The Swimmer
On a bright midsummer Sunday, a suburban man decides to swim home through his neighbors’ pools, and by the time he arrives the summer, and his life, have slipped away.
Neddy Merrill is at a friend’s pool on a perfect Sunday, a little hungover, feeling young and lucky. He notices that a chain of swimming pools runs across the county toward his house and decides to swim home through all of them, naming the route after his wife. At first every stop is a welcome. Then the neighbors start saying strange things about his troubles, the weather turns cold, the leaves begin to fall, and doors close in his face. John Cheever’s most famous story begins as a comedy of the suburbs and ends somewhere much darker.
What happens in The Swimmer
On a warm midsummer Sunday, Neddy Merrill, a fit, confident man with a beautiful wife and four daughters, is lounging at the Westerhazys’ pool with friends who are nursing hangovers. He realizes that the swimming pools of the county form a kind of stream leading toward his own house and decides to swim home by way of them, calling the route the Lucinda River after his wife. He sets off, diving into pool after pool, where friends greet him warmly and offer drinks. He joins a crowded party at the Bunkers’ and moves on. As the afternoon goes on, strange things happen. A storm passes over while he shelters at an empty house, and leaves seem to be falling early. He finds a drained pool at a house with a for-sale sign and wonders what happened to its owners. Crossing a busy highway in his swimming trunks, he is jeered at by passing drivers. At a crowded public pool he is ordered about by lifeguards. At the Hallorans’, an elderly couple expresses sympathy for his misfortunes, mentioning that he has sold his house and that his children are in trouble, and he does not understand what they mean. At the Sachses’, Helen Sachs mentions her husband’s operation, which Neddy cannot remember hearing about. At the Biswangers’ party, the hostess, whom he has always considered beneath him, snubs him, and a bartender treats him rudely. His former mistress, Shirley Adams, receives him coldly. He grows weak, cold, and confused, and the air smells of autumn. When he finally reaches home, the house is dark and locked, the gutters are broken, and the rooms are empty. He pounds on the door and realizes that no one is there.
Where and when The Swimmer happens
The suburbs of the county
A wealthy commuter suburb of lawns, cocktail parties, and backyard pools that Neddy treats as a river to swim home.
The neighbors’ pools
A chain of pools, from friendly to empty to public, whose changing welcome tracks Neddy’s decline.
Neddy’s house
The destination, which turns out to be abandoned and locked.
A single Sunday that becomes autumn
The day begins in midsummer, but the weather, the leaves, and the stars shift as if months or years have passed.
Timeline the story arc, beat by beat
- The idea The Lucinda River
At the Westerhazys’ pool, Neddy decides to swim home through his neighbors’ pools, naming the route after his wife.
- The welcome Friends and drinks
At the first pools and at the Bunkers’ party, Neddy is greeted warmly and feels young and strong.
- The storm Early leaves
A storm passes while he shelters at an empty house, and the leaves seem to be falling too soon.
- The highway A public crossing
Crossing a highway in his trunks, Neddy is mocked by drivers and then bullied at a public pool.
- The hints Sympathy he cannot place
The Hallorans mention his misfortunes, the sale of his house, and his children’s troubles, and he does not understand.
- The snubs Doors closing
The Biswangers treat him as an intruder, and his former mistress Shirley Adams turns him away.
- Home The empty house
Cold and exhausted, Neddy reaches his house and finds it dark, locked, and empty.
Characters and how they connect
Neddy Merrill
Protagonist
A vigorous, self-satisfied suburban man whose swim home becomes a journey through losses he has refused to face.
Lucinda Merrill
Neddy’s wife
The wife for whom he names his imaginary river, absent from the story except in his mind.
The Westerhazys
Hosts at the first pool
Friends at whose pool the journey begins, part of Neddy’s comfortable circle.
The Hallorans
Elderly neighbors
An eccentric older couple who swim without suits and mention Neddy’s misfortunes, the first clear hint of his collapse.
Grace Biswanger
Party hostess
A social climber Neddy once snubbed, who now treats him as an unwelcome gate-crasher.
Shirley Adams
Neddy’s former mistress
A woman whose cool reception shows that Neddy’s past charm no longer works.
Character Relationships who connects to whom, and the themes that bind them
Love / marriage
Friendship / ally
Connection
Themes in The Swimmer what the story is really about
Denial and self-deception
Neddy cannot see what has happened to his life, and the neighbors’ hints and the changing seasons slowly break through his denial.
The passage of time
One afternoon seems to stretch across seasons, suggesting that Neddy has lost track of years of decline.
The hollowness of suburban success
Money, parties, and status form Neddy’s world, and they disappear quickly once his fortunes fall.
Isolation
The story moves from a crowded, friendly pool to an empty house, tracing Neddy’s gradual abandonment.
Loss
His house, family, wealth, and youth have all slipped away, and he discovers the loss all at once.
Symbols & motifs
The Lucinda River
The chain of pools stands for Neddy’s journey through life, named for a marriage he has apparently lost.
The changing seasons
Falling leaves, cold air, and autumn stars represent aging and the time Neddy has not noticed passing.
The empty house
The locked, deserted home represents everything Neddy has lost and refused to acknowledge.
The drained pool
An empty pool at a house for sale foreshadows Neddy’s own ruin.
