engleski

The Swimmer's Journey: Cheever's Neddy Merrill as the (Anti)Hero of the Monomyth

John Cheever’s short story “The Swimmer” introduces the character of Ned “Neddy” Merrill. At first, he seems like an all-American man who lives the American Dream of the 1950s ; he is a member of the uppermiddle class, a provider, a homeowner, a husband and a father who spends his weekends socialising with his likewise affluent neighbours. In a stroke of inspiration, Neddy decides to swim the length of sixteen pools that separate him from his home eight miles away. Setting off on a midsummer Sunday, the protagonist dives into pools and slowly witnesses the transformation of nature, his social standing, and physique. Upon arrival to his estate, Neddy finds himself a feeble, old man locked out of his now deserted house. “The Swimmer” has received substantial critical attention from multiple perspectives, but here we would like to propose another reading of the story by applying the elements of the monomyth as explicated by Joseph Campbell in his The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949) to cast light on how the hero of John Cheever’s story fits in with or diverges from the common narrative template that thrusts the hero into an adventure from which the hero then emerges victorious and fulfilled. The paper aims to describe Neddy’s journey through the stages of his initiation, trials, and return to showcase the level to which the modern man is (un)able to meet the expectations of being a hero and how the society (or the hero himself) may impede the quest.

Cheever, "The Swimmer", Campbell , monomyth, hero

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