Author John Cheever originally planned “The Swimmer” as a novel that retold the Greek myth – or allegory -- of Narcissus. In ancient Greek lore, Narcissus was a hunter from the territory of Thespiae in Boeotia who was renowned for his beauty. He was the son of a river god named Cephissus and a nymph named Liriope. He was exceptionally proud, in that he disdained those who loved him. Nemesis (the goddess of revenge) saw this and attracted Narcissus to a pool where he saw his own reflection in the water and fell in love with it, not realizing it was merely an image. Unable to leave the beauty of his reflection, Narcissus died. (In some versions of the story, he dies of a broken heart because he cannot leave his obsession. In others, he wastes away by the river side. In others he commits suicide when he realizes he can never have the object of his own desire. Narcissus is the origin of the term narcissism, a fixation with oneself.
Cheever abandoned his 150 pages of notes for the Narcissus novel adaptation because the task became too cumbersome. Instead, he decided instead to write “The Swimmer,” a story that is considered an allegory, or at the least, a story with strong elements of allegory.
In just one paragraph (that reflects your understanding of the TEXT model), how you feel "The Swimmer" connects to allegory, and specifically, how Neddy relates to the story of Narcissus. Don’t be afraid to take risks. You have 10 MINUTES.
In just one paragraph (that reflects your understanding of the TEXT model), how you feel "The Swimmer" connects to allegory, and specifically, how Neddy relates to the story of Narcissus. Don’t be afraid to take risks. You have 10 MINUTES.
The story "The Swimmer"connects to allegory and the story of Narcissus. One way of how it connects is that Neddy is oblivious and he becomes obsessed with swimming across the county. He uis so oblivious that he does not eeven realize that his family has abandoned him. Another way is that he is probably drunk and does not realize his family situation. He has probably had about 5 drinks so he cannot think straight. This story also conects to the story of Narcissus becausew of the pools of water. Neddy swims through many pools of water and this has made him oblivious to the real world. AS you can see, "The Swimmer" connects to allegory and the story of Narcissus.
ReplyDeleteNeddy connects to the story of Narcissus bcause he is very much all about him, and everything revolves around him, and in the story of Narcissus the people were very about themselves and thought the whole world revolved around them. I think Neddy might have Alzheimers because he remembers his 4 daughters and his house, but at the end of the story when he makes his way back there, his daughters are gone, and his house is completly empty.
ReplyDeleteThe allegory in "The Swimmer" can be seen when Neddy swims from house to house because it symbolizes a journey he takes. Literally, Neddy is just swimming from house to house, but symbolically he is seeing the different lives of people and comparing how they live while thinking about his own life. Neddy relates to the story of Narcissus because he really wants to complete his journey across the river and he only thinks about himself and how he will feel after he completes it.
ReplyDeleteWhen John Cheever wrote "The Swimmer", it connects to Greek myth and the story of Narcissus. In the allegory, Narcissus was in love with himself. Him and Neddy are similar people. Altough they had different paths, they still seem to have the same qualities. Neddy swims from pool to pool across the country, almost in a daze. He can only think about himself and think about swimming. He has forgetten about his own family and home because of his out of nowhere obsession. He is in love with himself swimming through pools the way Narcissus was in love with his own reflection in the water. The allegory states that Narcissus dies of a broken heart because he cannot leave his obsession. In the same way, by the time Neddy gets out of the pools to leave his obsession behind, he still doesnt remember that his family is not there. His mind has been concentrated on himself and traveling the pools for too long. John Cheever's story "The Swimmer" resembles Narcissus in Greek myth throughout the story in the ways that Neddy connects with them.
ReplyDeleteJon-Luc Jarboe
ReplyDeleteThe story "The Swimmer" has a few examples that connect it to the story of Narcissus. An example is water. Throughout "The Swimmer" Neddy swims through many pools of water to get to what he wants most, in the allegory Narcissus comes upon a pool of water as well in his story. Another example is the ending in "The Swimmer" Neddy comes upon his house and relizes that nobody is home and he came all this way for something he will never have, just like in the Narcissus story where Narcissus dies either from wasting away or suciding after he learns he will never have the object he most desires. To conclude these are a few of the similarities between "The Swimmer" and the allegory of Narcissus.
