Abstract: John Cheever’s short story “The Swimmer” explores a complex, though fascinating character, Neddy Merril, as he uncovers depth within the shallow waters of “Lucinda River.”
Drunken Delusion
Neddy Merrill is a man who enjoys the pleasures of life, whether that be a strong drink in hand or a refreshing dip into the pool on a warm summer’s afternoon. His story begins in this realm of pleasure as he savors the sun alongside his wife, Lucinda, and his friends, the Westerhazy’s. What follows appears to be merely an absurd and childlike adventure: “to swim home” down the 8-mile trail of neighborhood pools that connect the Westerhazy’s house to his own– what he calls the “Lucinda River” (p.727). Yet, it gradually unfolds into a series of memories filled with the glistening green water of repression, confusion, and confrontation.
While Neddy believes these memories take place within the span of a single afternoon, we can assume that it occurs rather over a much longer period of time, possibly months.
What begins as midsummer, transforms into autumn as Neddy arrives at the Levy’s pool. A thunderstorm approaches and strips “the maple of its red and yellow leaves.” (p.730) Neddy brushes this aside as merely a “blighted” tree, but still “felt a peculiar sadness at this sign of autumn.” (p.730) While Neddy prefers the warmer weather, this is not the reason it saddens him. This “sign of autumn” is a sign that time has passed from his once happy afternoon in the sun.
In instances like this, we can see how his repressed memories gently creep into his consciousness. After the storm waivers, the air turned cold, and yet he curiously recalls moments later that, “Lucinda would still be sitting in the sun, back at the Westerhazy’s,” (p.731) indicating that he oblivious to the passing of time. Similar environmental changes reappear throughout the story, such as the yellowing beech hedge at the Halloran’s or the “icy water” (p.737) of the Gilmartins’. Neddy’s state of repression dissociates him from any sense of time.
These reminders of time and reality gradually build onto one another, eventually allowing us to observe the most drastic alterations in Neddy’s behavior. His brief conversations with Mrs. Halloran and Helen Sachs spark this descent. Shortly after Mrs. Halloran mentions, “Why, we heard that you’d sold the house and that your poor children…” (p.733) his confusion escalates. He considers if he was “losing his memory,” or if “his gift for concealing painful acts let him forget that he had sold his house, that his children were in trouble, and that his friend had been ill?” (p.734) After passing through his ex-mistress’ yard, he looks into the night sky and wonders, “What had become of the constellations of midsummer?” This evokes a rapid decline in Neddy’s emotional and physical condition. Never before had he “felt so miserable, cold, tired, and bewildered.” (p.736) Neddy Merrill is a man who enjoys the pleasures of life; he fears discomfort and pain. And so his mind constructs a fantasy; a dissociation from reality to cope with the displeasures of life. By doing so, he has repressed any memory of a world outside his fantasy. This delusion, however, is beginning to disintegrate.
It is only within the final lines of the story that Cheever reveals Neddy’s circumstances. He has reached his final destination: home. But here lies desertion.“The place was dark… the house was locked… was empty.” (p.737) We begin to see how the little clues left behind along his journey piece together. Mrs. Halloran’s comments on his “misfortunes,” Grace Biswanger’s gossip about the elusive “they” who “went broke overnight,” only to show up “drunk one Sunday” asking “us to loan him five thousand dollars” (p.735), or the reasoning for “the rudeness of a mistress who had come to him on her knees and showered his trousers with tears” (p.736) Neddy Merrill, a once suburban man of high social status, is left shivering, exhausted, standing outside a home that is no longer his own. Snap. The threads of his delusion are severed.
Aside from this delusion, Neddy adopts additional coping mechanisms to further detach him from reality. For example, at any trace of displeasure or weakness, he turns to the nearest barkeep or fellow neighbor as “He needed a drink.” (p.733) If these events were to in fact occur over several months versus a single day, then the number of drinks would be insignificant; however, if we evaluate the intentions and motivations of these drinks, we can observe a heavy dependence on alcohol.
Neddy swims through each glass of whiskey and gin only to remain within the waters of Lucinda River. There is a certain duality in the meaning behind these waters. In a literal sense, they connect Neddy from one point on a map to another; they lead him home. Yet, they also bridge the gap between the world Neddy once lived and knew, down the road of drunken delusion and repression, to the world he must face. I believe Cheever intentionally abandons Neddy at the end of the story within this vague purgatory of grasping his reality and overcoming it. It highlights that there is no pleasure within pain. Pain is vital to understanding and appreciating what you have. Neddy’s attempts to bypass his own misfortune only leave him shivering, exhausted, standing outside a home that is no longer his own. Snap.
Works Cited:
Cheever, John. “The Swimmer.” John Cheever: Collected Stories & Other Writings. Library of America, 2009. 726-37. Print.
