Symbolism In The Swimmer

The Swimmer is based on a man not being able to deal with the present. He is mostly in denial through every part of the story and every character he meets expresses how much he is in denial, and shows he has an alcohol problem which he is covering up the depressed state he is in, and cant face the fact his entire family is gone. The story begins with Neddy Merrill lounging at a friend’s pool on a mid- summer’s day. After Ned decides to travel home by swimming through neighbors pools is where the denial comes in to play and his world begins to change. Ned is so energetic and cheerful in the beginning of his journey he doesn’t want to realize what’s going on around him. As he journeys he is also intoxicated from a previous cocktail party,
As a motif, alcohol is almost like a handshake or a polite, casual gesture. It is the primary object around which all parties and social action revolve and is even mentioned at the very beginning of the story when the narrator talks about how nearly everyone “drank too much.” Symbolically speaking, this “gesture” of alcohol is an invitation to cast aside reality, to join others in a masking of reality. Interestingly, as the reader comes to find out, Ned masked reality completely and drinking was part of the cause. By the end of the story, his constant desire to drink, or to stop and have a drink is tragic as opposed to social and the reader sees how this culture of escapism and the associated constant use of alcohol are main themes about suburbia that Cheever might wish his audience to see. Ned feels comforted and happy when he is given a drink, whereas at the Berwanger’s party, he feels slighted by the way his drink is served. As his journey grows more difficult, Ned wishes deeply for a drink but is often turned down, once at the Sachses’ and once at Shirley Adams’s. His desire for a drink grows stronger as he grows weaker, and the amount of alcohol he has consumed during his journey could explain the harsh, bewildering emotional place in which Ned finds himself at the end of the story. The emptiness of suburbia
When Ned gets the idea to swim home through the pools in his county, he sees himself as a brave explorer, setting off for the unknown from a home base that is stable and secure. Ned likens himself to a “legendary figure” who is making an important discovery, and as he begins his journey, he calls himself a “pilgrim” and an “explorer.” When Ned envisions his friends’ pools, he sees them through a mapmaker’s eyes, even though the narrator tells us that Ned maps are imaginary at best—the first hint that Ned sense of direction and place is flimsy. The lighthearted fantasies about exploring eventually disappear as Ned journey grows harder and stranger. By the end of the story, Ned has literally lost his way. He thought he was moving through familiar territory, but the home where he finds himself, dark and empty, is someplace he’s never been before. (SparkNotes, 2015) The Moment Ned realized he had gone deep into depression is when the story took a turn for the worse everyone started denying him as if in the beginning of the story they weren’t giving him drinks to be welcomed by them. The people in the story represent Ned’s emotions and the fact that to feel happy his has to mask them with alcohol to make him feel like they all get along when reality everything is