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Swimming Pools
In “The Swimmer,” alcohol symbolizes Neddy’s short-sighted hedonism, showing that pleasure pursued too hungrily ends in disaster. Cheever announces the significance of alcohol to the social life of the suburbs in the first paragraph of the story, where hungover residents complain that they “drank too much” the night before. Immediately, Cheever links alcohol with excess and regret, but he introduces Neddy as he’s still in the early stages of intoxication, at the pool with a hand around “a glass of gin.” As he swims through his neighbors’ backyards, Neddy finds a drink at nearly every stop, a social courtesy that, at first, he accepts and enjoys: stumbling on the Bunkers’ party, he admires “prosperous men and women gathered by the sapphire colored waters while caterer’s men in white coats passed them cold gin.” However, Cheever’s portrayal of alcohol changes as Neddy gets further into his swim (and, presumably, gets drunker). While trespassing in the Levys’ empty backyard, Neddy swims in the pool then helps himself to a drink all alone—here, alcohol becomes less a social pleasure than a compulsion. This becomes explicit after he swims in the Hallorans’ pool and thinks to himself for the first time that he needs a drink to maintain his mood; from here on, finding alcohol is nearly as important to Neddy as his quest to swim home. Indeed, the notion that alcohol might be a problem for Neddy becomes clearest at the Biswangers’ party, where people are gossiping that Neddy had once “showed up drunk” and asked for a loan. Throughout the story, alcohol mirrors Neddy’s foolish quest to swim the county: it’s a light pleasure that turns into an all-consuming compulsion, one that poisons his life and ruins his relationships to others.
Alcohol Quotes in The Swimmer
The The Swimmer quotes below all refer to the symbol of Alcohol. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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The Swimmer Quotes
It was one of those midsummer Sundays when everyone sits around saying, “I drank too much last night.” You might have heard it whispered by the parishioners leaving church, heard it from the lips of the priest himself, struggling with his cassock in the vestiarium, heard it from the golf links and the tennis courts, heard it from the wildlife preserve where the leader of the Audubon group was suffering from a terrible hangover.
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Cheever sets the tone for “The Swimmer” with a number of suburban residents of different classes and vocations repeating the same phrase, “I drank too much.” By placing these varying people in the same hungover condition, Cheever emphasizes the narrow range of experience possible in the suburbs. Each one is in church, on the golf course, or at the wildlife preserve on Sunday, but on Saturday they were all drinking. Cheever describes these people as similar in their pursuit of an excessive pleasure that inevitably leads to pain and regret the next morning. Additionally, this passage stresses the importance of Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at
The rain had cooled the air and he shivered. The force of the wind had stripped a maple of its red and yellow leaves and scattered them over the grass and the water. Since it was midsummer the tree must be blighted, and yet he felt a peculiar sadness at this sign of autumn. He braced his shoulders, emptied his glass, and started for the Welchers’ pool.
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Emerging after the storm, Neddy notices red and yellow leaves on a maple tree, an unmistakable sign of fall. Additionally, the air is so cold that Neddy shivers, an unseasonable contrast to the earlier heat of the summer day. He quickly disposes of the idea that it is fall, insisting (against all evidence) that “it was midsummer.” This shows that Neddy is oblivious to the passage of time, searching for alternate explanations because its passage clearly disturbs him (as it parallels his physical aging, which he cannot confront). To dispel his sadness, Neddy braces and finishes his drink, attempting to Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occ
The next pool on his list, the last but two, belonged to his old mistress, Shirley Adams. If he had suffered any injuries at the Biswangers’ they would be cured here. Love—sexual roughhouse in fact—was the supreme elixir, the pain killer, the brightly colored pill that would put the spring back into his step, the joy of life in his heart. They had had an affair last week, last month, last year. He couldn’t remember.
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Neddy eagerly anticipates a visit to his old mistress, assuming that she’ll receive him warmly, which shows that he hasn’t learned from his humiliation at the Biswangers. He has hurt Shirley just as he hurt the Biswangers, so there’s no logical reason that Shirley would receive him any more warmly than his spurned neighbors did. As he thinks of Shirley, he broaches the topic of love, but immediately clarifies that it’s only sexual pleasure that he’s interested in. Instead of finding solace in a more adult and emotionally fulfilling relationship (or confronting his problems outright to achieve a more stable Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamu
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Alcohol Symbol Timeline in The Swimmer
The timeline below shows where the symbol Alcohol appears in The Swimmer. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
The Swimmer
...around their pool with Lucinda and Neddy Merrill—note that all of them drank too much wine the night before.
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Neddy, who is lounging by the pool drinking gin, is “far from young” but still youthful and slender. That...
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...Despite the sign, he enters their backyard and swims their pool, helping himself to a drink afterward. He notes that this is his fourth or fifth drink, and he’s only halfway...
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Neddy decides he needs a drink to restore his strength and also to restore his original vision of his quest to...
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...her husband Eric and notes that their pool is “small.” He asks them for a drink, but Helen tells him that they don’t keep alcohol in the house since Eric’s operation...
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Helen points Neddy towards the Biswangers for a drink, as they’re having a party. Neddy reluctantly decides to “get wet,” swimming Helen’s pool. On...
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...describing a Sunday when he showed up drunk and begged for money. Neddy gets a drink, but the bartender is rude to him, as he senses that Neddy has been ostracized.
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