ipl-logo

John Cheever The Swimmer Summary

826 Words4 Pages

Title
Throughout history, people have been in pursuit of a ‘currency’ to assess a person’s worth. According to Merriam-Webster, “currency” is defined as a “circulation as medium of exchange.” The ancient Babylonians used silver and grains, the Romans used copper, silver, and gold to assess their worth. Then, there was a radical shift to paper and coin currency as well as ownership of high value commodities like fur, fish and grains to compute worth. However, towards the mid 20th century, America saw the gradual establishment of a revolutionary form of assessing worth, namely societal respect in addition to the monetary worth of a person. The 90s, known as the era of the “.com boom” because of the discovery and the prevalence of the internet as a powerful media tool for the masses, also marked the birth of a new generation called ‘Generation Z (iGen)’. This …show more content…

This was a generation highly influenced by the war and the Great Depression of the 30s. As a result, monetary worth was a crucial factor in determining one’s worth besides smaller factors like contribution to wartime efforts. This can be illustrated by an excerpt from the short story, “The Swimmer” by John Cheever. In the story, the protagonist swims through different pools in an attempt to characterize suburban lifestyle. In the process, he reaches the Biswangers’ pool and remembers that he didn’t socialize with them a lot, because of their social standing. However, on reaching their pool he notices everyone including the bartender treated him poorly which makes him speculate that his social standing was worse than the Biswangers’. The protagonist’s suspicion proves correct when Grace Biswanger mentions an instance where someone loses all their money and asks her for a loan. Nonetheless, this is a stark contrast to the current generation which uses different indices to measure a person’s

Show More
Related

  • Economics Vs A Raisin In The Sun

    142 Words  | 1 Pages

    In modern society, as Americans we often take money for granted. However, as stated both directly and indirectly in this work, there is much more to life than economics. We are fortunate enough to live in a community that does not discriminate based on financial standing to the extent that it once did. Nonetheless, it does not matter what your current financial standing is as long as you have people that care about you. The Youngers in A Raisin in the Sun always attempted to help each other whether they were in financial prosperity or turmoil.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Daisy In The Great Gatsby

    448 Words  | 2 Pages

    In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald shows that a man’s wealth is not a reflection of his worth through Daisy and Tom. Nick, the narrator, states, “a sense of the fundamental decencies is parceled out unequally at birth” (Fitzgerald 2). He feels that humane qualities are not equally distributed. Only certain people have respectable qualities just as only a few people have a lot of money.

    Read More

  • 'The Gospel Of Wealth' By Andrew Carnegie

    214 Words  | 1 Pages

    And highlighting the period of wealth of the American upper class along with the rise of American philanthropy, was Andrew Carnegie who referred to his article as the “Gospel of Wealth”. This is why “The Gospel of Wealth” is an important theme of the class. Many new corporations and businesses gave rise to ultra-rich individuals during this time. Carnegie proposed that the best way

    Read More

  • Green In The Great Gatsby

    1432 Words  | 6 Pages

    F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby takes place in the 1920’s, an era of emerging new wealth and a desire to exploit the new wealth through exuberant displays. The main indicator of individual success became the classification of individuals into social strata. Individuals born in an elite stratum do not need to exploit their wealth. Gatsby’s newfound wealth in turn forces him to exploit his wealth. In the midst of his lavish displays, he becomes more aware of the difference between newfound and preexisting wealth.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Morality In The Great Gatsby

    756 Words  | 4 Pages

    As expressed through the characters in The Great Gatsby, money and materialistic goods are what drove the ranking system during the twenties. The narrator explains to the reader how the characters in this book use their wealth to climb the social chain; His father told him, "Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone," he told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Taking Multitasking To Task And Fahrenheit 451

    484 Words  | 2 Pages

    Researchers have found that an overwhelming amount of young people have an online presence. In society today, technology is becoming more and more accessible no matter what age. In Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and “Taking Multitasking to Task” by Mark Harris, both authors portray the idea of technology ruling the lives of generations to come. Harris’s opinion on technology taking over is correct because more and more people at younger and younger ages are dependent upon it.

    Read More

  • Into The Electronic Millennium Rhetorical Analysis

    911 Words  | 4 Pages

    Into the Electronic Millennium by Sven Birkerts, written in 1991, is an informative essay that goes into depth about how society is becoming dependent on electronics as a way of communication. New generations will encounter drastic changes as a result of the switch from printed words to electronic media. Birkerts’ intent is to inform his audience about the dangers that electronics will bring to future generations. He thinks that seeking information through printed words are becoming a rarity for younger people. He also claims that since people are dependent on electronics now, people do not have a mind of their own.

