Losing Time in Life The Swimmer by John Cheever - 1203 Words

Founding Father Benjamin Franklin, once declared â€Å"Lost time is never found again.† This quote ties to the meaning of how people frequently let time seep through their hands. John Cheever’s The Swimmer portrays this through the eyes of suburban man Neddy. Neddy is the average ‘Joe’ of most suburban households. Life in suburbia is repetitive in most scenarios, and humans can easily get lost in the monotonous adventure known aslife. Time leaks away from his figure, and he is not sure of he is the one changing too fast, or the world around him. His main themes include the duality of human nature: sometimes dramatized as the disparity between a characters decorous social persona and inner corruption (Kozikowski) supports this cause.†¦show more content†¦Neddy does not take time to pay attention to the leaves getting darker and falling to the ground. Throughout Neddy’s journey â€Å"The Swimmer† he loses his sanity gradually as his lov ed ones leave him. For many people, friends and family make walking the tight-rope of life much easier. Eventually, Neddy begins to realize people leaving him, for that they move on without telling him and are malicious to him when they meet. Cheever manifests this when â€Å"...He visits the Welchers, only to find the pool drained, the furniture folded and stacked, the bathhouse locked, and their house for sale.† Unfortunately, Neddy has lost all sense of time, as everything seems to fly by him. Critics Blythe and Sweet support this with, â€Å"Time, despite Neddys attempts through repetition to stop it, has not been standing still.† The last straw hits him when he returns to his domicile. Expecting to see his lovely family, a cruel darkness greets him. As when his loved ones leave him, his sanity does as well. With the use of diction, Cheever illustrates to readers the rotten repetition that portrays Neddy’s life. Doing the same tasks over and over again, Chee ver emphasizes this throughout the story. She made her way to him through the crowd, and when they had finished kissing she led him to the bar, a progress that was slowed by the fact that he stopped to kiss eight or ten other women and shake the handsShow MoreRelated Use of Symbolism, Tone, and Irony in The Swimmer, by John Cheever1704 Words   |  7 Pagesperfect life, and the world appears upside-down. Attempts to remember what went wrong fail. Memories are unclear and time seems blurry. At one time, John Cheever found himself in this position, using alcohol to ignore his problems. John Cheever was born in Quincy, Massachusetts in 1912. In 1941, he moved to suburban Westchester and eventually became addicted to alcohol, which is a recurrent motif in many of his short stories. He died in 1982 from cancer. In his short story, The Swimmer, an affluentRead MoreThe Swimmer By John Cheever1584 Words   |  7 Pages The author of â€Å"The Swimmer†, John Cheever, was born in 1912 in Quincy, Massachusetts. During the downfall of his life, Cheever had a twenty-year battle with alcoholism. Then after, he went to rehab for alcoholism in 1975. This experience then led him to write about his issues with alcohol in the short stories, â€Å"The Swimmer† and the â€Å"Falconer.† Over his lifetime, Cheever has obtained several awards including the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Even though Cheever got kicked out of hisRead MoreThe Swimmer By John Cheever1424 Words   |  6 Pagesstory, The Swimmer, John Cheever does a clever job engaging the reader in understanding the complexity and change in Ned Merrill’s life circumstances through his travels to various pools. It is implied that Ned was once successful and had everything. He had a wife, named Lucinda, and children. He had a beautiful home and a circle of friends. It seemed like he had it all. However, his tr avel through pools and time, show the reader that Ned’s life is not all that it seems. At the time that storyRead MoreEssay about The Swimmer563 Words   |  3 Pages nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;quot;The Swimmerquot; by John Cheever describes Neddy Merrils quot;swimquot; home. Neddy is a husband and a father, he is also a drunk. The story encompasses about twenty years of his life of alcohol which ruined not only him but also his relationship with his family. One day after waking up with a hangover he drinks a little and decides to swim home. It is obvious he is a drunk because he is constantly searching for a drink on his swim home. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Neddy