AI ToolsNew
Tools to make learning and teaching easier
Definition of Irony
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this seems like a loose definition... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how... read full definition
Irony
Explanation and Analysis—The Explorer:
Near the beginning of the story, Neddy decides to approach his journey through the pools in his suburban community as “an explorer, a man with a destiny,” and he takes this orientation to his interaction with the first pool owners he encounters—the Grahams. The narrator uses verbal irony when describing Neddy’s almost anthropological approach to interacting with the Grahams, as seen in the following passage:
“Why, Neddy,” Mrs. Graham said, “what a marvelous surprise. I’ve been trying to get you on the phone all morning. Here, let me get you a drink.” He saw then, like any explorer, that the hospitable customs and traditions of the natives would have to be handled with diplomacy if he was ever going to reach his destination.
The narrator—channeling Neddy—uses verbal irony here when referring to Mr. and Mrs. Graham as “natives” whose “hospitable customs and traditions” he would have to “handle with diplomacy.” Neddy does not actually view the couple as people with customs and traditions different from his own, but the narrator uses that language here as a humorous extension of Neddy's commitment to seeing himself as a fearless explorer on a quest. He also likely wants to set himself apart from the Grahams here, given his underlying expressed disdain for the false, vapid nature of suburban social life.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Neddy’s Journey:
The situational irony at the heart of “The Swimmer” is the fact that the simple and lighthearted endeavor Neddy embarks on at the beginning of the story—to swim his way home through his suburban community over the course of a summer afternoon—ends up being a devastating and life-changing experience.
While Neddy and readers alike expect Neddy’s progress through the pools to be easeful—and, indeed, the first half of his journey is—the second half of his journey becomes a surreal combination of loss, humiliation, rapid aging, and emotional repression that makes way for emotional distress. Taken together, these factors create an allegorical representation of what the passage of time can feel like to people leading emotionally fraught—and, more importantly, emotionally repressed—lives.
It is not until the final lines of the story that readers—and Neddy himself—fully understand how awry his journey has gone. In this moment, Neddy finally makes it home, only to discover that his house is abandoned, as seen in the following passage:
The house was locked, and he thought that the stupid cook or the stupid maid must have locked the place up until he remembered that it had been some time since they had employed a maid or a cook. He shouted, pounded on the door, tried to force it with his shoulder, and then, looking in at the windows, saw that the place was empty.
Neddy shifts from believing that his home is locked because a member of his household staff made a mistake, to believing that a member of his family must have locked it (since they don’t have employees anymore), to facing the fact that the house is empty because he and his family no longer live there, likely due to the marital and financial problems alluded to by neighbors along his route home.
Cheever makes the choice to end the story before Neddy reckons with this truth emotionally, but the way that Neddy “shout[s], pound[s] on the door, trie[s] to force it with his shoulder” indicates that he is aware of the truth of his situation while simultaneously trying to resist and repress it, as he has done throughout the story. In this way, this is a moment of both irony and tragedy.
Related Themes:
