The Swimmer: Setting 1 key example

The White upper-class suburban community is the social milieu in which “The Swimmer” takes place. Cheever intentionally highlights the particular social customs and rigid class rules of this sort of community, as seen in the following passage:

The Biswangers invited [Neddy] and Lucinda for dinner four times a year, six weeks in advance. They were always rebuffed and yet they continued to send out their invitations, unwilling to comprehend the rigid and undemocratic realities of their society. They were the sort of people who discussed the price of things at cocktails, exchanged market tips during dinner, and after dinner told dirty stories to mixed company. They did not belong to Neddy’s set—they were not even on Lucinda’s Christmas-card list.

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Here, the narrator, channeling Neddy, describes a couple in the community called the Biswangers who “discussed the price of things and cocktails,” “told dirty stories to mixed company,” and generally refused to follow “the rigid and undemocratic realities of their society.” This is Neddy’s way of communicating that the Biswangers are from a lower class position, which is likely the reason that he and his wife Lucinda “always rebuffed” their social invitations.

It is notable that, despite participating in it, Neddy can see that his suburban community is an “undemocratic” one. The unspoken rules clearly favor the wealthy, who do not have to worry about “the price of things” and likely do not have to send invitations to their social gatherings “six weeks in advance” the way that lower-status members of the community do. Throughout the story, Cheever highlights the rigid social standards of the suburbs.