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Definition of Mood
The mood of a piece of writing is its general atmosphere or emotional complexion—in short, the array of feelings the work evokes in the reader. Every aspect of a piece of writing... read full definition
The mood of a piece of writing is its general atmosphere or emotional complexion—in short, the array of feelings the work evokes in the reader. Every aspect... read full definition
The mood of a piece of writing is its general atmosphere or emotional complexion—in short, the array of feelings the work evokes... read full definition
Mood
Explanation and Analysis:
The mood of “The Swimmer” shifts significantly over the course of the story. It opens on a lighthearted note as Neddy sits by his friends’ pool with his wife on a beautiful summer day in the suburbs. The mood stays in a joyful place as Neddy decides to swim his way across the suburban county, hopping from one pool to the next, enjoying free drinks and lighthearted (if slightly vapid) conversation with the pool owners as he goes.
About halfway through Neddy’s journey, the mood starts to shift slightly as a thunderstorm strikes. The following passage captures this subtle shift:
After swimming the pool he got himself a glass and poured a drink. It was his fourth or fifth drink and he had swum nearly half the length of the Lucinda River. He felt tired, clean, and pleased at that moment to be alone; pleased with everything.
It would storm. The stand of cumulus cloud—that city—had risen and darkened, and while he sat there he heard the percussiveness of thunder again.
This passage opens with a very happy mood—Neddy feels “tired, clean, and […] pleased with everything” here at the mid-way point in his voyage down “the Lucinda River” (his name for the network of neighborhood pools). It is only when the narrator turns their attention to the impending storm that the mood becomes slightly heavier. Cheever describes the clouds as having “risen and darkened,” implying that there is a heaviness setting into the story, and that something is going to need to be released. The “percussiveness of thunder” also adds a sense of unease to the scene as readers wonder when the rain and lightning will begin and if they will prove to be an impediment to Neddy’s journey home.
The thunderstorm ends up acting as a turning point in the story. Before it, Neddy was having a pleasant time swimming home on a sunny summer afternoon and, after, he encounters a series of challenges—emptied out pools, rude comments from formerly pleasant neighbors, and surreal shifts in weather and time. The story ultimately ends on a bleak and depressing note as Neddy reckons with the fact that years of his life seem to have gone by since the start of the story and that, in that time, he lost his family and his wealth and finds himself locked out of his abandoned home.
Related Themes:
