Surrealism Swimmer

The main conflict in The Swimmer is Neddy’s inability to distinguish reality from illusion due to his alcoholism. In simple terms, the man is a drunk. In the story you get the sense that he has always been this way and people have learned to accept the fact that the man probably pours Jack Daniels on his Cheerios every morning. The swimmer is a great example of surrealism because throughout the entire story Neddy is under the influence of alcohol. When drunk, your body doesn’t function as well as it should and you often hallucinate or do things you wouldn’t normally do. When I first read the story I thought that he was actually visiting his neighbor’s homes and pools and the illusion was the changing of seasons and his age. While that was also an illusion, the main illusion was the fact that he was not actually visiting these places. The fact that everything was in his imagination is a great example of surrealism. In his drunk ramblings, Neddy reflects on his previous life and his present life in one day when in actuality everything probably happened over years.

Finding Neddy

“The Swimmer” has several examples of foreshadowing.  One of the examples is when Neddy visits one of his neighbors pools and they inform him that his wife has moved out and that his children are gone.  This foreshadowed that his wife and children really were gone when he returned home.  Another example of foreshadowing is when Neddy sees a storm coming.  I believe this foreshadows that something bad is on its way and that bad news is coming.  This seems to be true because after he sees the storm he gets bad news.  Another example of foreshadowing is that he is drinking a lot to get rid of all of his cares and worries and this ends up being part of the reason his wife and children leave.  So he ends up with even more problems than he had when he started drinking.  Another example of foreshadowing is that this all happened in one day and ended with him being at home alone.  I think this foreshadows at the end of his life he will be at home all alone because of his mistakes.  Another example is when he jumps in his mistress’s pool and when he returns home from that his wife is gone so that could also foreshadow that that is a reason she left.

 Class is important to the story because it gives you an idea of the community that the story is taking place in.  It tells you about how Neddy’s lifestyle would be.  All the neighbor’s pools were in-ground so they come across as upper class.  Everyone has parties with all the neighbors and knowing about class helps you picture what kind of parties they would be.  

Neddy Light

The first reference of drinking used in the story is when the story first starts. On page 99, the author writes that the characters in the story “drank too much.” He continues on this page saying that Neddy sat around a pool with a glass of gin. On page 101, Mrs. Graham offers Neddy a drink. Continued on page 101, the author states that the women were drinking. On page 102, a reference is made in the story as “as cold as gin.” Drinking is very important to this story because it is part of the character’s lifestyle. They spend their lives partying and drinking. 

The pools represent the different times in Neddy’s life. As Neddy continues to swim, his journey becomes harder and its harder for him to get out of the pool. This resembles how his life is becoming more difficult as he is aging. The storm in the story represents trouble. As Neddy starts his journey, he is faced with trouble. The storm foreshadows that Neddy has a troubled life. He lost his family and his home. As the story ends, Neddy finally comes to term with reality and realizes that what his neighbors had said were actually the truth. 

#1: “The Swimmer”

The short story “The Swimmer” is a work of surrealism.  Surrealism is where there are realistic characteristics is a non-realistic environment.  Alcoholism is a real characteristic that this short story contains.  The author makes it seems as if Neddy, the main character, is swimming from house to house which is an example of surrealism.  One cannot swim from one house to another unless there were two houses both built on a lake.  Another realistic characteristic is that he is a non-wealthy alcoholic who is in the midst of losing everything.  Other examples of surrealism are: the fact that the season changes so quickly and as he swims from pool to pool, he ages.

In the story, Neddy has a drinking problem in which is the main conflict in the story.  Neddy’s drinking problem leads to the fact that he is too caught up in swimming from pool to pool and drinking the different drinks, that he does not realize that his wife is selling the house and leaving him.  The reason for selling the house is that they ran into financial trouble.

Hallucinations or Reality?

In the story “The Swimmer” by John Cheever, there are many parts story that are open to the interpretation of the reader. This quality allows the reader to think about the story in a more in depth way and allows them to form their own opinions. One part in the story that is open to interpretation is if Neddy is actually swimming throughout the story of if it is in his imagination.  Another part is the role alcohol plays in Neddy’s life.

I believe that Neddy is hallucinating that he is swimming “home”.  By swimming home he means that he goes from house to house in the county and swims in each of the owner’s pools.  Evidence that he is hallucinating is that throughout the story the seasons are changing and he is growing older.  It would not be possible for the season to change and for him to age so much in that short of a time.  also in the story he talks about his wife and kids being around, when in reality they left him long ago.  There is also no home for him to swim to.  After his family separated and he lost all of his money, he had to sell his house.  However, I feel that this hallucination if related to the fact that he is drunk.  The alcohol could have aided him in forgetting these things.  At the end of the story is when Neddy starts to realize his family is gone and that he sold his house, this shows that he is starting to sober up.

The quote “Was his memory failing or had he so disciplined it in the repression of unpleasant facts that he had damaged his sense of truth?” is very important to the story (Cheever 104).  It is said that if one tells a lie enough, that eventually the liar will believe that it is truth.  This can be used to describe Neddy.  He was not necessarily forgetting that his family and house were gone, but he was more or less refusing to accept it.  He was pushing it to the back of his mind and acting as though everything was still alright.  Again the alcohol could have also aided in this false reality. Neddy used alcohol to help cover up his problems and to ease the pain of reality.