Shannon Camara
ReplyDeleteThe short story "The swimmer" is the perfect example of an allegorical plot. In the story, Neddy Meryl swims from his house through the entire county for a sense of his own personal accomplishment. When he returns home, however, he finds that his family is no longer there and had gone away without him. What is actually happening in the story is that Neddy had went on all of these swims in order to find who he really was. With this, he leaves behind everyone else, forgetting that other people in the world need him. Because of this, when he returns home, there is nobody else there for him, since he left everyone else behind. Because of this, Neddy relates to the story of Narcissus because in the story, Neddy was only doing things for himself. He had left behind everyone else in the world just so he could find out a little bit more about who he was. In ways, Narcissus did the same thing when he was staring at his reflection in the water, because he just wanted to know more and more about himself, or in this case about his image. By doing this, both characters leave the rest of the world behind them, and are forced to face things on there own, because to them, they are the most important.
Neddy relates to the story of Narcissus because in this story the only person Neddy cares about is himself. Neddy swims through pools all across the county, not caring whos pool it was. He only cared about him swimming through pools to get back to his own house. When he gets home he notices his house is locked, theres nothing inside, and his family is gone. This symbolizes that the only person Neddy cared about was himself, if he didn't even know that his family moved out. Now Neddy cares about his Social class not about where his family went. This is why The Swimmer relates to the Story of Narcissus.
ReplyDelete"The Swimmer" connects to allegory because it has two sides to the story. Neddy is literally swimming through the county and also having an internal journey. Neddy relates to the story of Narcissus because he is so caught up in himself that he doesn't pay attention to the things happening around him. He didn't even know why he was swimming through the county in the first place, and now he is so wrapped up in his journey that he can't look at the things that are changing in his life.
ReplyDeleteMatthew Albanese
ReplyDeleteIn the story "The Swimmer", Neddy Merill is "swimming across the country" on a string of pools he named: "the Lucinda River". This story connects to allegory, because Neddy's journey has a symbolic meaning. In the allegory of Narcissus, Narcissus is attracted to a pool of water where he falls in love with it. He cannot move himself away from the water, and eventually dies. This story relates to "The Swimmer", because Neddy has forgotten what is reality; this being that he sold his house and his children are not there anymore. When he starts to swim to his old home, and hears this from many people, he denies it, because he is enthralled with the task of swimming home. He does not pay attention to what happens around him, and he only focuses on getting home. Narcissus was only focused on looked at his reflection in a pool of water, because he fell in love with it. "The Swimmer" connects to allegory, because Neddy's fascination with his journey to go to his old home is the same as Narcisuss' fascination with his reflection in the pool of water.
I think that "The Swimmer" connects to allegory because in the story Neddy decides to swim home through all the pools in his neighbors yards. As he goes through each yard he realizes that he is noticing differences. Everytime he gets to another yard something is different than it was before. I think that this shows him growing up through the years and everytime he goes through another yard and pool he is growing one year older and is realizing the change in his life. The pools and yards is symbolizing a year which shows allegory. Also Neddy relates to the story of Narcissus because he is so caught up in himself as his life goes on that he doesn't realize what is happening around him with his friends and neighbors.
ReplyDeleteMollie
ReplyDeleteHe was doing things that were not important or made sense, just to do them. He was not paying attention to all the things going on around him. He was too obsessed with his own unimportant activities that he never thought to pay attention to the things going on around him. He was more involved in his own life to realize that his family left. They did not even bring him with them; they just left and sold the house, while he was left to wonder why. He did not notice such a huge decision and change in his family and their life. This is similar to Narcissus dying from his stupid obsession with bhis reflection.
