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The Swimmer by John Cheever.
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Biography EssayAlthough some critics have dismissed Cheever as a writer of the "New Yorker school," a chronicler of suburbia, or a clever satirist, his impressive achievements in both the short story...
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John Cheever (1912-1982) was an American writer known for his keen, often critical, view of the American middle class. Known primarily for his short stories, his attention to detail and careful writin...
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Although some critics have dismissed Cheever as a writer of the "New Yorker school," a chronicler of suburbia, or a clever satirist, his impressive achievements in both the short story and the novel b...
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To outward appearances John Cheever was very much a child of the American twentieth century. Born just before World War I, he lived through the halcyon Jazz Age, suffered through the Depression, and...
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Few American writers have been so clear in mapping their recurrent subject matter and themes as John Cheever. From his first published story, "Expelled," he has been concerned with the Fall from a co...
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In the following essay, originally published in Commonweal in 1964, Segel provides an overview of “The Swimmer,” asserting that “Cheever is working with an attitude toward life, a...
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In the following essay, Kozikowski views “The Simmer” as a spiritual allegory, akin to the work of Dante Alighieri.
Cheever's ever-popular, many-faceted short story, “The S...
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In the following essay, Piwinski investigates Cheever's reference to the cities of Lisbon and Hackensack in the opening passage of “The Swimmer.”
The opening of John Cheever...
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In the following essay, Hughes and O'Hara consider “The Swimmer” in terms of Kantian philosophy.
Kantian Moral Abstraction
In Kantian philosophy, morality demands that individuals...
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In the following essay, originally published in 1974, Graves offers a close reading of the use of color in “The Swimmer.”
A close reading of John Cheever's “The Swimmer,&#x...
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In the following essay, Slabey declares “The Swimmer” to be “an imaginative vision of American reality,” comparing the story with Washington Irving's “Rip Van...
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In the following essay, Blythe and Sweet probe Cheever's “ironic use of three holy sacraments” in “The Swimmer.”
John Cheever indicates the distance between the goal...
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In the following essay, Byrne analyzes Cheever's utilization of a list of names as a narrative device in “The Swimmer,” claiming that the list functions as a symbol “for Ne...
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In the following essay, Bell compares “The Swimmer” to Shakespeare's A Midsummer's Night Dream, focusing on motifs of dreams and nightmares.
The opening paragraph of John C...
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In the following essay, Allen explores allusions to F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby in Cheever's “The Swimmer.”
Several literary echoes float through John Cheever&#x...
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In the following essay, Mathews examines the narrative and thematic similarities of “The Swimmer” to William Austin's “Peter Rugg, The Missing Man,” citing both as &...
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In the following essay, Blythe and Sweet consider “The Swimmer” to be a representation of the “familiar archetype of the Grail quest.”
Although critics, including ourselves...
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Historically it has been viewed that one's place in society is fixed. This concept included the notion that not only was it impossible for one to move up in society, but also that it was difficult fo...
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The two short stories, "A Worn Path" by Eudora Welty and "The Swimmer" by John Cheever are not originally meant to be similar, but do have some ideas in common. Although these stories are similar in ...
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In an allegory nothing is what is seems and even when the meaning of something is pinned down it is still a subjective decision. Therefore whichever aspect that is to be defined may have compl...
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John Cheever
John Cheever
Critical Essay by David Segel
The Fleeting of Social Status
