In John Cheever's, "The Swimmer,"" Neddy Merrill was a prominent well-known man throughout the community. Ned and his wife, Lucinda, were at a pool party on a beautiful summer's day. All of the people at the party were discussing the evening before and were saying, "We all drank too much- (297). As Ned was enjoying sitting by the edge of the pool with a glass of gin, he suddenly came up with an idea of swimming home. He would swim from one of his neighbor's pools to the next until he reached home. He thought of this dogleg stretch of pools as a river that he named after his wife, Lucinda. Even though Ned was an older man, he still was athletically inclined, which helped him with his journey. .
Ned's "life was not confusing and the delight he took in this observation could not be explained by its suggestion to escape- (297). Ned's escape was drinking alcoholic beverages. As Ned took his journey through the community, all he really thought about was getting to the next location and getting a mixed drink. He broke into one of his neighbor's yards and asked, "I'm terribly sorry to break in on you like this but I've taken a chill and I wonder if you'd give me a drink- (302). Ned had gotten to where his alcohol had gotten the best of him. He drank so much that he had lost all sense of time. Ned's' drinking had started affecting his memory. He did not remember going around the neighborhood at one time asking for money. This affected his thinking. He had not remembered selling his house. He did not remember one of his closest friends packing up and moving all of their horses and items from their community. With Ned's alcohol state of oblivion, he had lost a part of life which he could not commit to memory or convalesce.
Ned had a mistress by the name of Shirley Adams. He had reflections of them having an affair last week, and she had clasped to his knees begging him not to leave. However, after stopping at her house on his journey, she was very disrespectful and abhorrent to him.