The story "The Swimmer" is an allegory and the main character, Neddy Merril, connects to Narcissus for its Literal and symbolic text. In "The Swimmer", the allegory is shown through a message that is to hold on to what really matters to you because it can slip away at any moment. In the story, Neddy does not remember his house or family at the end of the story. In the beginning of the story, he did not cherish the things and people that truly matter in his life, everything was about him. Thus connecting to Narcissus.
ReplyDeleteThe story "The Swimmer" by John Cheever was an interesting story. His journey through the pools got increasingly difficult. This can be considered an allegory because this wasn't only a literal scenario, but it also represented his marriage. How everything was fine in the beginning, but then gradually the marriage deteriorated. He said he was feeling weaker and older, and how the seasons changed from summer to autumn. This shows how one's marriage can turn from good to bad very quickly. Also, all of the alcohol he drunk can show how when a marriage is going bad, then usually the husband starts to binge drink. There was one passage where his memory starts to cloud, and he can't remember things from before the swim. He couldn't remember if the Welchers put their house for sale or not. Allegories can be seen through out the story.
ReplyDeleteMyer Hussain
DeleteThe story The Swimmer is similar to an allegory in several ways. The journey in which Neddy takes is not only literally him swimming the length of each pool in the neighborhood, but it also represents journeys taken by one. The journey of swimming through the pools can relate to any journey someone mentally wants to take. At the end of the story, Neddy is exhausted. This happens in some mental journeys as well. It’s hard to finish difficult journeys. Neddy relates to Narcissus because like Narcissus, he becomes obsessed with himself. Neddy becomes obsessed with the idea of swimming the lengths of pools, which is his own idea. Narcissus just becomes obsessed with his own appearance and the idea that he is beautiful. These are alike because both Neddy’s and Narcissus’ obsessions control them a period of time. For Neddy the period of time is only a day, but for Narcissus he is controlled by his obsession for a lifetime. Narcissus is unable to think about anything but his reflection and Neddy is unable to think about anything but swimming in pools. Neddy even forgets about how his family left him. The Swimmer is also like the story of Narcissus because it has to do with the idea of water. Narcissus connects to water because he finds his reflection in a river and The Swimmer is about water because Neddy is swimming through pools filled with water. In these ways, John Cheever was able to incorporate the ideas in Greek mythology into his short story.
ReplyDeleteThe Swimmer is like an allegory in many ways. Neddy takes a literal journey by swimming through the length of each pool but also represents a journey someone takes. Neddy swimming through each pool can be related to anyone wanting to take a mental journey. Mental journeys are sometimes difficult and hard to finish, they can be extremely tiring. By the end of the story Neddy is exhausted and doesn’t want to finish his trip. Neddy can be compared to Narcissus because they are both obsessed with themselves. In the story of Narcissus, he becomes obsessed and falls in love with his reflection and cannot pull himself away from it. In The Swimmer Neddy becomes so obsessed with swimming he forgets about how his family left him. The Swimmer can be related to the story of Narcissus because they both obsess over a form of water. Narcissus falls in love with the reflection of himself in a river and Neddy is swimming through swimming pools.
ReplyDeleteNeddy relates to the story of Narcissus. Narcissus was obsessed with himself. Nemesis saw this and made Narcissus become attached to a pool so he could only see himself. He eventually fell in love with himself, or the reflection of himself. Neddy was obsessed with himself also so the stories are similar to each other reflecting the same ideas.
ReplyDeleteMadison Hayes
I wasnt in calss friday so i didnt know to read the swimmer
Delete"The Swimmer" is an allegory and the main character from that short story, Neddy Merril, connects to Narcissus on a literal and symbolic level. To begin, "The Swimmer" shows the quality of an allegory because it tries to teach a lesson. By not being able to remember what is going on at the end of the story I believe that the lesson trying to be learned is to not take advantage of your good fortune and to show how it can slip away by ignorance. To elaborate, Neddy goes on a big adventure to make his mark in something when he already has a loving family and home. At the end all of this is gone and he does not even know why, he just knows he is tired from his long journey that somewhat represents his ignorance. Moreover, by being vain in which he does not appreciate what he has, Neddy makes himself like Narcissus. It says that Narcissus disdained those who loved him because he was to full of himself. Although, Neddy seems as though he cares about his family it takes about how he had an affair with his neighbor and how Neddy and his wife would turn down offers to go over peoples homes that it seems as though he was almost to good for. Therefore, it shows that Neddy and Narcussis share some selfish qualities that in the long run seem to negatively effect their lives. Thus, Neddy and Narcissus are similiar struggling characters in allegories.
