
In John Cheever’s, “The Swimmer”, a bold older man, Neddy Merrill, decides that he is going to swim across the county. By this he means that he is going to pool hop until he reaches his house. Ned crosses many houses filled with his neighbors and many pools of all different kinds. He saw himself as an adventurer of suburbia. Ned faces tasks throughout the story, he faces a dry pool, a stagnant pool, and worse of all, snobby neighbors. He sets off on his journey on a gorgeous midsummer day with cumulus clouds off in the distance but he had no worries that he could finish his journey in time before the storm hits; however, as he crosses from pool to pool he notices that he is getting weaker and weaker and that the leaves are changing from green to red and yellow. Though everyone will try to avoid growing up John Cheever’s “The Swimmer” demonstrates that the passing of time is inexorable. Ned tried to omit the thought of growing up from his mind but the more he ignores it the more he misses. Ned was “far from young he had slid down his banister that morning and given the bronze backside of Aphrodite on the hall table a smack” (Cheever 726). He tried to stay young while everyone around him was growing older and more mature. 

Throughout the story there are multiple of instances that show how much time had passed during his journey. When he swam through the Halloran’s pool Mrs.Halloran said that she was sorry for all of the misfortunes of Ned selling his house and about his poor children. Ned heard this and thought nothing of it at the moment but when he got out of the pool he looked down and noticed that his trunks were too big for him and that he had lost weight. Then as Ned was swimming through the Sachs’ pool he asked Helen for a drink but her response shocked him. Helen informed Ned that they have not had alcohol since her husband’s surgery three years ago. Ned thought to himself how could forget that one of his friends had fallen ill. After these two encounters Ned questioned himself. He wondered if he was losing his memory or that if “his gift of concealing painful facts” (Cheever 734) just made him forget all about those things. 

Cheever’s choice of syntax was very crucial to the story. He turned a simple action of swimming in pools into a journey containing encounters with past loved ones and criticism from others. The story spanned years but the complex syntax kept the reader questioning if it has actually been years or not even four hours throughout the story. This elaborate style has the reader wondering if Ned was crazy because just swimming in pools turns into the rest of his life. The more that Ned does not want to grow up the more he misses but with this point of view you cannot tell how much time has passed. The reader only knows what the narrator tells them about Ned. The narrator drops a couple hints of time here and there about the weather cooling down and the leaves changing colors. Even then it is still hard to tell just how much time has passed. 

Alcohol plays an important role in the story. The story starts off with everyone complaining about how they were hungover and that they drank too much the night before but then they all go to the Westerhazy’s pool and start drinking again. Ned starts his expedition with a glass of gin to get the idea going and to map out the pools and county. Then as he was pool hopping he kept getting drinks along the way but as he continued on his journey it was harder for him to get alcohol. As he starts to get colder and weaker it seems that he is dependent on getting alcohol but he does not get any towards the end and goes home to any empty house with no wife or kids and the doors locked. Ned had a slow descent into alcoholism. The weaker he got physically and emotionally, the more he became dependent on alcohol to keep him “healthy” and motivated. Ned lost and confused realizes that the maps that he had made at the beginning of the story are now outdated. Ned tried to map out his life and the pools are just obstacles they come up in life. When Ned mapped out his life he was strong and confident but when he actually went on this plan he encountered many bumps along the way which are represented by the pools. Cheever did a fantastic job illustrating how one can have their life all planned out and think that they are ready for life but when life actually hits them, they get weak and try to go back to their safe place (Ned’s house) and realize that they have been gone to long and it is no longer there.    Cheever uses the weather and seasons to portray Ned’s happiness throughout the story. Ned was happy and had company when the story began and the weather was nice and warm and he did not have a worry in the world. Then the storm came which portrayed as him and his wife splitting up and his kids falling ill. After the storm of mishap, he felt cold and weak and the only thing he knew to do was to keep going on his original plan and not worry about anything else, but the weather keeps getting colder and colder and his depression keeps getting worse and worse. In the end when Ned realizes that he cannot run away from it anymore he goes to an empty house where it all hits him at once and he cannot go on with life anymore. 

The author uses pretty simple words throughout the whole passage. Cheever did this so that the readers could fully understand the work at hand. Cheever did use “bellicosely” when he was describing how Grace Biswanger greeted Ned. Bellicosely is used wisely here because Ned had refused her invites many of times before and now he shows up randomly wet and cold wearing only swimming trunks. She didn’t want to greet him with warmth and comfort but with a sort of hostile manner to make Ned feel regretful of not coming to her past dinners.

“The Swimmer” demonstrates how no matter how sad it is and how much no one wants it to happen time will pass by and there is nothing to stop it. Time is continuous and it is just a way of life. Ned realizes this when he is trying to stay young and healthy but the years catch up to him and he cannot continue on the way that he was before. Ned ruined his life trying to run away from growing up. 
