with his wife. After he moves on from
the Welcher residence, he arrives at the Halloran's where Mrs. Halloran again
raises our suspicion of Neddy's deteriorating family life when she says, Why
we heard that you'd sold your house and that your poor children ... (Cheever
178). By this juncture, it becomes apparent to readers that Neddy's social
welfare is on the decline. In the last paragraph of the narrative, Cheever

reveals that Neddy truly loses his family and wealth. Even though this
revelation pushes the envelope between realism and fantasy; readers are not
as shocked as Neddy because the third person narration throughout the story
grants the ability to decipher the clues leading up to this tragedy.
In John Cheever's, "The Swimmer, Neddy Merrill was a prominent well-known man
throughout the community. Ned and his wife, Lucinda, were at a pool party on a beautiful
summer's day. All of the people at the party were discussing the evening
before and were saying, "We all drank too much (297). As Ned was enjoying sitting
by the edge of the pool with a glass of gin, he suddenly came up with an idea of swimming
home. He would swim from one of his neighbor's pools to the next until he
reached home. He thought of this dogleg stretch of pools as a river that he
named after his wife, Lucinda. Even though Ned was an older man, he still
was athletically inclined, which helped him with his journey.
Ned's "life was not confusing and the delight he took in this observation could
not be explained by its suggestion to escape (297). Ned's escape was drinking
alcoholic beverages. As Ned took his journey through the community, all he really thought
about was getting to the next location and getting a mixed drink. He broke
into one of his neighbor's yards and asked, "I'm terribly sorry to break in on
you like this but I've taken a chill and I wonder if you'd give me a drink (302).
Ned had gotten to where his alcohol had gotten the best of him. He drank so much that he had lost
all sense of time. Ned's' drinking had started affecting his memory. He did not remember going
around the neighborhood at one time asking for money. This affected his thinking. He had
not remembered selling his house. He did not remember one of his closest
friends packing up and moving all of their horses and items from their
community. With Ned's alcohol state of oblivion, he had lost a part of life
which he could not commit to memory or convalesce.
Ned had a mistress by the name of Shirley Adams. He had reflecti
John Cheever's story "The Swimmer" starts off reasonably enough. The
protagonist, Neddy Merrill, is lounging about the swimming pool at the home of
his friends, the Westerhazys, when a peculiar thought occurs to him: there are so
many swimming pools between his current location and his own home eight
miles away that he can literally swim home -- with a few jogs across back yards
and intervening parkways. However, what begins as a whimsical exercise soon
turns into the Twilight Zone.
At his first stop, the Grahams', Mrs. Graham welcomes him graciously and notes
that she's been trying to get him on the phone all morning; she's delighted he's
stopped by. Mrs. Hammer, owner of pool #2, sees him in the water but "wasn't
quite sure who it was." The Lears saw him in their pool as well, the omniscient
narrator reports; the Howlands and the Crosscups did not, because they were
not home.
It is only at the Bunkers', pool #5, that we begin to get the sense that something
is definitely amiss. There is a party in full swing, to which Neddy has apparently
been invited, but his wife has called in his regrets, telling them he could not
come. Why would she have done that without asking him? Otherwise, all seems
normal; Neddy recognizes everyone at the Bunkers' party, including the "smiling
bartender he had seen at a hundred parties." Neddy, however, assiduously avoids

getting entangled in talk "that would delay his voyage", and proceeds overland to
his next stop.
This was the Levys', and there something really odd does happen. A sudden
storm breaks through with its full fury, and Neddy takes cover in the Levys'
gazebo, watching the storm lash the trees. When the rain passes, he observes
that "the force of the wind had stripped a maple of its red and yellow leaves and
scattered them over the grass and the water." But it's the middle of the summer
-- or at least it was when Neddy left the Westerhazys', only a few hours ago. At
the Lindleys', he is surprised to find their riding ring "overgrown with grass and
all the jumps dismantled. He wondered if the Lindleys had sold their horses or
gone away for the summer. He seemed to remember having heard something
about the Lindleys and their horses but the memory was unclear." And the next
pool Neddy reaches is dry; the family's pool furniture is packed up under a tarp,
and the house is for sale.
What has happened? Cheever does not tell us, but it seems that more time is
passing than Neddy realizes. Clearly it is no longer the same day, or even the
same season; is it the same year? The Halloran's hedge is yellow like the Levy's
maple. Mrs. Halloran expresses sympathy over the fact that Neddy has sold his
house (a detail he does not recall) and over the misfortunes of his daughters,
whom he thought were all home playing tennis. Leaves are falling thick and fast
now; Neddy has the peculiar sensation he has lost weight between the time he
entered the Hallorans' pool and the time he emerged; and he is getting very old
and tired. At the Sachses' house, he learns that his friend Eric had an operation
three years before (another detail Neddy does not remember).
Finally, the mercenary Mrs. Biswanger lets the cat out of the bag. The
Biswangers are having a party when Neddy arrives, and he is treated extremely
rudely -- a switch, since generally the Biswangers courted him because of his
superior social status. But he overhears Mrs. Biswanger tell another guest, "They
went for broke overnight -- nothing but income -- and he showed up drunk one
Sunday and asked us to loan him five thousand dollars." His next stop is the pool
of a woman with whom he has been having an affair; she likewise alludes to the
fact that he's borrowed money from her, and rudely refuses to give him any
more. Finally reaching his own house in a state of complete exhaustion, he tries
the garage doors, but "rust came off the handles onto his hands." The house is
empty; his family is gone; and at last we learn how long Neddy's swim has
actually been.

John Cheever
Who is the author?

"The Enormous Radio" and "Reunion."

Name two previous stories we have read by John Cheever.

Neddy Merrill. A slender man who feels young and strong.

Who is the main character? Describe him.

Westchester, NY in the 1960's.

What is the setting?

His journey is to reach his home by water. He decides to

swim home because his life is not confined to where he
lives. He wants to discover all the swimming pools in the
county. It is really his journey through life.
Describe Neddy Merrill's journey. What is the point of it?

Third -person point of view

What point of view is this story told in?

The author is telling the story as someone observing

Neddy's journey. It is showing the reactions of his
neighbor's and friends as Neddy shows up at their pools and
the changes to Neddy's attitudes and feelings as his journey
continues.
Why is the point of view important in the story?

The climax is the storm that occurs while Neddy is

swimming his way home. He stands in the gazebo waiting
for the storm to pass. He feels cold and he notices the
changing colors of the leaves on the trees reflecting the
passing of time. Neddy finds himself standing almost naked
in the middle of the highway in his bathing suit. He is cold
and begins to feel weaker and older than he did at the
beginning of his journey.
What is the climax? Discuss the scene and its value.

Suburbia is seen as the best place to live. People have

money and large homes. It is a symbol of accomplishment.
What Neddy learns is that while he is included in his
neighbor's and sometimes welcomed in their homes, he
really does not have any friends. They really don't care
about him.
How is the story representative of suburban life?

The main conflict is Neddy's view of himself and the reality

of his life. He sees himself as young and strong. As his
journey continues, he realizes that he was not aware of the
situations of his friends and neighbors. Some neighbors
moved, some became ill, and he himself lost his home. He
realizes what his life is really like toward the end of the
story he feels old and weak.
What is the main conflict within the story?

Neddy realizes that he is coming toward the end of his life.

He is no longer young, wealthy, and welcome everywhere.
This is symbolized by his locked and empty house.
What is the resolution?

The theme of the story is that life continues and changes

over time. Time passes and things do not stay the same. I
am going to graduate from high school soon and I have to
make decisions about what I will study and where I will go to
school. My parents cannot make all my decisions for me
anymore.
Discuss the theme of this story and be able to connect it to our world
today?

Place
Cheever himself moved from New York to the suburbs of Westchester County, New York to
bring up his family. Many of his stories are set in this kind of suburb, and he has been called
the Chekhov of the suburbs. (He has also been called Dante of the cocktail hour.) He wrote
a series of stories set in the fictional Shady Hill. This is a rich suburb, where everyone

seems to have a pool and house staff. They throw big parties and employ bartenders. No two
pools are alike quite a feat of description.
Time
The story is set on one of those midsummer Sundays when everyone sits around saying, I
drank too much last night. This is explained in the very first sentence. We dont know exactly
what year it is set, though the story was written in the 1960s. In fact, the lack of specific time
is part of the story itself. By the end, we dont know how many years have metaphorically
passed between Neddys first and last swim. But we do know that this is the Cold-War era,
when America is expanding.

