The Swimmer

Quotes The swimmer:

1. “I drank too much last night”(p.1489) John Cheever makes a big deal out of alcohol in this story. He is doing so, because the message he is sending to the readers is that things like families and homes can be lost very easily. He is thus, using drinking as an example of that. Drinkers are subject to loose things that they care about because they are not present for them anymore.
2. “He had been swimming and now he was breathing deeply,”(p.1490) this story starts when Ned feels he should swim 8.5 miles… all the way to his house. At the beginning everything is very optimistic and flowing easily. But as the story is progressing, Ned is getting more and more tired. The more pools he crosses the more people are getting weird, and the time is going faster and faster. When he gets home he realizes his wife and children left, and his house is now abandoned, and has been for a while. This story tells us that the longer you’re away from the thigs you care the quicker you will loose them.