Swimming Through Life

I have been having difficulty figuring out what I want this blog to focus on and what insights I have that the rest of the class could benefit from. I am still searching for this focus and I feel that as I continue reading this semester a theme will come out through these posts.

However, I found the piece The Swimmer extremely interesting within its deeper meanings. In the beginning, the man appears to have everything he ever wanted; money, family, and friends that respect his status in society. The man appears young, full of adventure, and extremely lively even though he is considered far from young. The sudden decision for him to take on this swim across the country is not out of the usual for him, and up until this point the story is rather normal. It sounds like a typical description of well off man in a rich neighborhood that has grown accustomed to their style of living.

He begins his journey and the physical terrain is familiar, but certain locations and friends soon become unfamiliar. The man has clearly traveled a great distance in his life and has trouble recollecting the majority of it. Neddy has rejected several invitations from neighbors over the years and in a sense looked down upon some of them for their socioeconomic status. Many of the neighbors are not home at times they should be on a Sunday, or have suffered some sort of illness that he was not aware of at all.

As he continues the journey, the tone of the story turns dark, dreary, and rather depressing. He loses strength while he travels on, which shows how he is gotten older over the years and lost his spirit of youth. A storm slowly moves in and takes all the warmth and happiness from the mood of the journey. Neddy grows cold, sad, and lonelier as he moves forward and begins to realize that this journey is beginning to symbolize his life and the loneliness he has developed throughout his time in the neighborhood. He has attained a substantial amount of debt and his family has entirely deserted him.

The other interesting part of this reading is the repeated reference toward relating it to 'The Odyssey' and Odysseus' journey back home. He respects all the customs of the houses he visits and the journey seems to drag on for years and years, similar to Odysseus' journey. In a sense, this journey did take years like Odysseus took years, because this symbolizes his entire life. It is intriguing to think that I may have been missing all of these mythological references throughout my years of reading for academics. There were so many motifs and different themes throughout this short story that John Cheever truly knew what he was doing when he wrote this piece.

This piece also shows how we are essentially swimming through life and it is up to us to choose the journey we take. I truly believe that there is some greater plan for each and every person. I'm not saying that this comes from a deity or God, but at least from some greater power that has a much greater grasp upon the bigger picture of life. Although our final destination is already determined, it goes without saying that each decision we make affects the ultimate journey we take that allows us to arrive at that destination. We are all in this journey, simply swimming through life, and learning from experiences along the way. It is these experiences that steer our conscious being in the direction that we are meant to follow.