Overall I feel that Neddy is hallucinating about his day of swimming. I also believe that he is repressing the bad memories.  Neddy’s drinking problem also plays a key role in his hallucinations and memory loss.

“The Swimmer” Surrenders to Surrealism

“The Swimmer” is obviously a work of surrealism. This being said, “The Swimmer” uses many realistic elements to describe some of the surrealistic elements. The vivid details of the autumn leaves hint at a more unrealistic tone that is evident in the story (Cheever 103). Many of the symbolic elements do not actually occur. Clearly, four seasons do not go by in a mere day. This is more symbolic of the change that occurs in Neddy’s life. The story is presented in a very “dream-like” way, which is one of the many ways that “The Swimmer” could be perceived as surrealism. This is noticeable when Neddy goes to rest in the empty gazebo as the storm passes (Cheever 103). Is this more of a dream or a nightmare?

“The Swimmer” and its title character are both very complex. Neddy has an internal conflict throughout the entire story. Neddy’s struggle with alcoholism is represented by the various alcoholic beverages that he has throughout the reading. This also may symbolize Cheever’s own struggle with alcoholism, a struggle that never really ended until his death in 1982.

Another conflict that occurs in the later part of the story is the confrontation between Neddy and his former mistress. The tension is high as the Neddy’s innocence becomes more and more transparent. The woman is very unkind to him and uses harsh words to insult Neddy. This conflict only lasts for a few lines and ends when Neddy swims in her pool regardless of the prior conversation.

Swimmer Question 1

I believe that this short story is a work of surrealism. The way the author has Neddy swimming through his neighbors house while the season is a pure example of this. Seasons change over months not when someone changes pools. Also, Neddy has a drink at every house except for his mistress and an old lady’s house. Neddy should have been so intoxicated that he shouldn’t have even moved. The author also had Neddy age rapidly to go along with the changing season. The way the author wrote to make the reader believe that Neddy is actually swimming through this “river” was actually quite genius. It helped pull the story together makes the surrealism more noticeable. There is no way the people would be okay with someone pool hopping or crashing a party.  My question is why did the author have the pools, seasons, and Neddy’s age rapidly and why does it appear that Neddy is actually swimming when he isn’t?

The main conflict in this story is that Neddy is an overall alcoholic who loved drinking more than he loved his family. Neddy’s family ran into some financial debts and needed money fast. He just shut himself off and drowned his sorrows away. However, when he sobers up and he comes to terms with the fact that he lost his family and everything that was dear to him because of his self-fish acts. It is also sad because he is so lost in his own world that he  I am still curious of one thing however. Why was this the first time that Neddy realized that he already lost everything..why didn’t he see the signs sooner?

De Nager ou ne Pas Nager

John Cheever presents us with different instances of foreshadowing in his story “The Swimmer.”  An obscure example of foreshadowing occurs when Ned, presented with the presence of a de Haviland trainer reminding him of a child swinging, feels a connection with  the moment, as if he can touch it, but suddenly he hears thunder in the distance.  The thunder interrupting a touching moment about children foreshadows how he will be unable to connect with his own children and will eventually lose them and his wife due to his lack of responsibility and alcoholism.  Another example of foreshadowing is his increasing elusiveness from people; Ned, as the story progresses, draws farther from people he knows hinting at his eventual declination from society and complete isolation due to alcohol.

Social class is also effectively used to  deliver John Cheever’s purpose in the story.  “The Swimmer” is set around the somewhat upper class, portraying how people of this class share somewhat similar problems.  Ned and the other people he pass are from the upper class and are all essentially doing similar activities involving alcohol showing the alcoholistic tendencies of the upper class.  The upper class in “The Swimmer” is used to show that, while these people are of money and education, the upper class is a false sense of a paradise in society.  These people suffer from alcohol abuse and other faults in personality and live in a false shangri-las more severely than other classes, showing how richness in money is a false utopia.

El Nadador

  Alcoholism persists as a major theme throughout the story.  Since the story itself is symbolic in nature of Neddy Merril’s life, and alcohol is a reoccurring part of the story, it’s safe to assume that Neddy was indeed an alcoholic.  As time passes by in the story, Neddy becomes progressively colder and weaker.  Neddy uses alcohol as a crutch to keep him warm and keep him going.

  The numerous pools mentioned are central to the symbolism of the story as they represent different time periods or different people that acted as influences in his life.  His progression from one pool to the next symbolizes the passage of time and the progression through various times.

  The storm that passed in the story perhaps symbolizes change for Neddy.  Before the storm, Neddy is greeted with fair weather and a warm sun which represented for him self-contentment and happiness, however when he returns outside after waiting out the storm alone, he no longer feels the same warmth.

Group #4 “The Swimmer”

1.  Neddy’s repression of his past and his heavy drinking tendencies have caused himself to hallucinate.  Neddy lost his kids, his wife, and his home.  Neddy also lost his respectable social status.  Because of the loss of his family and material possessions  he used alcohol to repress his past which affected his mental status.

2.  When the story was coming to the climax Neddy shows his true strength and his misfortune are present to the readers.  Neddy was starting to realize that his life was not as easy going as he thought moments before because of his slow recollection of his misfortune.  He felt as if the unfortunate events never occurred but with tiny clues implementing his fall from grace he begins to realize that he was in a state of delirium and denial.