...Lea Shontay Wilks Instructor Lisa Adams Lit 101 Introduction to Literature (33203.201330) 26 April 2014 An Analysis of "The Swimmer" by John Cheever Most stories can have an emotional impact on people, but once in a while certain stories can take the reader to the edge of reality. The Swimmer is a fascinating story with primary use of a setting and amazing characters that engages readers and can move them to experience life in an unfathomable way. Cheever was born May 27, 1912, in Quincy, Massachusetts, to Frederick Lincoln Cheever and Mary Liley Cheever. His father owned a shoe factory until it was lost in the Great Depression of the 1930s. His mother, an English-woman who emigrated with her parents, supported her husband and their two sons with the profits from a gift shop she operated. Cheever writing can be classified in the literary movement known as Realism. The realism movement took place in the 19th century. Based on normal everyday events realism depicts ordinary people dealing with society and its forces on living. Realistic writing is characterized with everyday events, social controversy, and protagonist/antagonist interactions. There is often and ironic undertone to Realism, as is evident in “The Swimmer”. All of the characteristics of the Realism movement mentioned are active in this story. An example of Realism in “The Swimmer” Neddy Merrill, sat by the green water, with one hand in it and the other hand around a glass of gin. He was a slender man who seemed...
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...The swimmer Fear is a common concept that influences our life. It has the ability to keep us from doing things we want to do. But sometimes fear can also be what drives us to cross our own boundary and do what we long to do. Fear can take control over the body and make the adrenalin run faster, overshadowing the common sense and draw the person into follow their lust. The short story The Swimmer by S.J Butler deals with a young woman whose fear keeps her from doing what she wants, until the sudden lust to follow her desire draws her closer. Fear for the unknown and desire for change is what draws her to carry out the deed and follow her instinct which luckily turns out to help her be set free. The short story starts by presenting the present situation of the weather. “Three weeks of windless sun”[1] By using the first five sentences to present the weather, the setting is established and the reader is aware of the situation. The setting is described thoroughly as being a hot summer day which has lasted for three weeks, the wind is not moving, and the sun is burning on the ground. “nothing moves except the water”[2] The water is in contrast to the clouds and the wind, moving. The water is conducting in a different way caused to its movements. The introduction to the water continuous but from a different perspective. This leads to an introduction of both the water but also the main character, a woman; “She sits at her desk in the back room gazing out at the...
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...The swimmer Fear is something we all possess, some are afraid of heights and some are afraid of spiders. However, all fears are conquerable, it may be a long and hard process but in the end, it could end up changing one for the good. That is the case in ‘’the swimmer’’ by S.J Butler written in 2011 where we meet an anonymous girl who is afraid of swimming. Contrasting to many other persons with a fear this girl truly wants to overcome her fear. When she does, she discovers a more relaxed and calm side of herself and other beautiful things that she would never have discovered if she had not challenged her fear. Even though it is her fear to swim, she never describes why she is so afraid of swimming and she never describes the water or the surroundings as something ugly, in fact she describes the nature in a positive way. ‘’It is gloriously fresh as she pulls her finger through it’’ (l. 48). The girl is very much ashamed of this particular fear that she has, she feels that normal people swim and it is natural ‘’people have swum for generations’’(l. 20) and that is why she does not want anyone to notice her swimming the river because she’s afraid of what people might think. Finally, when she decides to go into the water all of her fears suddenly comes back and she regrets it. She overthinks the situation, what if someone sees her or current is too strong to swim. Her fear really shines through here and she is very close to going back again as she has done before. When she finally...
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...The Swimmer By Inger Bülow Smed Andersen 3.x 15-11-2015 “The Swimmer” by is a short story by S.J. Butler. The story centers on a woman, who undergoes both an emotional and spiritual experience. She learn to overcome her fears. The story takes place in the summer. First the woman is in her office that has a view of a river. She finds the heat of the summer unbearable and she therefore decide to go swimming in the river. She approaches the river and hesitates a moment, were the reader is introduced to the character on a more personal level. The reader learn that it is not the first time she has tried to take a swim in the river. She goes into the river and start swimming upstream, against the current. She passes a bridge and she then encounters a beautiful swan. She is mesmerized by the both the size and posture of the swan, but is also frightens her. The swan makes her feel small and unimportant. After that day, she goes swimming everyday hoping to spot the swan and admire it. At first, she observers the swan from a safe distance, but after sometime she approaches the swan. One evening, as the moon rises, she finds that the swan has entangled itself in a fishing line. She sets the swan free, and they both float down stream, until the swan vanishes out of sight. It is unclear whether the swan lives or dies. The events in the story are arranged in a chronological order that covers the range of days in the life of the protagonist, focusing on her experiences in the nearby river...