ReplyDelete"The Swimmer" relates to the story of Narcissus because Neddy was so obsessed about himself and what was happening to him that he lost sight of what was really happening in his life. We found out along the way of Neddy's swimming trail some key facts about his life. That he was in denial about his life and how we had lost his house and his kids. To forget about how he life had fallen apart he went swimming around the neighborhood. He cheated on his wife and lost everything and he still thought the world revolved around him and tried to forget what happened. This is how "The Swimmer" Connects to allegory.
ReplyDelete"The Swimmer" connects to allegory in many ways. One way that the story connects to allegory is it has two different point of views to the story. Neddy swims through the county having a "real traveling journey" and also having a journey of life. Neddy also relates to the story of Narcissus because he is a narcissus.-maya
ReplyDelete"The Swimmer" connects to an allegory in a few ways. First, the story can be taken literally that Neddy was actually swimming throughout the county swimming through the county. On the other hand, it can be taken symbolically that Neddy only cared about himself and was obsessed with accomplishing his own goals. Then once he actually accomplished it, he realized that his house and family disappeared while he was doing so. This story of Neddy relates to the story of Narcissus because they both symbolically thought that everything was about them. Therefore, The Swimmer and the story of Narcissus are both allegories. The Swimmer is a great example of an allegory, for it can be interpreted both literally and symbolically.
ReplyDeleteThe Swimmer connects to the allegory in a few ways. In the allegory Narcissus, Narcissus finds a pool with what he desires reflected back. In The Swimmer Neddy swims from pool to pool looking for what he desires. Another way the story connects is that Narcissus realizes that what he desires he cannot have and perishes/ commits suicide. In The Swimmer Neddy realizes the house is empty and he can't have what he desires. This is how the two stories relate.
ReplyDelete~Nicole Fontecchio
The story, "The Swimmer" is a lot like an allegory. It can be taken both literally and figuratively. Neddy "swims home" by stopping at every single house on his way home that has a pool. It also symbolizes his struggle in life, as he gets toward the end. Apparently, his marriage was failing and something had happened to his kids, and he is struggling to cope with it by drinking excessively. How tired and sore he gets towards the end of his swimming represents that struggle. One of the first signs that he is struggling is when the old woman says how bad she feels for him because of his situation, and when his old mistress is acting hostile towards him. It relates to the story of Narcissus, because Neddy seems to be pretty full of himself, and at the beginning it mentioned how he wasn't all that bad looking. Also, when the story started, he was sitting by a pool, looking into it. Was it his reflection he was gazing at?
ReplyDeleteThe short story, The Swimmer, is somewhat related to the story of the Narcissus. One way that these too stories are similar is because Neddy had lost everything and tried to fill the hole in his heart with by drinking a lot of alcohol and eventually becoming an alcoholic. Neddy wasted his whole life trying to get rid of his problems by drinking while he could have been trying to fix the issue by doing this in a more appropriate matter. This relates to the story of the Narcissus because he wasted his whole life trying to be with himself instead of trying to accomplish something in life, like Neddy could have done. This is how these two stories are similar to each other.
ReplyDeleteThe story of "The Swimmer" is connected to the story of the Narcissus because in both stories the main characters find things that cause them to not want to do anything besides whatever they are doing. In the Narcissus, Narcissus is attracted to himself in the reflection of the pool and cannot be turned away from it. Narcissus is so attracted that he eventually dies because he was incapable of moving away from the water. In "The Swimmer", Neddy is focused on swimming through, what he called, the Lucinda River. He never gave up and never stopped trying. In the end, he lost sight of reality because he was so focused on this dream. The two stories were alike because in both cases, the men were inseparable from what they truly loved and were doing.