    Read More

  • American Dream Inequality

    426 Words  | 2 Pages

    This changed my entire definition of worth, while growing up I viewed 10 dollars as 100 dollars but now 100 dollars are like 10 dollars. Along with worth Inequality not only changed wages and gender bias, but also ethnicity I feel as if nowadays prejudice, racial bias, and purely racism has made a great dent in acquiring the “American Dream” and how people define

    Read More

  • Have Smartphones Destroyed A Generation: Article Analysis

    711 Words  | 3 Pages

    The omnipresence of the smartphone affects adolescents in every section of the United States, regardless of social class and ethnic background. Jean Twenge established ethos when he stated,“he had been studying generational differences for 25 years and that he started when was a 22 year old doctoral student in psychology”(2). Since he has been studying different generations for many years he knows

    Read More

  • Daisy's Obsession With Money In The Great Gatsby

    592 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Great Gatsby is an accurate representation of American leisure class in the 1920s, where social status was religion and where “very much of squalor and discomfort will be endured before the last trinket or the last pretense of pecuniary decency is put away.” (Veblen 8) That is, many people felt that money was the only way to achieve happiness. People quickly became slaves to money, working hard to obtain money and working harder to keep it and show it off. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald demonstrates the people’s obsession with money, no matter the outcomes, in the Roaring Twenties by offering a glimpse into the lives of the opulent rich and the effects their wealth has on their relationships. Daisy’s obsession with money is clear; she ran off to be married to Tom Buchanan, a rich but unintelligent polo player.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Social Class In The Great Gatsby

    814 Words  | 4 Pages

    Tom, Daisy and the Jordan belong to the “New Money”, in which they are inherited with the wealth and authorities. Money and power is the main motivation for many characters in the story, as they believe that wealth and power can bring eternal happiness. “I am still afraid of missing something if I forget that, as my father snobbishly suggests, and I snobbishly repeat, a sense of fundamental decencies is parcelled out unequally at birth.” (Fitzgerald 2) Through this quote, the author expresses the unequal social class and authority that individuals struggle with at a young age. The people in east egg are characterized as the “ Old money”, in which they spend their time amusing themselves.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Wealth Disparity In Song Of Solomon And In Ron Rash

    1871 Words  | 8 Pages

    In Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon and in Ron Rash’s short stories Blackberries In June and Speckled Trout, there are themes of wealth disparity and how it affects people. More specifically, most of the characters can be divided up into two groups; those who are wealthy and those who are not. Poorer individuals tend to view those who are wealthy as arrogant, out of touch or greedy. However, they also aspire to become rich themselves or at least be perceived as such.

    Read More

  • Characterization In John Cheever's The Swimmer

    1515 Words  | 7 Pages

    On July 18, 1964, The New Yorker published a short story entitled “The Swimmer” (Wilhite 215). Edited thoroughly and heavily compacted from its original form, “The Swimmer” represents John Cheever 's most acclaimed and recognized work. The protagonist of the famous and momentous short story, Neddy Merrill, undergoes a watery journey of self-exploration, acceptance, and tragedy while swimming in various pools as he makes his way home from a party. Slyly and allegorically, the short story dramatically demonstrates the possible density of the literary technique called characterization. Containing many cliffhangers open to the reader 's individual self-interpretation, the short story effectively uses the strong power of language to illuminate

    Read More

  • Summary: The Influence Of Technology On Teenagers

    1178 Words  | 5 Pages

    Technology has been expeditiously changing over previous generations. Those born between 1946 - 1964 are classified as Baby Boomers, and from 1995 - 2012 are catergorised as Generation Z. Over the years, youths become more connected to their mobile phones and given up and lost real connections and relationships? The behaviour standards and the influence from Baby Boomers has significantly altered towards the youths over the past decades. Generation Z has an overall population of 82 million worldwide, with the oldest turning 23 and the youngest turning 6 (Robinson, 2018). As part of the research, Shane Lynch was interviewed from the Generation Baby Boomers.

    Read More

  • Positive Effects Of Technology On Children Research Paper

    1358 Words  | 6 Pages

    The twenty-first century is known by many different names: The Common Era, The Era of Technology, The Knowledge Era, etc. Regardless of the diversity in epithets, they all highlight a higher standard of intelligence and common sense that are possessed by the people living in this time. These people are raised to adapt to a technological and innovative lifestyle. Yet, all of the conveniences granted by the Internet and social media are gradually showing “symptoms” of negative effects. As technology becomes more advanced, people have high expectations for it.

    Read More

More about John Cheever The Swimmer Summary

Open Document