Quest motif in John Cheever’s short story ‘The Swimmer’ Essay

The destination of any journey is a profound credit of some kind literally, the realization of integritys goal, metaphorically very much a consciousness of ones reality. For an individual on a mission, a interest the reach at the truth is the final destination. The motif of quest has been used multifariously in literature from the search for the Holy Grail to the leg decision of the comfortable Fleece. John Cheever uses the quest motif in his short story The natator to present the unusual travails of his narcissistic mavin, Neddy through the different puddles of society till he arrives at the emptiness of his knowledge tone, the shut-down panels of his berth.The transition from the fall to witness is paralleled through the quest motif. At the beginning of the short story, Neddy is the app atomic number 18ntly youthful, grotesque quester setting forth on his own adventure to locomote the county, across a stretch of private and public pools to reach his home in Bullet Park, eight miles to the south, where his four beautiful daughters would have had their tiffin and might be playing tennis. (Cheever, The Swimmer) As the quest continues, thither are inevitable signs of passing time (not paralleled by the physical time of Neddys eight-miles smooth journey), subtle indications of the fraying of the self-deception Neddy indulges in, the averse unmasking of the unpleasant truths of his life and the final epiphanic climax at the sight of his empty locked house in the enfolding darkness of the wintry flushing. Cheever ironically stands the traditional quest on its head. The legendary hero leaves his home and hearth, setting forth on a road of trials, overcoming hurdles, and finally achieves success in the form of a treasure.As defined by Neela Mookerjee in her essay, The Long Winding Road, the hero begins his quest and starts to encounter difficulties that lie along the way. One such meeting is with the Other. The Other, often describe as the heros alter-ego or the heros dark side, reflects the personality traits which the hero does not want to acknowledge as being present in himself. Because he finds this gens so repugnant, the hero often tries to deny any commonality between himself and the Other.Neddy Merrill, the legendary figure (Cheever, The Swimmer) is the wealthy elite socialite who starts the sunny day breathing deeply, stertorously as if he could gulp into his lungs the components of that moment, the heat of the sun, the intenseness of his pleasure. (Cheever, The Swimmer) In his own mind, he prints his own trail of pools, the swimmer in his own world till the self-pretense is stripped-down away from the eyes of the protagonist as well as the readers swimming along with the narrative as he confronts his Other reality.Often described as an anglophile , John Cheever depicts the social milieu of Merrill in its suburbanite listless pace the Grahams, the Hammers, the Lears, the Howlands, and the Crosscups, then the Bun kers, the Levys, the Welchers, and the public pool in Lancaster. Then there were the Hallorans, the Sachses, the Biswangers, Shirley Adams, the Gilmartins, and the Clydes. Neddy is portrayed as the pilgrim seeking an unexplored route to the known end with the belief that friends would line the banks of the Lucinda River.(Cheever) The upper break suburbanite society depicted is a world of self-indulgence a world where one could lounge nearly in naked pleasure, an everlasting party with the same faces, rounds of drinks and ensuing hangovers, and even the same serving bartenders. From the surfeit of drinks/hangovers in the opening paragraph to the communist label as a marker of reformist zeal, even the distinguish between the private haven of ones own pool vis-a-vis the disgusting commonness of the public pool Merrills class is painted visually for the reader.The social behavior towards Neddy subtly changes from the courteous congenial of Mrs. Grahams to the patronizing sympathy of Mrs. Halloran, to the rude reaction of the Biswangers at his intrusive mien in their noisy party. Neddy tries to integrates himself into the texture of the social class he at once belonged to, but as the text develops, he is portrayed as an trespassing(a) element, an opportunist for free drinks and begging loans. The color of the quest thickens, darkens as the slow realization of the erstwhile insider being the unwelcome outsider hits home.