The Swimmer Analysis

In The Swimmer written by John Cheever, Neddy Merrill, a father and husband, suffers from a self-destructing memory that makes him believe that different things are occurring or that specific events may of not even happened. Ned is a described as a slender, childish man that drinks heavily. He got the idea that he was going to swim “cross county” threw a trail of the neighbors’ swimming pools. He began to think he was an explorer, and took his new voyage very seriously. Ned decided to name his newly founded stream Luncinda after his wife.

At the very beginning of his journey, the mood was light and cheery. The weather was warm and seemed to be a mid-summer day. He seemed to be liked by his neighbors and was greeted warmly at each residence, “Oh look who’s here! What a marvelous surprise!”. Ned seemed happy; he saw his wife and even talked to many men and women. How ever, by the end of the story the weather was becoming more like autumn, “Leaves were falling down around him and he smelled wood smoke on the wind. Who would be burning wood at this time of year?” This shows …show more content…
Ned probably got drunk and began running threw neighbors yards believing that it truly was mid summer, when it was actually fall. There are hints through out the texts that Ned had repressed bad memories, “…had he so disciplined it in the repression of unpleasant facts that he had damaged his sense of the truth?” There are also quotes pointing to the fact that Ned had a horrible memory, “…it only seemed a week ago…” “…last week, last month, last year. He couldn’t remember.” These quotes all point to the sad truth that Ned had damaged something in his mind that enabled him to understand was truly going on. Ned’s mind was deceiving him, his memory became his reality and he repressed his actual reality to avoid the emotional impact his misfortunes may have