CHARACTER
Neddy has a kids name. A grown-man would more often be called Ned. His quest is
childlike in its enthusiasm. He has the narcissism of youth, thinking of himself as a legendary
figure, as little boys often imagine theyre superheroes. His ego level depletes as he swims
forth.
Cheevers mastery lies in the handling of Neddys gradual, devastating progress
from boundless optimism to bottomless despair, from summer to fall, from
swimming pool to swimming pool.as we read the story we feel time passing,
before our eyes; feel Neddy losing heart, growing weary, getting old.
Michael Chabon
The story opens with everybodys hangovers, but Neddy is not complaining about his
hangover. Probably because hes still drunk from the previous night. By the end of the story
he may have sobered up, and sees the reality of his life.

THEME
Neddy Merrill literally floats over the reality of his life, which is that hes drowning in his
suburban life, and in his alcohol problem. Of course, this is the natural reading after knowing
about the life of the author, but how would the story be interpreted if we knew nothing of
Cheevers alcoholism? This is a story about the denial of knowledge. Neddy is able to
continue while his life crumbles beneath him. Theme: People can remain brittle and
tenacious even as things fade and dissolve under them. Yet theres no morality in Cheever.
He doesnt wag a finger, telling us we must face up to reality.

Cheever himself said this story is about the irreversibility of human conduct. Its about
grandiosity of any description. You dont have to be rich with lots of swimming pools in order
to understand this story. This story is about drinking, but were all drinkers (in some fashion
or other).
Its also an allegory for getting older. Everything withers and crumbles in the end. We just
keep on trucking. Theres no turning back. The birds he mentions at the highway scene are a
type of heron that get netted while trying to swim upstream.
The story has mythic echoes the passage of a divine swimmer across the
calendar toward his doom and yet is always only the story of one bewildered
man, approaching the end of his life, journeying homeward, in a pair of bathing
trunks, across the countryside where he lost everything that ever meant
something to him.

TECHNIQUES OF NOTE
This story is an example of how well Cheever is able to bring the reader
into the story. The first paragraph offers a wonderful description of setting. He makes
use of the second person, moving from the universal to the specific social group,
ending/beginning with the priest. Drinking too much is juxtaposed with the church. Slate use
the word litany to describe the feeling evoked by the first paragraph. A litany is a ritual
repetition of prayers when applied to the church, but is also used outside church settings to
describe something which feels repetitious in a tedious sort of way.
At one point Cheever wanted to parallel the tale of Narcissus, a character in
Greek mythology who died while staring at his own reflection in a pool of water,
which Cheever dismissed as too restrictive. As published, the story is highly
praised for its blend of realism and surrealism, the thematic exploration of
suburban America, especially the relationship between wealth and
happiness, as well as his use of myth and symbolism.
Wikipedia
The turning point is marked by the onset of the storm. Ned sees the first red
and yellow leaves and starts to get signs that things are not all right. Yet Netty loves the
storm. Its a big drinkers story. Along with the idea that nothing ever changes is another idea
of let it all come down. Inviting destruction. In the opening paragraph everything is lovely. The
cloud is like a city, but no ordinary cloud.
Cheever has written an intensely dark story, there are comic elements, such as when the
drivers on the highway throw things at him. Even the epic journey itself is fake and therefore
laughable. But there is both pleasure and misery in this story. Its a very slow apocalypse.
The beautiful people are moving on, no longer beautiful; Ned has lost everything he ever held
dear. The comic elements make this darkness even darker.

Cheever has chosen the names of his characters with care. Neddys wife Lucinda, for
example, is named after light, which is associated with time.
Cheever uses sound to create extraordinary atmospheres.
Metaphysical moments are scattered throughout: The constellations of the sky,
for example. (Another story like this is Rabbit.) Metaphysics is a traditional branch of
philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world that
encompasses it.

Setting
.......The time is a Sunday afternoon in the early 1960s. The action takes place in suburban
New York Cityprobably in Westchester County, where author John Cheever once lived.
Westchester, one of the wealthiest counties in the United States, is north of New York City
and west of Connecticut.

