The swimmer

A detailed Summary of The swimmer


It has been said that sometimes you have to look at where you have been to see where it is that you are going, but there are some people who fail to look at who they have become, and suddenly find themselves faced with a reality they don't remember or understand. In "The Swimmer" by John Cheever, (1964, Rpt. In Perrine's Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense. Ed. Thomas Arp. 7th ed. NY: Harcourt Brace, 1998. 392-401) Ned Merrill is one of those people. As Ned's travels progress, we watch as Ned unknowingly transforms from a young man on a midsummer's afternoon to an old man faced with a tragic present as winter is beginning.

When Ned Merrill started out his swim along the Lucinda River, he seemed to be a strong and lighthearted young man. Since it was the early afternoon of a midsummer Sunday, Ned set out for his 8-mile swim with expectations of beating his wife home for supper. The four pools that made up the first leg of the Lucinda River were met with no ill will. In fact, Ned was met with warm faces with open arms, and bars.


With the appearances of the "blighted" maple, the slight nip to the air, the dismantled and overgrown riding ring, and the emptied pool, we are made aware of the passage of time that Ned ignores. Ned even goes to the extent of admitting his memory might be failing him, as he realizes that the Welchers have moved away. Ned is then confronted with what he feels will be his two biggest challenges. First, he must cross Route 424, spurring on the ridicule of passers by seeing him only in his swimming trunks. His second lies in the crossing of the public pool in the Recreation Center. He finds the thought of even entering the pool as contaminating himself, but persisted and found himself rejected from the premises because the lack of an identification disk.

As we watch time pass, we also watch Ned age rapidly, even though he hardly notices, even when he can hardly walk across the street to his house. At the beginning of the story, he is described as young, strong, and athletic. His youth was displayed by statements like " he held an i

Some common words found in the essay are:
Recreation Center, Lucinda River, Shirley Adams', Ned Merrill, , Thomas Arp, Harcourt Brace, John Cheever, lucinda river, swimming trunks, ned merrill, watch ned, hardly walk, ned ignores,

Approximate Word count = 702
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels

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