The Swimmer Symbolism Analysis

Everyone has a fright for something, but not everyone tries to overcome the fear of whatever it must be. In 2011 S.J Butler thematised what it would say to be frightened, and not just evade the fact of fear, through her short story, The Swimmer. Many people have a way of letting everything go to one’s head, and not liberate themselves. That is simply the message and symbol the reader has to look for, while they are reading The Swimmer.

As early as the first sentence the reader is introduced to the environment, and what environment you can expect at this time of the year: “The alders at the river’s edge stand motionless in the midsummer heat” (p. 2, l. 1). As a reader you can not prevent not to notice how extremely detailed the nature is described. An example of this is following: “Grasshoppers

The nature and the swan is both a symbol of purity and innocence. The main character defrays herself from liberation, but her being in the water and observing the swan, is a symbol of her thinking, and finding herself. She is in a process of a personal development. The reader can interpret this following quote differently. But the following quote can be a symbol of the main character being unready of revealing her soul and personality: “She’s quite unready for the swan” (p. 4, l. 72). Before she can liberate herself and let herself fly, she has to become friends with the fear and the fright of what might happen (p. 5, l. 138). In the ending she once again overcomes her fear, “And finally sees that it is trapped” (p. 5, l. 143) and “to set it free” (p. 5, l. 48), in figurative sense, she is trapped by anxiety. Freeing the swan is a symbol of her freeing herself. She is letting go of her fear, which is on the most important themes in S.J Butler’s short story. She is allowing herself to liberate. She is spreading her