Themes In The Swimmer Theme

Essay about “The Swimmer”

Fear can be a lot of things. It is defined differently from one person to another. The fear of falling, the fear of being alone. Fear is a wide concept that contains so many meanings that you cannot count them. Fear has the ability to keep us from doing something we want- but at the same time, it can also give us the ability to cross our boundaries. The story “The Swimmer” follows significant themes such as fear, personal development, and unknown territory.

The story “The Swimmer” by S. J Butler follows an unnamed woman, who has a deep fear of the river. The woman sits at her desk in her office and looks outside at the river. She looks at the river every day and she longs to swim in it. At the beginning of the story, it is a hot day and the woman knows that if she goes to the river now, she will have it all to herself- no one will see her. The unnamed woman keeps considering the river and fear keeps striking her mind. Notwithstanding her fear of the river, she eventually decides to go for a swim. After swimming in the river and meeting the swan for the first time, she keeps returning to the river and to the swan. The first evening she watches

The setting is described as a hot summer day, which has lasted for three weeks. Throughout the story, the settings are being described very detailed. Everything from the moon, to the midsummer and the thick air, is being mentioned. Besides the descriptions of the weather, we do not know where the story takes place. I believe that the setting is symbolic because it adds to the plot of the story. The weather is the main reason for the unnamed woman´s actions. The story could have had the same plot if it had been a rainy day, but from my perspective, the weather has an important impact on the story’s plot. The woman goes to the river because she is hot, and if it had been raining, she would presumably not have gone to the