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...The Swimmer by S.J. Butler Fear is a feeling we all posses. You can be afraid of spiders, heights or maybe even something as common as water. Every human mind is different, and we all have our own fear and struggles. The short story “The Swimmer” (2011), written by S.J. Butler, is a story about a girl´s fear of life and her effort to overcome it. The theme of fear in the story is expressed by the main character´s development. Even the smallest decision, can change you for the rest of your life. The story takes place in the middle of the nature, by a big river with many trees around it. The weather is extremely warm and everything is very peaceful. The main character is like the nature very hot and calm. In the river the setting is the opposite of its surroundings, it is gloriously fresh and “the water is opaque, swirling with tiny particles, a dirty muddy green from the soil it carries” (p.3 ll.48-49). The main character has a feeling of wanting to try something new, something refreshing and different just like the river. The difference between the river and its surroundings has a crucial significance for the main characters development. The main character of the story is a girl with a daily routine, consisting of working and looking at the nature outside of her office´s window. She wants to go down and take a swim in the river, but her fear holds her back. The fear of being seen and what she might finds inside the river. The narrator explains that “every day she looks out...
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...Change into your suits faster; I want to see you in and out of the lockers quickly; go put on your goggles; you didn’t get your buoy and kickboard; go back and get them; get in pool and do a 500 warm up; don’t pout; just do it; remember, water is your friend, don’t fight against it; that’s not swimming; do the set again; I better see you make those intervals; swim fishy, swim; don’t slow down or I’ll make you do it again; these are sprint sets; those are not sprints; kick faster; I want white water; I don’t see white water; no, I don’t want to see knees; look at the clock, not at me; come on, make those intervals; that’s the only way to improve your times; stop breathing, it slows you down; those elbows are not supposed to be there; let me see shoulders; I want shoulders out of the water; look at me; watch how I do it; keep swimming; but there’s water in my goggles; no, leave them; get used to it; if you can’t make these intervals, you’re not supposed to be here; I need more gliding; use those hips and roll your body; close your fingers; you need to streamline pass the white lanes; you better not breathe; do your drills again; go on the top; don’t be lazy now; your stroke needs to extend; don’t slap the water, that hurts; pull as you rotate your shoulders; get plenty of sleep; eat a light lunch; go to the diving blocks and get ready; don’t be late; I have butterflies in my stomach; good, get that adrenaline going; you dropped a second, good job; your stroke is better than last...
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...1. What line is used as a swimmer/ survivor’s tending line? 300 yards of yellow polypropylene, 800 pounds. 2. What is the SAR Manual? 3-50-1. 3. What is the Opnavinst for ORM? 3500.39. 4. When lines are used on Double bitts. Figure eights reduce the rope strength by what percent? 25%. 5. What is the breaking strength in pounds for a 5 3/8 aramid moring line? 180,000lb. 6. What holds the plate couplings together on c-shaped link? Taper pin. 7. Sail needles are numbered how? The higher the #, the smaller the needle. 8. What is the minimum number of wire rope clips required for a 1” 6x19 wire? 5 9. Which of the following aramid line size is equivalent to 8” double-braided nylon? 5 3/8. 10. What Amphib ship is the principal ship employed to support vertical assault (helicopter) ship to shore movement? LPH. 11. What is the Boat Paddle size for Boat, crafts, + Assault Vehicles?4 by 10 in. 12. How many feet should the minimum lenth of the yard whip be if you are rigging the yard boom with a double purchase?250 FT. 13. What Amphibious ship combines the abilities of other 3 amphibious ships? 14. Landing craft assembly circle when a assembly circle from PORT + STBD one each out of the 3 to wave- forming circles where is it located? How far from the ship? How far from each other? Wave forming circles are on the bow. From 50 to 200 yards from the bow of the ship. Its only 2 wave forming circles spaced a 100 yards + the circles are wider...
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...John Cheever’s short story “The Swimmer" starts with the protagonist, Neddy, deciding to swim home. As the story continues, Neddy’s surroundings are altered almost magically. His memory becomes unclear when his neighbors begin to tell him that his material wealth is lost. Yet, he is still determined to finish this difficult and pointless journey which consumes all of his energy. Cheever shows his readers a symbolic exploration of American suburbia and the harsh reality of the American Dream. The swimming journey of Neddy is a symbol of the life of a person who desires the American Dream. The story portrays how people madly pursue ridiculous and unnecessary things starting when Neddy chooses to swim home instead of easily going home with his wife. Neddy has the feeling of “a pilgrim, an explorer, a man with a destiny, and he knew that he would find friends all...
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...Margarita is pressured by her family to win the Wrigley Invitational Women’s Race to Catalina. The pressure and demands from her family, more specifically her father, results in a great deal of stress and she becomes very fatigued and exhausted during the swimming race. At first, I thought the play was just about a young girls struggles to give her family the fame and glory they are looking for until she vanishes in the ocean after almost giving up her fight in the race. It wasn’t until I read the last lines of the play by Mel’s voice: “This is indeed a miracle! It’s a resurrection! Margarita Suarez, with a flotilla of boats to meet her, is now walking on the waters, through the breakers… onto the beach, with crowds of people cheering her on. What a jubilation! This is a miracle!” (Page 1256) Margarita had so much pressure from her family during her swim race as well as negative support from the TV station calling her a “simple amateur” (page 1246) and she “didn’t have a chance” (page 1246) in the race. The pressure to succeed was too much for Margarita and she, like anyone else in this situation, cracked under pressure and did not perform to her full potential. We as readers could see how much Margarita loved the water and swimming when her mother said, “The first time I put her in water she came to life, she grew before my eyes” (page 1249) but the stress from her family to win this race was starting to get in the way of her true abilities and she was worrying too much about...
