The Swimmer Essay Introduction
John Cheever’s “The Swimmer,” first published in The New Yorker in 1964, follows Neddy
Merrill as he decides to swim home through a chain of swimming pools across the affluent
suburban landscape surrounding his Connecticut home. At the beginning of his journey,
Neddy appears confident and comfortable within the social world of his neighbors, but the
passage from one pool to another gradually exposes changes in his relationships,
circumstances, and sense of time. Cheever uses the seemingly ordinary journey to reveal
the instability beneath Neddy’s privileged life, while the story’s shifting treatment of time
makes his experience increasingly uncertain. Through Neddy’s physical journey and his
changing perception of his own circumstances, “The Swimmer” examines wealth, social
identity, aging, and the consequences of refusing to recognize personal decline.