Characters
Neddy Merrill: The title character. He is a slender, middle-aged man who lives in a posh
New York City suburb. He is a heavy drinker who has an affair with a woman in his
neighborhood. The reader discovers at the end of the story that his wife and four daughters
have left him.
Lucinda Merrill: Wife of Neddy Merrill.
The Four Merrill Daughters
Helen Westerhazy: Friend of Neddy Merrill, who begins his swim at her
pool.
Donald Westerhazy: Husband of Helen Westerhazy.
Mrs. Graham: Neighbor who gives Neddy a drink while he swims her
pool.
Mrs. Graham's Guests From Connecticut
Mrs. Hammer: Woman who tends roses while Neddy swims her pool.
The Lears: Husband and wife who sit in their living room as Neddy swims by.
The Howlands, the Crosscups: Residents who are away while Neddy swims their pools.
Enid Bunker: Neighbor who welcomes Neddy to her party. Before he has a drink and swims
her pool, she introduces him to many of her guests.
Rusty Towers: Guest at the Bunker party who floats in the pool on a rubber raft.
Bartender at Bunker Pool: Smiling man who gives Neddy a gin and tonic.
The Tomlinsons: Guests at the Bunker party.
The Levys: Neighbors whose pool Neddy swims. He takes shelter in their gazebo during a
storm.
The Lindleys: Family that once maintained horses and a riding ring.
The Welchers: Family whose pool has no water.
Elderly Driver: Man who allows Neddy to cross in front of his car.
Lifeguards: Two men who order Neddy out of the public pool in the village of Lancaster.

Mr., Mrs. Halloran: Elderly couple with the oldest pool in the county.
Eric, Helen Sachs: Neddy swims their pool but is disappointed that they no longer keep
alcoholic beverages in their home. Helen is Mrs. Halloran's daughter.
The Biswangers: Neighbors whom Neddy regards as socially inferior. When Neddy enters
their property, a party is in progress. Grace Biswanger calls him a gate-crasher.
Nevertheless, he swims their pool and gets a drink.
Bartender at Biswanger Pool: Man who treats Neddy with hostility.
Shirley Adams: Onetime mistress of Neddy Merrill. She treats Neddy rudely and says she
won't lend him any more money.
Young Man With Shirley Adams
The Gilmartins, the Clydes: Families with pools that Neddy swims before arriving home.
Cook, Maid: People who once worked in the Merrill household.

Point of View
.......The author presents the story in third-person point of view with a narrator who reveals
the thoughts of the main character, Neddy Merrill.

Climax
.......The climax occurs when Neddy finds himself standing on the shoulder of Route 424
amid litter while passersby ridicule him and one throws a beer can at him.
.......He had no dignity or humor to bring to the situation," the narrator says.
.......Neddy could have turned back, but he didn't.
.......Why was he determined to complete his journey even if it meant putting his life in
danger?" the narrator asks. At what point had this prank, this joke, this piece of horseplay
become serious?" When Neddy decides to continue his swimming featwhich, in this surreal
story, is a metaphor for the journey through lifehe commits himself to his self-destruction.
.......In other words, he will continue to live as he has always lived. After this turning point in
his swimin his allegorical journey through lifeeverything begins to go wrong. First, he
swims in the murk" of a public pool, where he is not welcome because he does not have an
identification disk. Then he becomes unnerved when Mrs. Halloran tells him she is sorry
about his misfortunes. Next, he goes to the home of the Helen and Eric Sachs for a drink
and, of course, another swimbut learns that they have not kept alcoholic beverages in the
house for three years. He wonders whether he is losing his memory. As the denouement
proceedsand he grows cold and weakand finally arrives at his house, which is locked
and empty.

Conflict
.......Neddy Merrill is or was in conflict with his wife and daughters, for they have left him.
Perhaps his affair with Shirley Adams caused the breakup. And perhaps he was hard to live
with because of his apparent alcoholism and his focus on material success. He is also in
conflict with the Biswangers, whom he regards as below him, and possibly with other
neighbors. Finally, he is in conflict with himself, for he cannot control his urge to drink.
Moreover, his inflated opinion of himselfhe . . . had a vague and modest idea of himself as
a legendary figure (paragraph 3)"and his mental deterioration also indicate he suffers from
internal conflicts.

