Originally published in The New Yorker magazine (1964), John Cheever’s highly acclaimed short story “The Swimmer” depicts the suburban odyssey of Neddy Merri. “The Swimmer” is a short story centering on a man who swims the length of each private and public pool he encounters on his eight-mile journey home. The story was first published in The New Yorker on July 18, 1964, and republished in the same year in a collection of John Cheever’s short stories, The Brigadier and the Golf Widow. A short summary of John Cheever's The Swimmer This free synopsis covers all the crucial plot points of The Swimmer.

I thought that there were many elements of post-modernism in John Cheever’s “The Swimmer.” One of the elements of post-modernism is the temporal distortion within the story. Neddy Merrill, the main character, decides to swim home one summer afternoon after enjoying a cocktail party. However, as he swims, time begins to accelerate rapidly. By the end of the story, time seems to have warped into another season (fall), which reflects the vast changes that have taken place in Neddy’s life (he began as a wealthy, healthy man with a family, and he ends up as a poor man in deteriorating health with nothing). This time acceleration is an example of post-modernism.

Another post-modern aspect of this story is the non-traditional plot structure. Although the plot does move forward, it is unclear at times exactly what is going to happen. At times you are left guessing if there even is a plot, and it will often change and go into a different direction. For example, Neddy goes from pool to pool, and you discover more about his life and his relationship with others. However, at the end of the story, Neddy finally arrives at his house—only to find it empty. This abrupt ending and the way the plot moved along was different than most traditional plot structures, and it seemed to reflect post-modernism.

Another post-modern feature was sentence fragmentation. Throughout the story, Cheever will often write short, choppy sentences that are very fragmented and jump from idea to idea. Here is an example of what I’m talking about:

“It was a fine day. In the west there was a massive stand of cumulus cloud so like a city seen from a distance—from the bow of an approaching ship—that it might have had a name. Lisbon. Hackensack. The son was hot. Neddy Merril sat by the green water, one hand in it, one around a glass of gin” (158).

The way he jumped from thought to thought was very fragmented, and it lacked smooth transition at times.

Aside from those aspects, I thought there was another features of post-modernism in this story. There is a sense of irony and darkness, as Cheever seems to mock the wealthy suburban life by contrasting the outward presentation (wealth and comfort, frequent socializing, pool parties, etc.) with that of the dark, snobbish, inner aspects of this lifestyle (spouses cheating, superficial relationships based on status, alcoholism, etc.).

Overall, this was a bizarre story to read.

Type of Work and Publication Year

Cheever, John. “The Swimmer.” Literature and the Writing Process. 5th ed. McMahan, Elizabeth; Susan X Day, and Robert Fund, eds. Upper Saddle River, N.J.:……….Prentice Hall, 1999. Pages 369-376.…….It is a hot Sunday in midsummer. At the pool of Donald and Helen Westerhazy, Lucinda Merrill confirms what all the guests know: that everyone drank too much the previous evening.