Drinks
The cocktails offered along the way hint at a drinking problem that may explain his lost time.
Recurring motifs
Water. Each pool is a stage of the journey, and swimming turns from joyful to exhausting.
Welcome and rejection. Neddy’s reception moves from warm greetings to pity to open contempt.
Memory gaps. Neddy repeatedly cannot remember events his neighbors mention, signaling his denial.
Conflicts
Person vs. self
Neddy’s real struggle is with his refusal to see his own life clearly.
Person vs. society
The suburban community that once welcomed Neddy now shuts him out.
Person vs. nature
The storm, the cold, and his fading strength turn the swim into an ordeal.
Literary devices
- Surrealism
- The seasons change within an afternoon, blending realism with dreamlike distortion.
- Foreshadowing
- Early details such as the drained pool and the falling leaves hint at the empty house.
- Third-person limited point of view
- The narration stays close to Neddy, so readers share his confusion about what has happened.
- Allegory
- The swim can be read as a journey through a whole life, compressed into a day.
- Irony
- Neddy begins as a figure of youthful vigor and ends as a shivering, forgotten man.
The ending of The Swimmer, explained
The ending of The Swimmer reveals what the whole afternoon has been hinting at. After the snubs at the Biswangers’ and the cold dismissal from Shirley Adams, Neddy is exhausted, shivering, and struggling to pull himself through the last pools. The air smells of autumn, the stars overhead belong to a later season, and he cries for the first time in years. When he finally reaches his house, it is dark. The garage doors are locked and rusted, a gutter hangs loose, and when he pounds on the door and peers through the windows, the rooms are empty. His wife and daughters are gone. The story never explains exactly what happened, but the clues along the way add up: the Hallorans’ sympathy for his misfortunes and the sale of his house, Helen Sachs’s mention of an illness he cannot recall, the pointed coldness of people who once envied him, and the drinks he accepts at every stop. Neddy seems to have lost his money, his home, and his family, possibly through drinking, and to have blocked the knowledge out. The impossible passage of seasons in a single afternoon suggests that the swim compresses years of decline into one day, or that Neddy’s grip on time and memory has broken down. Either way, the ending turns a comic adventure into a portrait of denial, and it exposes how quickly a suburban world built on status and cocktails abandons someone who falls.
Common misreadings
MythThe story is a realistic account of a single afternoon.
ActuallyThe changing seasons and the gaps in Neddy’s memory make the day impossible, pointing to years of loss compressed into one journey.
MythNeddy’s family is waiting at home.
ActuallyThe house is locked and empty, and the story implies his family and fortune are long gone.
MythThe story states exactly what ruined Neddy.
ActuallyIt never explains. Readers piece together hints about money, drinking, and family trouble.
Test yourself
1. What does Neddy decide to do at the start?
He sees the pools as a river leading to his house.
2. What does Neddy name his route?
He names it after his wife, Lucinda.
3. What do the Hallorans mention?
Their sympathy is the first clear hint of his ruin.
4. What seems strange about the weather?
Falling leaves and cold air suggest time has passed.
5. What does Neddy find when he reaches home?
The empty house reveals the losses he has denied.
Neddy is a rich, happy-seeming man at a friend’s pool on a summer day. He decides it would be fun to get home by swimming through all his neighbors’ pools. At first everyone is friendly. But as he keeps going, things get weird: the weather gets colder, leaves start falling, and people say things about his money problems and his family that he does not understand. Some people are rude to him. When he finally gets home, the house is locked, dark, and empty. The story suggests Neddy lost everything a long time ago and would not let himself believe it.
Flashcards flip, self-grade, and the deck remembers what you know
Nice work.
Compare & connect the story universe
A&P
Another mid-century story about American suburban life and a man’s sudden realization about his place in it.
The Great Gatsby
Parties, pools, and wealth hide loneliness and loss.
Rip Van Winkle
A man loses track of years and returns home to find everything changed.
Cathedral
Another story about suburban life and a man who does not see clearly until the end.
Adaptation. The Swimmer (1968, Film directed by Frank Perry).
Discussion & essay prompts for class, or your next paper
💬 Discussion questions
- What does the ending of The Swimmer mean
- What happened to Neddy Merrill in The Swimmer
- What does the Lucinda River symbolize
- How does The Swimmer explore the theme of denial and self-deception?
- How does The Swimmer explore the theme of the passage of time?
- What is the central conflict in The Swimmer, and how does it shape the ending?
✎ Essay prompts
- Analyze how John Cheever develops the theme of denial and self-deception in The Swimmer. Support your argument with specific evidence from the text.
- Examine the significance of the Lucinda River in The Swimmer. What does it represent, and how does it deepen the work’s meaning?
- How does John Cheever use surrealism to shape the reader’s experience of The Swimmer?
- Some readers assume that the story is a realistic account of a single afternoon. Argue for or against this interpretation, using evidence from the text.
Key questions students ask
- What does the ending of The Swimmer mean
- What happened to Neddy Merrill in The Swimmer
- What does the Lucinda River symbolize
- Why do the seasons change in The Swimmer
- How does John Cheever criticize the suburbs in The Swimmer
- What is the significance of the empty house in The Swimmer
Analysis is original StoryBites commentary on The Swimmer by John Cheever (1964). The text is under copyright and is summarized and analyzed in our own words, not reproduced.
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