Themes
More Is Less
.......The American dream of material and social success came true for Neddy Merrill. He and
his family had a fine home and high standing in the exclusive New York City suburb of Bullet
Park. The county in which he lived had golf courses and tennis courts. All of his neighbors
were well-to-do, and a swimming pool was de rigueur on every property. The Lindleys even
had horses and a riding ring. Neddy and his wife frequently socialized with their neighbors.
However, they refused to accept dinner invitations from the Biswangers, the sort of people
who discussed the price of things at cocktails, exchanged market tips during dinner, and after
dinner told dirty stories to mixed company. They did not belong to Neddy's setthey were
not even on Lucinda's Christmas-card list." Neddy's preoccupation with material success and
social standing leaves him feeling empty. The more he has, the less he has. To fill the void
inside him, he immerses himself in liquids (alcohol and swimming pools) during his journey
through life. He ends an empty man with an empty house and an empty bank account.
The Ravages of Alcoholism
.......Neddy Merrill drinks far too much. His swimming odyssey may be a dream born of a
drunken stupor. Or it may be a surreal manifestation of delirium tremens. He has some of the
symptoms: disorientation, mental impairment, heightened activity, hallucinations, confusion,
fatigue, and trembling. Whatever the case, it is clear that alcohol has abetted his descent into
ruination.
Odyssean Fantasy
.......As he embarks on his swimming journey, Neddy fantasizes that he is a pilgrim, an
explorer, a man with a destiny." He is a regular Odysseus about to brave the seas and their
perils. And he does indeed encounter perils: a thorny hedge, gravel that cuts his feet, a
highway where passersby ridicule him, a crowded public pool with stinking chlorine and
hostile lifeguards, neighbors (the Biswangers) who ridicule him, a rude bartender, and a
former mistress who chastises him.
Life Is ShortDon't Waste It
.......The story can stand as a metaphor for life, delivering this message: Your time on earth is
short; use this time in worthy, productive endeavors. Neddy, of course, has spent his time
pursuing material and social success, alcohol, and a mistress. His swim through the pools of
the county is metaphor for the swiftly passing time he has spent on this earth. He begins his
journey on a sunny summer day, feeling youthful, happy, and ready to take on the challenge
of "swimming the county." But as he progresses, storm clouds approach and he hears
thunder. When he takes shelter from the storm, he notices that its winds have blown red and
yellow leaves from the treesa sign of autumn. At the Halloran property, he also notices that
the beech hedge is yellow, not green. He begins to feel cold, another sign that the seasons
are fast-forwarding. When he reaches the Biswanger pool, says the narrator, "No one was
swimming and the twilight, reflected on the water of the pool, had a wintry gleam." When

Neddy reaches home, the house is empty. His wife and daughters have left him, his bank
account is nil, and his his health is impaired. He has wasted his life.
Andromeda: Group of stars.
Aphrodite: Goddess of love in Greek mythology. A bronze statue of her sits on a hall table in
the Merrill home.
Channel swimmers: Athletes who swim the English Channel, between England and France.
Cassiopeia: Group of stars.
Cepheus: Group of stars.
cordite: An explosive.
dogleg: Term for a bend in a golf fairway. The bend resembles the angle between a dog's
upper and lower hind leg.
de Haviland trainer: Biplane (de Havilland DH 82 Tiger Moth) used to train pilots. Cheever
misspells Havilland, writing it with only one l.
gazebo: Small structure with a roof, open sides, and seating accommodations from which
people may view scenery. It is usually located on high ground in an area with gardens and
greenery. Gazebo combines the Latin suffix ebo (I shall) and the English word gaze to form a
word meaning I shall gaze.
Japanese lantern: Lantern made of colorful paper.
Kyoto: Japanese city southwest of Tokyo.
quasi-subterranean: Partly underground.
Stertorously (paragraph 2): Breathing laboriously, like one who snores.
Times: The New York Times.

In The Swimmer, John Cheever experiments with narrative

structure and chronology. Apparently realistic on the surface, the
story is eventually revealed as reflecting the disordered mind of the
protagonist. When the story opens, Ned Merrill is youthful, strong,
and athletic; by the end, he is a weak and broken man, unable to
understand the wreckage of his life. Proud of his wife and his four
beautiful daughters, Merrill at first seems the picture of health and
contentment. This initial image quickly disintegrates as Merrill
weakens and is confronted with his loss. However, the action of the
story takes only a few hours.
One summer day, Ned decides to swim a series of pools between
the home of his friends the Westerhazys and his own home eight

