This paper reviews two short stories of men in decline. In both stories the main characters face similar problems and suffer from similar illusions, but the authors describe these problems in different way. In the stories "The Swimmer", by John Cheever and "Babylon Revisited", by F. Scott the main characters have similar problems. The authors explore these problems in similar ways, but there are differences. "The Swimmer" is the story of a man who on the surface is just swimming 8 miles across the county through people's back yard pools, but as time passes he slowly realizes that his life is falling to pieces. In "Babylon Revisited" the main character is revisiting his old hometown of Paris in an attempt to get his daughter back from his sister-in-law and her husband. However in his visit he allows his past to cause problems with this.

The main characters in both...