Life is full of incredulous and horrendous surprises. Mistakes are natural in human nature; humans can better themselves by facing and accepting their mistakes. In the short story “The Swimmer” by John Cheever, Ned Merrill swims through his neighbors’ pools to get home. This short story has a variety of symbolism that connects to the themes of life; furthermore, Cheever wants to address his readers to accept their mistakes instead of ignoring it and then having to face it with bigger consequences. Ned Merrill does not follow this example, and he is left with nothing but himself.
Ned Merrill is a man who had a very wonderful life but destroyed it by not accepting his mistakes. John Cheever makes note of this through the symbolism of the weather. “… a massive stand of cumulus cloud so like a city seen from a distance… The sun was hot. Neddy Merrill… was a slender man—he seemed to have the especial slenderness of youth—” (Cheever 726). “The Swimmer,” as well as other stories, use the change of weather to symbolize the feelings or behaviors of the characters in the story.
Cheever uses the weather to describe how Ned feels and behaves; furthermore, in this quote, there may be clouds in the sky, but the sun is still shining brightly on the neighborhood. Ned Merrill is being shown as though he is the sun shining brightly, but the clouds that make the “city seen from a distance” are the mistakes he is choosing to ignore. His mistakes are being shown in his life, but Ned Merrill chooses to ignore them and live freely. Cheever later explains how the weather changes drastically over time: “It would storm.
The stand of cumulus cloud—that cityhad risen and darkened, and while he sat there he heard the percussiveness of thunder again,” (Cheever 729). As the weather worsens, Ned’s faults are becoming worse over time. The difference between the two types of weather shown in the story is time; the bright, sunny day soon turned cloudy and dim through time. Furthermore, this is symbolism towards how Ned ignored his mistakes, and it is eventually coming to face him with more consequences. Consequences are very important to understand because they might give a person an advantage or disadvantage in life.
Alcohol, for example, has many consequences when drinking it. John Cheever makes notes of alcohol throughout the novel. Alcohol has different representations. In the story, it can be represented as two things: a self-defense mechanism for Ned to forget his mistakes, or the mistakes itself. “A smiling bartender he had seen at a hundred parties gave him a gin and tonic and he stood by the bar… After swimming the pool he got himself a glass and poured a drink. It was his fourth or fifth drink”(Cheever 279).
This quote, for example, explains how he uses alcohol to forget things. Most people who have four or five drinks do not function well with thinking, and Ned Merrill may be one of them. Throughout the story, Ned is written to almost have a drink after swimming; therefore, it is understandable for him to forget things, such as The Welchers moving away. If Ned is able to forget his neighbors moving away, then he is able to forget the mistakes he has made over time without accepting the consequences that go with it.
The alcohol could also be used to represent the mistakes Ned has made through his life, and he insists on taking more. Ned goes to the Sachses’ house for a drink, but is soon rejected by Helen. “… I wonder if you’d give me a drink. ‘ ‘Why, I’d love to,’ Helen said, ‘but there hasn’t been anything in this house to drink since Eric’s operation. That was three years ago. ” (Cheever 734). Ned wants to have more bad choices, but the Sachses explained to him why he shouldn’t.
Alcohol is used as a representation of mistakes with bad consequences, and Helen tells Ned that her husband, Eric, had an operation because he took advantage of alcohol without considering the consequences. This should be an eye opener to Ned because the Sachses want to help Ned not make more mistakes than he already has and ruin his life even more. Although Ned sees how not accepting mistakes may negatively affect his life by someone else’s story, he ignores this and finds another place to repeat his decisions: making mistakes without facing the consequences held with it.