miles away. He imagines the string of pools as a river, a quasisubterranean stream that curved across the county, and names it
Lucinda, after his wife. He begins his peculiar trip with great gusto,
imagining himself a legendary figure or a pilgrim, an explorer, a
man with a destiny.
As Ned begins his journey, Cheever establishes the social context
of a typical Sunday in Bullet Park. People go to church, it seems,
but once there they commiserate with one another about their
hangovers. Once home from church, most of their activities are
athletic: golf, swimming, tennis, and perhaps some bird-watching at
the wildlife preserve. Neds desire to swim across the county is
presented as...
Neddy Merrill
Neddy Merrill, with his perfect family, high social standing, and pricey
suburban home, has few problems in his life and seems to see himself
and all his friends as blessed. Neddy has mastered all the rules of the
world he inhabits. He accepts and rejects invitations according to a
rigid social hierarchy and engages in all the expected trappings and
activities: tennis, drinking gin, and sailing. He has many friends, and
his position in this privileged world allows him to hop from pool to pool
uninvited, confident that he will be welcomed wherever he goes. If
there is any unpleasantness in Neddys world, Neddy opts not to see
it. Although he is no longer young, he prides himself on his youthful
strength and vigor and seems to see himself as invincible. He exists in
a state of bliss that leaves no room for anything but health and
happiness.
As Neddy undertakes his watery journey home, he begins to
understand that the discontent hes always stubbornly ignored is more

present in his life than he realized. Neddy has made a habit of

rejecting invitations, and as friend after friend remarks on how long its
been since theyve seen him, it becomes clear that he has distanced
himself from those around him: he hadnt been aware of his friends
illness, friends have moved away, and he himself has suffered from
some unknown misfortune that has cost him his wealth and family. The
robust health and strength that Neddy enjoys leaves him, and he gets
weaker as his journey progresses. Rather than being eternally
youthful, Neddy is actually aging and moving toward death. Everything
he once considered his righthis family, mistresss affection, youth,
and social standinghave disappeared, and at the end of the story he
is left entirely alone. Neddy is not an evil man in any way, but his willful
ignorance of the unpleasant side of life eventually leads to his
downfall.
Themes
The Inevitable Passage of Time
Neddys journey home through the pools of his neighborhood turns
into a journey through many years of his life, showing that the passage
of time is inevitable, no matter how much one might ignore it. Neddy
has mastered the art of denial. At the beginning of the story, the
narrator tells us that Neddy is far from young, but he does his best to
act young by sliding down a banister and diving headlong into a pool.
The long afternoon at the Westerhazys pool seems timeless, no
different, we can assume, from many other afternoons spent exactly
the same way. Neddys idea to swim home seems like just one more
idea in a series of ideas that have popped up on many similar
occasions.

As Neddys journey progresses, we see that time is actually passing

much more quickly than Neddy realizes. Leaves and hedges turn
yellow and red, the constellations in the sky change, and the air gets
colder. Friends are not at home when he expects them to be, he faces
scorn from the people hed once scorned, his mistress wants nothing
to do with him, and he learns that a friend has been very ill. All of
these changes have happened without Neddys knowledge. Neddy
questions his memory, but he also wonders whether he has simply
denied reality to a dangerous degree. His peers have acted their age
and faced adult problems, whereas he has resisted. His former
mistress even asks him, Will you ever grow up? Only at the end of
the story when Neddy faces his dark, empty house does he realize
that time has passed. He has tried to ignore it, but its passage has
proven to be inevitable.
The Emptiness of Suburbia
As Neddy makes his journey across the county, we see that emptiness
and despair lie beneath the sunny faade of suburbia. Although Neddy
seems to have a full, happy life, he nevertheless remains isolated from
others. He makes a habit of rejecting invitations and has been out of
touch with many people whom he considers friends. Neddy cant even
seem to remember personal details about many of them, such as
when Mrs. Levy bought her Japanese lanterns. He knows the rules of
the social world he occupies, but this is a world built primarily on
appearances. Along his path, he encounters the comfortable trappings
of high society, but no genuine friends. And everywhere he goes,
people are drinking heavily, which suggests that there is something
from which they are trying to escape or hide.