ReplyDelete"The Swimmer" connects to allergory in a few ways. In this story Neddy is a narcisism because he's so obsessed with himself- doing all these things for himself instead of his family. He denies that he has lost just about everything in his life. Although, as Neddy is trying to swim across the county he's beginning to understand he's a narcisism. Neddy's just like Narcissus, who falls in love with his reflection, and died in the end.
ReplyDelete"The Swimmer" connects to allegory and the story of Narcissus in multiple ways. The first way that it connects to Narcissus is his personality. Neddy becomes obsessed in the story with swimming through every swimming pool in the county, and becomes obsessed with it. Narcissus also had this personality, in which he became obsessed with himself and would not stop himself until he died, much like Neddy had to swim in every swimming pool. Also, Neddy became so obsessed with swimming that he was completely oblivious to his family and his life in general. Narcissus was the same way, because he was so obsessed with his beauty that he became oblivious to what happened outside of looking at himself. The last reason why these two stories connect is because of the endings. When Neddy returns home, he realizes what had finally happened, and his life had completely changed. This is much like Narcissus because Narcissus had looked at himself for so long that he died, and didn't realize what was happening to himself. These two stories are completely different as it seems, but they are very similar if the messages in them are looked at carefully.
ReplyDelete"The Swimmer" connects to allegory because of Neddy's journey through the pools or symbolically through his own life. He is not only physically going through the pools in his county, but he is also moving through his life at the same time. Neddy connects to the Narcissus because of their selfishness. Both Neddy and Narcissus don't pay any attention to the world around them. In reality, they only care about themselves. In the story of the Narcissus, he doesn't really care for the other people. He thinks he is way too good for everyone and actually ends up going to the extremes and kills himself because he can't have himself. In "The Swimmer," Neddy is symbolically swimming his life away. He doesn't stop to care about others or anything like that. He just goes through the pools and is so caught up in his journey that he doesn't stop to think about others. Another point is that Neddy didn't even have a reason for swimming through the pools and taking his journey, he just went with it. In the end, I think both characters get what they deserve because they were both self-centered and they were both narcissuses.
ReplyDeleteThe story "The Swimmer" relates to the story of Narcissus because both show a quality of allegory. One example is that each story has different points of views to it. Neddy makes himself like Narcissus because he also is selfish and does things for his own personal gain or accomplishment. Both characters leave everything behind them and took what they feel is the most important.
ReplyDeleteThe short story "The Swimmer" has a character named Neddy who is connected to the Greek character Narcissus in several ways. Narcissus was in love with his own reflection. Since he was so distracted by one thing, he died. In "The Swimmer," Neddy is distracted by his urge to swim across all of the pools in the county. Because of his blind inspiration to achieve this goal, he doesn't pay attention to how his family left him. He was so caught up in swimming, like how Narcissus was caught up at looking at himself. Neddy's narcissism also relates to the story by the fact of how they are both narcissists. Neddy's narcissism and distractions relates to the Greek character Narcissus. Joshua Tyler
ReplyDeleteThe story "the swimmer" relates to narcissus's allegory in many ways. One of the reasons it relates is Neddy that he is so selfish and self-loving he forgot about what was happening in his relations with others. As the story progressed we found out some key facts about him, like he was denying that in his life he had lost his wife and kids. As a coping mechanism Neddy started to swim to take his mind of of this. Neddy's story connects to the allegory because of his selfishness and lack of concern for anybody but himself.
