Swimmer

“The Swimmer” Contemporary literature has many themes. One can generalize Contemporary Literature as a mixture of nostalgia and unhappiness. John Cheever’s “The Swimmer”, symbolically demonstrates the repression of unaccepted memories and the inability to come face to face with reality with swimming pools and climate change. Cheever applied the swimming pools in the story to portray the time being passed. In “a long swim might enlarge and celebrate its beauty… …The swim was too much for his strength,” the swimming pools portray time being passed In these quotes, Neddy was “youthful and active,” and as he continued to swim through pools, there is a distinct change of phase: when he swam in the Halloran’s pool he aged from youthful and active to weak and old. Also, as he swam through each pool were months passing. Next in the lines, “waters were the opaque gold of stream” the author shows that the season has changed from summer to fall. The color gold associated with fall that was found in the pool indicates that time has passed. Swimming pools emphasized the fact Neddy had refused to accept that summer was over. As time went on and he continued to swim, he aged, became old and weak, indicating that he lost money and the self-image he once had. The swimming pools pertain to the theme symbolically because it illustrates all the time being passed and Neddy’s refusal to accept the fact time has moved on.
Another symbol Cheever used was the changes in weather and seasons. The lines, “He stayed in the Levys' gazebo until the storm had passed…force of the thunderstorm had knocked one of the rain gutters loose,” indicate change of weather and season. These changes in weather and seasons portray. The changes Neddy has gone through in long periods of time rather than weeks. For example, Cheever used the storm to foreshadow that Neddy’s life was about to change. Further reading, the storm foreshadowed Neddy’s life changing for the worse, because Neddy had lost all his