The emptiness of suburbia also applies to Neddys love life. Even

though Neddy names his pool path after his wife, Lucinda, he is cut off
from her as well by virtue of his affair with Shirley Adams. The affair,
however, also lacks genuine love. When Neddy thinks about Shirley,
he defines love as sexual roughhouse, which is what he looks to for
comfort and warmth. At the end of the story, when Neddy is actually
alone and facing his empty house, the true state of his life is, for the
first time, clear. The foundations were flimsy and his relationships
weak.
Motifs
Alcohol
The pervasive consumption of alcohol throughout the story sharpens
the distortion of time and Neddys sense of unhappiness. The drinking,
serving, and desire for alcohol become significant motivators for
Neddy as well as a way to measure his social standing. At the
beginning of the story, everyone is complaining of having drunk too
much the night before, but they have gathered companionably at the
Westerhazys pool to drink again. Neddy drinks gin before he decides
to swim from pool to pool, and his swim home is marked as much by
fresh drinks as by new swimming pools. At the Bunkers party, Neddy
feels comforted and happy when he is given a drink, whereas at the
Biswangers party, he feels slighted by the way his drink is served. As
his journey grows more difficult, Neddy wishes deeply for a drink but is
often turned down, once at the Sachses and once at Shirley Adamss.
His desire for a drink grows stronger as he grows weaker, and the
amount of alcohol he has consumed during his journey could explain
the harsh, bewildering emotional place in which Neddy finds himself at
the end of the story.

Maps and Exploration

Images of maps and exploration regularly punctuate The Swimmer,
highlighting the gap between Neddys perceived understanding of his
happiness and direction in life and the messy confusion that eventually
takes over. When Neddy gets the idea to swim home through the
pools in his county, he sees himself as a brave explorer, setting off for
the unknown from a home base that is stable and secure. Neddy
likens himself to a legendary figure who is making an important
discovery, and as he begins his journey, he calls himself a pilgrim
and an explorer. When Neddy envisions his friends pools, he sees
them through a mapmakers eyes, even though the narrator tells us
that Neddys maps are imaginary at bestthe first hint that Neddys
sense of direction and place is flimsy. The lighthearted fantasies about
exploring eventually disappear as Neddys journey grows harder and
stranger. By the end of the story, Neddy has literally lost his way. He
thought he was moving through familiar territory, but the home where
he finds himself, dark and empty, is someplace hes never been
before.
Symbols
Swimming Pools
The pools that Neddy swims through as he makes his way home
represent periods of time that Neddy passes through. At the beginning
of the story, Neddy is strong and active, feels deep contentment with
his life, and is admired by his friends. Warm in the sun, he feels like a
legendary figure, as though there is nothing he cant accomplish. As
he progresses from pool to pool, however, Neddy changes. Physically,
he grows weaker, unable to pull himself out of pools without a ladder

and unwilling to dive in as he once did. Instead of being warm, he

eventually feels chilled to the bone. Around him, the sunny summer
day grows increasingly cooler, and a storm passes. The trees,
meanwhile, lose their leaves, and the constellations change to those
of autumn. His standing in his social circle has changed as well. Once
respected and given to snubbing those who arent part of his group, he
is now snubbed by Grace Biswanger and the bartender at her party.
Other acquaintances pity him for his misfortunes, which Neddy isnt
aware that he has suffered. A lot has happened as hes been moving
from pool to pool, and Neddy has undergone these changes
unwittingly.
Neddy has named the chain of pools the Lucinda River, invoking the
security and longevity of his marriage and family, but his choice of
name becomes sad and ironic when he winds up at his dark, deserted
home. Neddy has taken Lucinda, just as he took his comfortable life,
for granted. We dont know much about their marriage, but we know of
Neddys affair with Shirley, an affair he treated lightly and to which he
attached no meaning. Treating adultery so casually implies that Neddy
assumed that Lucinda would always be there, supportive and secure.
When the Lucinda River deposits him at a lonely, unfamiliar place, he
faces the consequences of his actions and harsh reality of the passing
years for the first time.
Changes in Weather and Season
The changes in weather and season that occur throughout The
Swimmer mirror Neddys changing life circumstances, particularly the
deterioration of his comfort and security. At the beginning of the story,
Neddy is warm in the sunshine, conscious of nothing but his own