ReplyDelete"The Swimmer" relates to the story of Narcissus. Narcissus was obsessed with his image, and it seemed almost as if Neddy was obssesed with something as well. Neddy seemed to be obsessed with what was happening around him. Everyone was giving him dirty looks, and he noticed his house was for sale. He was obsessed with everything happening around him that he didn't seem to ask anyone what happened. In the end he was very confused, and started to cry about what happened. This story would be allegory, because there could be a message hidden in the story about him swimming in different pools. The literal part of this story is that he actually is swimming in a pool. The symbolic part of the story could be that he was going through some type of journey swimming in those many pools. At the end, Neddy is exausted, and doesn't want to finish his journey. When people go on a journey, they don't think it would be as difficult as it seems, but in the end it is as difficult, and they don't want to finish, just like Neddy.
ReplyDeleteThe Swimmer relates to the story of Narcissus because of how Neddy is obsessed with swimming, and forgot about other important stuff in his life. Neddy realizes that he lost many things and to get his mind of that he goes swimming around his neighborhood. Neddy is very selfish because he swims wherever he wants no matter who's pool it is. He believes he is the most important thing in the world, but in reality he needs to think differently.
ReplyDelete“The Swimmer” relates to the story of Narcissus because in both of the stories, they lose sight of reality. Narcissus sees his reflection for the first time and becomes in love with it. He can’t stop looking at it. This shows how he lost sight of reality because he didn’t realize it was just an image in water. He was so unable to leave his reflection that he actually died there. In “The Swimmer”, Neddy also loses sight of reality. He went around the town swimming in people’s pools slowly realizing reality. This story is very symbolic to Neddy’s life. At the first few houses he remembers only a few things about himself and his family but then towards the end, he remembers nothing and even goes back to his house that was no longer his trying to get in only to see that everything was gone. It was like he slowly swam his life away.
ReplyDelete"The Swimmer" connects to the idea of allegory because it has a lot of symbolic value. Its taken literal, and very connected to the story of Narcissus. Neddy is related to Narcissus because of how both characters where so caught up in themself. They both almost lost sight of what was really going on around them. They lost their main focus in life, though along the way we learn more about them, as they slowly forget. Along the way, they are each adding on to their own story, like what Neddy gains from swimming in each persons pool. They are really obsessed with themselves, which in the end sort of led to their downfall. I feel as though they slowly lose consciousness of the world around them. They start to lose their grip on reality, forgetting their past. Neddy forgets who his parents are, and Narcissus loses the truth of who he really is. All in all, "The Swimmer" and the story of Narcissus go hand in hand and are both related to allegory.
ReplyDelete"The Swimmer" relates to the story of Narcissus in many ways. In "The Swimmer", Neddy swims because he wants to accomplishment of having swum through what he calls the Lucinda River. In doing so, he leaves everyone else behind, forgetting them almost while he just focuses on himself and reaching the goal he wants to accomplish. In the story of Narcissus, Narcissus does almost the same thing. He gets 'caught up' in looking at his reflection, thinking of only himself and leaving everyone else behind since the story says that he was in love with himself. Both characters are narcissistic and leave others out of their 'journey' therefore only thinking about themselves. For these reasons, "The Swimmer" and the story of Narcissus are alike when compared to one another.
ReplyDeleteZaynah Kalaoun
ReplyDeleteThe Swimmer connects to allegory and Narcissus in a modern way. One way that it connects to Narcissus is how Neddy is attracted to swimming pools and can not seem to resits them. This is like Narcissus in a way because Narcissus was in love with himself just as much as Neddy was in love with the water. Neddy was Narcissus throughout the story because he forgot that his family was in trouble (daughters) and how Neddy had to sell his house due to money he needed. This makes Neddy Narcissus because Narcissus forgot the whole world but his beautiful self and Neddy forgot the world and his life just because Neddy was in love with the water. The Swimmer also had an allegory because Neddy went on a journey in a way. This is symbolic because Neddy is trying to remember himself and how his life may be sort of messed up. Another allegory was the drink that Neddy wanted which was called whiskey.
The whiskey in Neddy's mind would help him clear his memory up so Neddy is trying to find himself again.
