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 goes into the water, she discovers that she actually likes it. She is free of all the noise and stress in the modern society and she likes the fact that there is not really anything that can disturb her. ‘’not only is she invisible to the rest of the world, but it is invisible to her.” (l. 63-64). The fact that she has done what she fears also makes her forget why she feared it in the first place. Suddenly her fear goes away, she becomes very adventurous, and swims swim upstream. Here she discovers another thing that changes her life. She sees a swan, and at first sight, she sees it as something dangerous and fears it because that is what her family has taught her. ‘’ Her Nan used to tell her a swan could break a man’s arm with its wing’’(l. 81). She backs up and returns to the beach.
This particular experience changes her forever; she has become more relaxed and even slowed her carrier down. ‘’she barely works’’ (l. 123). She finds out that the swan is in fact a positive thing. The swan is a huge factor in her transformation from a stressed, overthinking person to a more relaxed person that sees the beauty in things now. The swan is no exception where as she was afraid of it in the start, she finally sees the beauty of it.
The swan is a symbol of beauty, but the fact that she does not see it at first sight could be message to all of us: we all have a hidden beauty in us. People might not discover it straight away but they will eventually. The fact that she frees the swan and it disappears could also symbolize that nothing beautiful is forever. Eventually everything beautiful will disappear. The swan has helped her a lot and she is now changed forever because of it, so even though it is gone physically it does not mean that it is gone for her, it will remain with her forever.
This story is comparable to the story by H.C Andersen called ‘’the ugly duckling’’. Nobody sees the beauty in the duckling and nobody likes the duckling for its inner beauty. All the ducks are afraid of the ugly duckling but suddenly the duckling becomes the most beautiful swan. The stories are very alike because here just like ‘’the ugly duckling’’ the girl does not see the hidden beauty in the swan, but later she discovers that it one of the most beautiful things she has seen. Both stories also uses a swan to symbolize beauty. The theme(s) is the same: we all have an inner beauty that people not necessarily have discovered.
We all have fear/phobia that we are terrified of but that does not mean that they can’t be battled. If we just stop fearing things and challenge them, it could change us forever. That is what this girl does and she has changed forever, she has discovered a beauty that she would never have seen if she had not battled her fears. The moral of the story is that we should take chances; it may be hard and tough to break out of one’s shell but as we know, hard work always comes with a reward and the long and tough road of conquering a fear could change us forever for the better. We could discover something beautiful but we must also realize that this beauty does not last forever.