…….“It must have been the wine,” says Helen Westerhazy.
…….Neddy Merrill—a thin man with an athletic build—decides to swim home, going from one family pool to the next, until he covers all eight miles to his residence in Bullet Park.
…….“He was not a practical joker nor was he a fool,” the narrator says, “but he was determinedly original and had a vague and modest idea of himself as a legendary figure.”
…….Neddy removes a sweater draped on his shoulders and swims the Westerhazy pool, then crosses over to the Grahams’ pool in the next yard. When greeting him, Mrs. Graham says she had been trying to contact him all morning. She gets him a drink, and it appears he may have to stay awhile. However, a group of the Grahams’ friends arrives for a visit, and Neddy is able to sneak off.
…….Next, he swims the pools at the Hammers, the Lears, the Howlands, and the Crosscups, then crosses the street to the Bunkers, where more than two dozen people are attending a party. In the pool floating on a raft is Rusty Towers.
…….“Oh, look who’s here!” Enid bunker shouts, noting Neddy’s wife had told him that he wouldn’t be able to attend the Bunkers’ party. They exchange kisses, and she leads him to the bar. Along the way, he greets and kisses many of the women guests and shakes the hands of many of the men. After drinking a gin and tonic, he swims the pool, smiles at the Tomlinsons, and heads over to the Levy’s pool. He sees bottles and glasses around the pool but no people. After swimming the pool, he has a drink—his fourth or fifth that afternoon.
…….Storm clouds gather, and he hears thunder. An airplane is circling. A train whistle sounds, and Neddy thinks of the railroad station and waiting passengers. It begins to rain. He likes storms. He likes the way a storm blows open a door and the wind rushes up the stairs. He takes shelter in the Levys’ gazebo until the storm moves on. After leaving the gazebo, he notices something strange: the storm had blown down leaves with autumn colors—red and yellow—but it was summer.
…….He then goes to the Welchers’ pool. There is no water in it, and there are no signs of life in the house. He walks around to the front and sees a for-sale sign. He wonders, “When had he last heard from the Welchers—when, that is, had he and Lucinda last regretted an invitation to dine with them? It seemed only a week or so ago.”
…….Neddy then hears the sound of people playing tennis and heads off to his next challenge. But he must cross Route 424, busy with lines of traffic. As he stands on the shoulder of the road wearing only his swimming trunks, people mock him. Someone hurls a beer can at him. When an elderly driver slows down for him, he makes it to the grass divider in the middle of the road. There, he suffers more ridicule. After waiting ten or fifteen minutes, he manages to make it to the other side. He then goes to the public pool in the village of Lancaster. Signs indicate that swimmers must take a shower and footbath before entering the pool. They also must display an identification disk. Neddy takes a shower and washes his feet in a solution, then dives into the pool. It is crowded and stinks of chlorine. After he reaches the other end of the pool, two lifeguards cite him for not wearing an identification disk. However, he manages to escape and cross the road to the grounds of a wealthy elderly couple, the Hallorans. A hedge surrounds their pool.
…….“The Hallorans were friends . . . who seemed to bask in the suspicion that they might be Communists,” the narrator says. “They were zealous reformers but they were not Communists.”
…….He calls out to alert them that he is on their property. When they are at the poolside, they never wear bathing suits. So, before entering the pool area through the hedges, Neddy conforms to their practice by removing his trunks.
…….“I’m swimming across the county,” he tells them.
…….He leaves his trunks at one end of the pool, walks to the other end, and swims the length of the pool. While he is getting out, Mrs. Halloran says, “We’ve been terribly sorry to hear about your misfortunes, Neddy.”
…….Neddy, dumbfounded, says, “My misfortunes?”
…….“Why we heard that you’d sold the house and that your poor children . . . “
…….Neddy says he did not sell the house and his four daughters are at home.
…….She simply replies, “Yes, yes . . .”
…….He thanks her for the use of her pool and puts on his trunks. They feel loose. Is it possible, he wonders, whether he could have lost weight in a single afternoon? He also feels cold and weary, and his encounter with the Hallorans has depressed him. He goes a short way to the home of the Hallorans’ daughter, Helen Sachs, and asks for a drink to warm him. But she tells him that she and her husband, Eric Sachs, have not kept any alcoholic beverages in the house since Eric’s operation three years before. Neddy had forgotten about the operation. The narrator says, “Was he losing his memory, had his gift for concealing painful facts let him forget that he had sold his house, that his children were in trouble, and that his friend had been ill?”
…….He swims the Sachs’s pool, barely making it, and crosses over to the Biswangers’ house, where a party is in progress. Numerous times, the Biswangers had invited Neddy and Lucinda Merrill to dinner, but the Merrills always snubbed them. They thought themselves above the Biswangers. When Neddy enters the pool area and heads for the bar, Neddy calls him a gate-crasher. Nevertheless, he asks whether he may pour himself a drink. “Suit yourself,” Grace Biswanger says.
…….While at the bar, he hears her talk about him: “They went for broke overnight—nothing but income—and he showed up drunk one Sunday and asked us to loan him five thousand dollars.” Neddy swims the pool, then goes to the next pool—that of Shirley Adams. He and she had had an affair, but he could not remember when—“last week, last month, last year.”
…….After walking toward her pool, he tells her that he is swimming across the county.
…….She says, “Will you ever grow up?”
…….Expecting him to ask for money, she says she will not give him any. When he asks for a drink, she refuses to provide one. She has company, a young man in the bathhouse. But Neddy still swims the pool. When he leaves, it is nightfall. He looks up at the stars but does not see any midsummer constellations. He cries. He feels cold, confused, downhearted. He needs a drink and dry clothes. But he swims the last two pools anyway, those of the Gilmartins and the Clydes. When he reaches home, the house is dark. He wonders whether Lucinda is still at the Westerhazy place. Perhaps the girls are there or went somewhere else. When he tries the garage doors, “rust came off the handles onto his hands.” The house is locked. He tries to force the door open, then looks inside. The house is empty.
Climax

Themes

Cheever The Swimmer

Cheever The Swimmer Analysis

Cheever The Swimmer Review