The story "The Swimmer" by John Cheever is connected to the allegory. Neddy and Narcissus are almost the same person, only Narcissus was obsessed with his image, whereas Neddy was obsessed with swimming across the country. I think they were both in denial. Neddy was trying to deny the misfortune of his life, like his house being sold and his wife and children leaving. Narcissus was in love with his own reflection, and tried to deny the fact that it wasn't possible to be in love with himself by staring at it all day. They were both very self-centered. This was because Neddy was bothering all these people just so he could swim in their pools, and Narcissus was obsessed with himself. But Narcissus seems to be much more vain than Neddy is. Neddy still cares for his family that he lost. But in the story it explained how Neddy and his wife had turned down invitations to peoples parties, which shows that they were also vain because they felt better than those people. “The Swimmer” is connected to the allegory because Neddy and Narcissus are both alike.
ReplyDeleteAllie Fish
John Cheever’s story, The Swimmer, has strong elements of an allegory embedded in it. The symbols used by the author demonstrate how Neddy, the main character of the story, wastes away his own life by trying to fill the void in his heart with material items. He spends his days partying and swimming down his fictitious river in hopes eventually making his way back home. But his journey and self obsession, as demonstrated as symbols through his party animal lifestyle, and his uncaring laidback nature, coupled with what appears to be severe alcoholism, distracts him from the real problems that plague his way of life. He spends so much time in the “Lucinda River” that he becomes oblivious to the apparent destruction of his way of life. He starts of in his journey having a splendid time, jumping from party to party, and socializing with his neighbors. Eventually though, he reaches a point at which the discussion of his neighbors begins to change. He is so obsessed with his journey, which represents his misguided, that lifestyle that he takes little interest in the condolences offered by his neighbors for his loss, a loss that he was entirely unaware of, and eventually their weary declarations as to the nature of his fiscal well being. Being a narcissist, John believes that everything will be perfectly fine when he gets home; he expects to find his home just as he left it with his family safe and sound inside. When he reaches his house though, he finds it abandoned with rusted locks and an empty interior. His abandoned home represents Ned’s final fall from grace, and the sudden realization that everything he has believed he had is gone. Ned’s journey is an allegory for a misguided man, following a path that will ultimately lead him to a life of nothing.
ReplyDelete"The Swimmer" relates to the story of Narcissus literally and symbolically. Neddy, the main character, goes on this adventure when he already has a loving family and home. In the end, when he comes back from his journey everyone is gone. He is not sure why and all he's thinking aboout is how tired he from his trip. He does care about his family, but not enough to realize it right away. Therefore, Neddy and Narcissis both are selfish. The story is trying to teach the readers a lesson. It teaches us to not take advantage of what you have. Neddy was ignorant and threw away all he had.
ReplyDelete"The Swimmer" holds many elements of an alegory. An alegory is a story told through a symbolic nature, using metaphors and symbols to express a certain idea that is different from what is literally happening in the story. "The Swimmer" uses symbolism when it describes how Neddy swims from pool to pool across the county. in reality, he is in fact swimming from pool to pool, but symbolicaly, the journy is an obsession that cosumes him to the point where he no longer pays attention to anyone around him. This very detail relates to another alegory known as the story of Narcissus and Nemesis. Narcissus and Neddy are in fact very much alike. Both figures became consumed by something that really only pertained to themselves. Both characters became so consumed that they lost track of those around them, and began to only care about themselves. For Narcissus it was his reflection, while Neddy was obsessed by the idea of swimming across his county. In the end, both characters were left with nothing but empty hands, and the obsessions that consumed them.
ReplyDeleteThe Swimmer connects to the allegory in a few ways. In the allegory Narcissus, Narcissus finds a pool with what he desires reflected back. In The Swimmer Neddy swims from pool to pool looking for what he desires. Another way the story connects is that Narcissus realizes that what he desires he cannot have and perishes/ commits suicide. In The Swimmer Neddy realizes the house is empty and he can't have what he desires. This is how the two stories relate.
ReplyDelete