Illusion Vs Reality In The Swimmer

Illusion vs Reality in “The Swimmer” The Swimmer by John Cheever is an intriguing piece that leads you down different thought paths as you are reading it. Neddy, Lucinda, Donald and Helen Westerhazy had been drinking for a while and were all saying that they’ve had too much to drink. It was a beautiful day and at first everything seems normal then the main character Neddy thought that perhaps a long swim might celebrate its beauty. So Neddy Merrill decided that he is going to go home from the Westerhazy’s to his home on the other side of the county by a streamline of swimming pools that he named Lucinda, after his wife. During the long trip across the county the reader is left thinking about what they are actually reading, is it reality or just an illusion? Neddy’s trip consists of him …show more content…
During the first stops on Neddy’s journey he is greeted by friends who offer him drinks and seem to be like they are well off and wealthy. As the story progresses the atmospheres shifts a little and the company that Neddy is surrounded by changes. Through the middle part of his journey Neddy takes on a different route. The story takes place in one afternoon but the further along the stream you go the less apparent it becomes on how much time has passed. The storm that was seen off in the distance in the beginning of the story is now almost on top of him and at one point it starts to rain and he waits beneath the protection of a friend’s gazebo until it passes. Some of the friends that Neddy is encountering now talk about money problems and other misfortunes that he just cannot seem to remember. Towards the end of his journey the youthful energy that Neddy once had at the beginning of the story have since left him and it now becomes increasingly painful and difficult for him to keep swimming. The scenery now indicates that of autumn where the story began in the summer