The Swimmer - two presentations, two experiences The movie The Swimmer is based on a short-story by John Cheever. In it, a man named Neddy Merrill decides he is going to swim through a series of his neighbors swimming pools in an effort to get home. Along the way, he finds out that things that he thought about his life and himself are not what they seem. Both the movie and the short story follow a similar plot line, but by comparing the two closely, it is easy to see that there are many differences such as the amount of background information and the dependency upon people, as well as similarities such as Neddys deception of himself. In the short-story, the reader is given minimal information about Neddy’s background and where he came from.
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Whenever he stops at someone's house to swim, he tries to do so quickly without talking to too many people, because this would delay his journey. Although there were comments made to him about him borrowing money, he never asks anyone to join him on his trip home. However, in the movie, he asks multiple people to join him, which gives the watcher a feel that he is more dependent on others. He invites his daughter's old babysitter, and she stays with him for a short portion of the trip, then, he invites a lady at the Bizwanger’s party to come with him too, but a man pulls her away. He also invites his mistress to come with him, but she declined. He depends on people to give him shelter and lend him money every now and then. This is known because the man at the pool told him he wasn't paying his bills. In the short story, perhaps he is more dependent than we know and the movie allows us that opportunity to explore this more. He has lost so much and is desperately trying to regain or find something that is familiar. The additional actions in the movie help to really emphasize this dependence and to give the viewer more depth into his character. He asks these people to come with him because he wants them to experience this too, or because he is just lonely. He is looking for a friend or someone to talk to. Even though it hasn’t quite registered in his mind or he just doesn’t want to come to terms with it, …show more content…
He sees himself as a very tough, masculine, invencible guy, which explains why he thought he could swim home. In the beginning, he starts off as a man who is in great shape, but as the movie and the story go on, his health starts to decline and his journey becomes even harder. Not only is his perception of himself different than what is real, but also his reality. He thinks things are different than they actually are. That is shown throughout the entirety of the story and the movie. He thinks that his daughters and his wife are at the house, when they are gone. His whole depiction of who he is, and what he is like is completely different than what it really is in real life. He even says in the movie, “You see, if you make believe hard enough that something is true, then it is true for you.” All of these aspects help to show the differences in his perception and reality and this is critical to the message of this story and it is critical that these remain consistent throughout both the short story and the
Whenever he stops at someone's house to swim, he tries to do so quickly without talking to too many people, because this would delay his journey. Although there were comments made to him about him borrowing money, he never asks anyone to join him on his trip home. However, in the movie, he asks multiple people to join him, which gives the watcher a feel that he is more dependent on others. He invites his daughter's old babysitter, and she stays with him for a short portion of the trip, then, he invites a lady at the Bizwanger’s party to come with him too, but a man pulls her away. He also invites his mistress to come with him, but she declined. He depends on people to give him shelter and lend him money every now and then. This is known because the man at the pool told him he wasn't paying his bills. In the short story, perhaps he is more dependent than we know and the movie allows us that opportunity to explore this more. He has lost so much and is desperately trying to regain or find something that is familiar. The additional actions in the movie help to really emphasize this dependence and to give the viewer more depth into his character. He asks these people to come with him because he wants them to experience this too, or because he is just lonely. He is looking for a friend or someone to talk to. Even though it hasn’t quite registered in his mind or he just doesn’t want to come to terms with it, …show more content…
He sees himself as a very tough, masculine, invencible guy, which explains why he thought he could swim home. In the beginning, he starts off as a man who is in great shape, but as the movie and the story go on, his health starts to decline and his journey becomes even harder. Not only is his perception of himself different than what is real, but also his reality. He thinks things are different than they actually are. That is shown throughout the entirety of the story and the movie. He thinks that his daughters and his wife are at the house, when they are gone. His whole depiction of who he is, and what he is like is completely different than what it really is in real life. He even says in the movie, “You see, if you make believe hard enough that something is true, then it is true for you.” All of these aspects help to show the differences in his perception and reality and this is critical to the message of this story and it is critical that these remain consistent throughout both the short story and the