Book Talk (The Swimmer)

Book Talk: The Swimmer by John Cheever

Mackinzi Archer 

1.      The Swimmer by John Cheever is about a man whose name is Neddy Merrill. The book starts out by him, his wife, and some of their friends sitting around their friends pool complaining about their hangovers. Neddy decides to swim through all of their neighbors pools in order to get home. Neddy pictures the pools that are ahead of him are the friends that await him at the end as well. Every neighbor’s pool he swims through, he has a drink with them. At one of the neighbor’s house Neddy finds that their pool is empty, which he finds weird and starts to wonder if he is losing his memory. Then, at another neighbor’s house, Neddy gets out of the pool are starts to talk to them. They mention that they are sorry his house sold and said sorry for what had happened to his family. Neddy denies that anything has happened to him and he doesn’t know what they are talking about. After this, he feels cold and weak and all he wants is some whiskey to warm up. At the next neighbor’s house he attends a party and he realizes that people are talking about him, he then realizes his social status has changed. He then goes to his ex-mistresses house and she claims that she won’t give him any more money and he can’t recall the last time they were ever together.  Neddy can’t help but to cry after this because after this whole adventure he can’t figure out why people are treating him this way. He starts to cry and explains that he hasn’t cried since his childhood. Finally, Neddy reaches his own house, and realizes the lights are off. Every door is locked and no one is home. Neddy looks in through the windows and realizes the house is empty. As you can see Neddy isn’t in the right state of mind here and doesn’t know what is going on with his life. I believe the message here is that you don’t know what you have till it’s gone.

2.      I chose this text because it was a fun read. I didn’t know why Neddy was swimming through all of these swimming pools. Until the text goes on and you start to realize he isn’t remembering anything. I simply love the message here throughout this story. What I also loved is that I didn’t expect that to be the ending either. It is however, a sad ending. Of course I didn’t like how his family had left him, but I think Neddy got a lot of chances. This is another message Cheever tries to get across as well. This shows that Neddy has let his family go from all of his actions. This text would be appropriate for I believe, high school seniors. This is because it is a mature text and it does talk about Neddy drinking a lot. This is appropriate for this group of students’ because I believe seniors would get the message that Cheever is trying to get across. I would hope that students’ in this grade would focus less on Neddy drinking so much and focus on the message here. I believe Cheever is showing us that if you make so many mistakes, you could lose everything, like your family. Younger students’ may not understand this as much because they might to too immature to understand.

3.      The way I would teach this text in the classroom would be to first off, start with a free write. I would want my students’ to relate this story to their life as well. I would ask them if anything in their life has slipped away from them without noticing it was going to. This story can be related a lot to our own personal lives and I would love for my students to write about it. This gives me a chance to read more about what my students’ have experienced in their lives and for me to get to know them better. The second way I would use this in my secondary classroom would be to have a class discussion. On one side of the room I would have the students’ who think Neddy deserved what he got and on the other side I would have students’ who believe Neddy should have got a second chance. This would almost be like a debate between students’. It would be curious to see what students’ believe to be true about this story. The third way I would teach this to my secondary students’ would be to have an outline characterization worksheet on Neddy. I would ask my students’ when they saw certain clues that Neddy was changing. I would want my students’ to pay really close attention to Neddy’s character, and if they have to read the story again, they should.

4.      Some obstacles I could see happening when using this text would be the fact that Neddy does have a shady memory because of drinking. Administrators and parents might not like this as much because they don’t want their students/kids learning about this. I personally think students’ would find this interesting and maybe even realize that if they do abuse alcohol, they will see the consequences like Neddy did. I don’t see this story as anything negative. I do however, see how some people can see this as an issue. I really hope that whatever school district I am a part of, they will see this story as a good thing.  

5.      I think students’ will enjoy this story and I would hope they wouldn’t see this as boring. Cheever tries to get the message across that you should never take life for granted. Everyone should worship the moments they are given and you should always appreciate family the most. Neddy did take that for granted and we saw the conclusions that arises for him. Students’ will see the message Cheever wants them to know and realize the same thing. Hopefully this message will get my students’ to cherish each moment, because that is what I hope for.