The Swimmer Summary
John Cheever

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... Read more

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... Read more

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... Read more

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... Read more

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&#x... Read more

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,... Read more

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 g... Read more

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 Joh... Read more

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 &... Read more

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... Read more

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... Read more