Better Swimmer John Cheever

The swimmer is a short story written by John Cheever in 1964. It is about a man, named Ned, who one day, at a party, decides to swim through swimming pools to his house, eight miles away. This short story is considered part of post-modern movement, which began in the 1960’s and lasted until the end of the 1980’s, and preceded the contemporary era in the 1990’s to the present. One contemporary artist is the band, Radio head. Their song “Better Fitter” is a good example of a contemporary song. It is on their 1997 album, Ok Computer, which addresses topics like new technologies, modern warfare, and alienation. In “Better Fitter”, the singer sounds like a robot, it make statements about things that society expects, until the last lines, when the …show more content…
Even though Ned is trying to do this strange task of swimming across his neighborhood, he still tries to fit in. This is seen after Ned leaves the party he started at, he finds another group of people called the Grahams. They offer him a drink, and, “He saw them, like any explore, that the hospitable customs and traditions of the natives would have to be handled with diplomacy if he was ever going to reach his destination. He did not want to mystify or seem rude to the Grahams nor did he have the time to linger there” (101). Even though he didn’t want to stay for a drink, he does because he wants the grahams to like him, and he wants to fit in and follow the social mores of this situation. Later on he reaches the Hallorans’ pool, it is then explained to the reader that, “The Hallorans, for reasons that had never ben explained to him, did not wear bathing suits. No explanations were in order, really… he stepped politely out of his trunks before he went through the opening in the hedge.” (106). He takes off his trunks because it is the norm in this particular setting, even though it is fairly ridiculous. He does it because he wants the Hallorans to accept him as they do themselves. The robot singer in “Better fitter” states many lines through the song which are things we expect in society and in other people for example, it says, “Keep in contact with old friends (enjoy a drink now and then)” (14), and, “Nothing so ridiculously …show more content…
Ned isn’t benefited by trying to fit in. Around one of the pools that he swims through, the Biswangers, who often send invitations to Ned, are holding a party, and when the hostess sees him, she says, “’Why, this party has everything, including a gate crasher’” (108). It is clear that she doesn’t want him there and because of that he doesn’t fit in in this setting, therefore, his ambition to fit in has failed, even though he conformed to the social mores of every setting. Later when he is speaking with Mrs. Halloran, she says, “’why we heard that you’d sold your house and that your poor children…’ ‘I don’t recall having sold my house,’ Ned said, ‘and the girls are at home’” (106). It is clear that Ned is beginning to lose his memory, and that in his real life there are bad things going on, even his mistress rejects him. In the meantime, he continues to try to fit in. And in the end he realizes that he did sell his house. This shows that there are more important things than fitting in. In “Better Fitter”, at the end of the song, the robot says, “A pig in a cage on antibiotics” (45-47). Even though the robot singer does all these things that are stated in the beginning of the song, in reality it is still trapped, and powerless. Its attempts at conformation are futile and