Essay on cheever the swimmer

Submitted By Bigdubbz1
Words: 982
Pages: 4
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Jerae Williams
Professor Hengel
Comp & lit 2
2/1/2014

Cheever the Swimmer

Ned the main character in the story decides to take the long route swimming through his neighbor’s pools to get home. Ned’s journey to get home was not as easy as he expected. Ned encounters confusion, discomfort, and bad vibes from “neighboring friends in the community’.” Ned soon comes to grips that his lifestyle may not be what he imagined it to be. At first I found the passage really hard to understand, but after going back to read it for a second time, the story became clearer to me. First Ned starts off at the Westerhazy’s house but begins his journey swimming through the Grahams pool first. It went exactly how Ned thought it would be. Ned gets out the pool and Mrs. Graham says “Why Neddy,” “What a marvelous surprise. I’ve been trying to get you on the phone all morning. She offers him a drink, and Ned slips away. He then swims through the Hammers pool, Howland’s and the Crosscups. Ned didn’t really get any attention from these families because Mrs. Hammer didn’t know it was Ned swimming through her pool and the Howlands and crosscups were away on vacation. His next stop would be the Bunkers. As Ned can see, there is a party going on. Ned is greeted by many people and is invited to the bar for a drink. Not trying to be caught up in too much conversation, Ned leaves the party and continues his journey. He makes his way to the Levey’s driveway where he is confronted with a privet property sign. Ned sees the Levey’s had just left. After swimming the pool he helped himself to a glass of liquor. Then it stormed, I believe the storm represented the start of the great depression because after the storm Ned starts to seem pretty confused and his memory doesn’t seem to be where it used to be. The author also says “The stands of that Columbus cloud- that city- had risen and darkened.” Ned makes his way to the Welchers where he found the pool was dry. Ned was really disappointed. He says “it’s common enough to go away for the summer, but no one ever drained his pool.” At this point of the story Ned starts to wonder if his memory is fading. Ned hears a nearby tennis game and that gives him a boost, and he starts to feel alive again. After the Welchers house Ned ends up on the side of the road. In the story the author describes Ned as nearly naked, barefoot, surrounded by beer cans. The way the author describes his surroundings it sounds like a place a homeless man would be. I think this part of the story symbolizes Ned snapping back into reality and in reality Ned is homeless. While on the side of the road people laughed at him and threw beer cans at him. Ned thinks about turning back but inside he feels he can’t. Ned walks to the recreation center and swims their pool as well. Ned then makes his way to the Hallorans house. The Hallorans seem friendly to Ned. Mrs Hollaron mentions to Ned that she had been very sorry for his misfortunes. Ned replies “What misfortunes”? Mrs halloran replies “Why, we heard you sold your house and that your poor children’’ Ned replies I don’t recall selling the House and the girls are at home” At this point I knew Ned wasn’t all there in the head. Ned then goes to the Biswangers in hopes of a drink. Ned and Lucinda would get invitation from the Biswangers frequently but this time they didn’t get an invitation. When Ned and Lucinda would get
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