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...In most literary works, journey is commonly conceived as a way of escaping from the harsh reality. However, in the Swimmer, Neddy Merrill’s journey in the swimming pool leads him to back to the reality by resembling the process of his life. If readers continue to neglect this distinctive characteristic of Neddy’s voyage, they will not be able to comprehend the transitions of mood made in the story. Therefore, this short paper aims to illustrate how the protagonist’s journey of swimming holds metaphor for his own life and leads him to encounter the tough reality. At a first glance, the voyage of the protagonist seems to be pleasant and cheerful. The reading mentions that Neddy himself was “pleased with everything” and the day was beautiful...
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...“The Swimmer” by John Cheever is the tale of a significant period of life’s misadventures depicted over the course of a day. Neddy Merrill, the main character, begins sited at the edge of the Westerhazys’ pool on a summer day when the idea to swim a path of pools all the way through his home comes to him. He swims through the Wasterhazys’s pool and proceeds to jump to the neighbor’s one. During his trajectory through the first array of pools, he is barely noticed until he reaches the Bunkers, who are hosting a party where he greets a herd of guests indicating he is a well-known figure among the upper-middle-class society. Thereafter that event, the story’s setting and surroundings start turning darker in several ways, and Neddy starts to face complications with people’s way of treating him. In the Halloran estate, the Hallorans show sympathy because of the loss of his wife and daughters, an event he does not remember and prefers to ignore the commentaries. In the following pools after visiting the...
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...than they have now. “The Cuban Swimmer” is a play by Milcha Sanchez-Scott that demonstrates the experience immigrants go through in America in a metaphor throughout the play. The representation of each character has contrasting perspectives on immigration background and their pressures. The Father/coach Eduardo and mother Aida deserted Cuba to come to America in pursuit for a better life together. They then had two children together, Margarita the swimmer and the Simon their son who has been raised in Miami. The writer expresses the most important relationship in...
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...Fear can be a big part of ones live. Fear of denial. Fear of failure. But just because one is scared to do something, it doesn’t mean he don’t. Fear and overcoming your fear is a central theme in S. J. Butlers short story “the swimmer”. The main character in the short story seems to be a regular woman, working a regular job. But she has a passion for swimming, and when she sits at her desk she can see right down to a river. This is very intimidating for her as she has a burning desire to go swimming. “No one’s out there. If she goes now, she’ll have the river to herself. No one will see. Why she minds this, she doesn’t know. Every day she looks out at the river, and longs to swim in it.”, as we can see in the quote she doesn’t quite know why she thinks about the fact that nobody will see her, but between the lines you can smell a little fear. Maybe not fear as such, but without her knowing why it definitely affects her in some way. Step by step she overcomes this fear and eventually becomes quite addicted to swimming in the lake, and even more when she discovers a big swan. Day by day she moves closer and closer to the swan, but she is very intimidated by it. “The swan looks down at her and she looks away, afraid to meet its eye. Her nan used to tell her a swan could break a man’s arm with its wings − what could it do to her, down here, in the water?”, in the quote you can definitely feel her fear towards the unknown. But despite this fear she possesses a burning curiosity that...
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...The Effects of Alcohol in the “The Swimmer” John Cheever’s short story, “The Swimmer”, discloses the vivid details of a man’s distortion of time, which ultimately leads to his unhappiness. Neddy Merrill, young and vigorous man, sets off on an aquatic journey by swimming in neighboring pools one to another. As he swims in his neighbors’ pools in order to reach his house, he experiences physical and emotional deterioration of his life. Cheevar’s “The Swimmer” reveals the physical and emotional damage of alcoholism reflected through passage of time taking place as Neddy’s journey progresses. To begin with, alcoholism causes great physical deterioration in Neddy. He initiates his journey as a “youthful slender man…seemed to have the especial slenderness of youth” (Cheever 401). Described as to have an “inexplicable contempt for men who didn’t hurl themselves into pool…[and] he never used a ladder [to get out]”, he feels happy and comforted when he is honorably served with a...
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...The Swimmer Poster Board In the first scene, Neddy Merill, wakes up from a saturday night of drinking. Cheever describes Merill’s physical appearance using a juxtaposition. The author claims that Neddy has the “especial slenderness of the youth- while he was far from young” (Cheever 1). Soon after Neddy says he is leaving to swim across the county home. He wants to get back to his four daughters who are at his house, 8 miles away. He then jumps into the Westerhazy’s pool to begin his journey home. In the second scene, Neddy Merill is continuing his journey and ends up swimming through the Graham’s pool. He comes put of a bush to end up in their backyard. Mrs. Graham says to Neddy “What a marvelous surprise” (Cheever 3). This would be considered...
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