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Short Story Classics Essay It started as an adventure for him – however, as the journey continues, there are unmistakable signs of another space and time overlapping the usual progress of the day and quest. Gradually the author brings in touches of aberration in the texture of the quest. Enid Bunkers’ scream at Neddy’s surprise presence denotes the first signs of something amiss in the placid scene of comfort. Lucinda had refused the Bunkers’ invitation. Why? Again, the noise and glow of the social milieu is an element Neddy as if misses, â€Å"Ned felt a passing affection for the scene, a tenderness for the gathering, as if it was something he might touch. †(Cheever) Halfway through the journey, with the onset of the storm, Neddy tries to remember the exact time, but fails –â€Å"A train whistle blew and he wondered what time it had gotten to be. Four? Five? †(Cheever) Not once, but again –â€Å" Then there was an explosion, a smell of cordite, and rain lashed the Japanese lanterns that Mrs. Levy had bought in Kyoto the year before last, or was it the year before that? â€Å"(Cheever) The quest beginning at the height of the summer morning slowly cloys into the barren melancholy of autumn, at the sight of the blighted maple tree. The dearth of activity at the lonely Lindleys’ abode, Ned attributes to his forgetfulness. It is increasingly apparent to the discerning reader that Neddy Merrill is desperately clutching at wisps of self-denial, refuses to acknowledge his misfortunes, and deletes the very notion of his sold-out house and empty existence. Even Shirley, his former mistress rebuffs him rudely, deriding his penniless state. He comes to the end of his tether; he begins to cry as the world of his own make-believe shatter all around him. It was probably the first time in his adult life that he had ever cried, certainly the first time in his life that he had ever felt so miserable, cold, tired, and bewildered. He could not understand the rudeness of the caterers barkeep or the rudeness of a mistress who had come to him on her knees and showered his trousers with tears. He had swum too long, he had been immersed too long, and his nose and his throat were sore from the water. (Cheever) The classic motif of quest is given a new dimension as the time, space and milieu of the protagonist undergoes a slow transformation etched vividly in Cheever’s lyrical details. Cheever postulates his philosophy of relativism in the continued perception of the truth by Neddy Merrill. As Michael Chabon writes about The Swimmer: The story has mythic echoes the passage of a divine swimmer across the calendar toward his doom and yet is always only the story of one bewildered man, approaching the end of his life, journeying homeward, in a pair of bathing trunks, across the countryside where he lost everything that ever meant something to him. (qtd. in Chabon, â€Å"Personal Best†, The Stories of John Cheever) Works Cited Chabon, Michael. â€Å"Personal Best†. The Stories of John Cheever. http://www. salon. com/weekly/cheever960930. html Cheever, John. â€Å"The Swimmer† Online posting. 5 Dec. 2003. Short Story Classics: The Best from the Masters of the Genrehttp://shortstoryclassics. 50megs. com/cheeverswimmer. html Young, Elizabeth and Graham Caveney. Shopping in Space. Great Britain: Serpents Tail, 1992. xi. Mookerjee,Neela. â€Å"The Long Winding Road†. GKE 2003. Essays. 18 Sept. 2008. http://www. gke. com/cafe/ic/vol2/essays/quest. htm