happiness and the pleasures of the day. As he begins his swim, the
water and air are of comfortable temperature, and he can walk easily
from pool to pool in his swim trunks. Shortly into his journey, a storm
passes, marking a turning point in Neddys plans. He is alone for the
first time, waiting out the storm in a deserted gazebo; and when the
storm ends, the warmth is gone. He is chilly, and the red and yellow
leaves on the ground suggest fallNeddy feels a peculiar sadness,
the first time he feels anything other than happiness. Weather and
season are not kind to Neddy from this moment on. He gets colder,
sees more signs of fall, and changes from a robust traveler into a
pathetic figure by the highway. Autumn arrives in full as Neddy finishes
his journey, and the final pool he swims in has freezing-cold water.
Just as Neddys happy life has come to a close, the cycle of seasons
has been completed as well, and it is clear by the end of the story that
Neddy is entering the winter of his life.
John Cheever is famous for the fictional world within his novels and
short stories, a world where wealth and privilege do not protect his
characters from despair, heartbreak, and disaster. Cheever generally
sets his fiction in the Northeastern United States, usually the affluent
suburbs of New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut. His characters
are preppy, wealthy, and white and not above snobbery and elitism.
Extramarital affairs, family drama, and family feudsparticular
between brothersare commonplace. Happiness, although seemingly
promised by wealth and all its comfortable trappings, always seems
just out of reach. And alcoholprimarily ginplays a prominent role in
almost every social interaction.
The world of The Swimmer is typical Cheever, full of all the trappings
of the upper middle class as well as the persistent malaise that

accompanies them. Cheever bombards us with details from Neddys

world: in the first paragraph of the story, he mentions the church, golf
course, tennis court, Audubon group, and adults who have been
drinking excessively. Immediately, we understand that this is a
wealthy, privileged world, where adults can spend entire afternoons
drinking gin by the poolside, secure with their position in society.
Beneath this security and bloated comfort, however, lie a strict,
punitive social hierarchy; fragile relationships; and unhappiness.
Neddy experiences some undefined misfortune that pushes him down
in the social ranks, and in his world, the snubbing by a bartender is a
significant offense. He loses track of friends and doesnt even know
about their moves or illnesses. He cheats on his wife, abandons his
mistress, and consequently ends up alone. Although not all of
Cheevers stories take the surreal, twisting path of The Swimmer,
many revolve around this theme of fragile happiness and existential
meaninglessness.
1. He was not a practical joker nor was he a fool but he was determinedly original and
had a vague and modest idea of himself as a legendary figure.

This quotation, which appears in the third paragraph of the story,

reveals the rosy, self-satisfied view Neddy has of himself and his
world. Neddy has achieved all the trappings of success and is
surrounded by friends and family. He takes comfort in the privileges
that his social standing affords, content to know that he is a respected
member of society. In this quotation, he reveals his self-perception: he
is original and sees himself as a legendary figure. This idea is
delusional at best, especially because Cheever writes that Neddy has
a modest view of himselfenvisioning oneself to be legendary
certainly does not suggest modesty. As The Swimmer progresses,

we see that Neddys worldview is indeed faulty. His friends have

become distant acquaintances, his family has disappeared, and he
has grown weak. At the end of the story, Neddy is no longer original or
legendary. He is simply cold, alone, and confused.
2. Why, believing as he did, that all human obduracy was susceptible to common sense,
was he unable to turn back? Why was he determined to complete his journey even if it
meant putting his life in danger? At what point had this prank, this joke, this piece of
horseplay become serious?

This passage, which appears about halfway through the story,

suggests that Neddys journey, which had begun as simply a fun
exploit, is actually more meaningful than Neddy had anticipated.
Neddy began his pool-to-pool journey with a view of himself as an
explorer, doing something unexpected on an ordinary afternoon.
Neddy just wanted to take a new way home and didnt conceive of it
as a life-changing decision. At this point, however, Neddy is standing
in his swim trunks beside a busy highway, and the journey suddenly
becomes something more than just a lark. He doesnt understand why
he is persevering or why the journey has become something serious,
but he recognizes that the fun is gone.
This quotation points to a larger idea of The Swimmer as well. Neddy
claims to be satisfied and happy with his life, but he doesnt seem to
realize that this life is all he has and his actions have consequences.
All his rejected invitations have gained him enemies and a host of
friends kept at arms length. He has also ruined his marriage and
apparently lost his fortune. His life, as the quotation suggests, is
indeed serious, not a prank or joke. Just as he feels unable to stop his
strange journey home, he is unable to turn back the clock and make

up for past mistakes. There is nowhere to go but forward, across the

highway and on into the future.