Intersection of Truth and Lies in "The Swimmer" Anonymous College

The human intellect is often perceived as confusing because of the way it presents unimaginable truths and outright lies to people. One repeatedly mistakes truth for lies and vice versa, often resulting in a conundrum that pits half-truths and half lies against each other. The life that some people live is usually a façade, chained to an unending rhythm of constancy. The language used to construct “truths” in life is merely illusion. The languages around work, social status and relationships are cover-ups that sometimes prevent people from seeing what they truly are. John Cheever’s story, “The Swimmer” illustrates a classic case of an individual who realizes that he has been living a lie for most part of his life. Cheever’s story finds relevance in Friedrich Nietzsche’s early works, “On Truth and Lying in an Extra-moral sense” that similarly agrees that the human intellect is confused most of the time and it hides behind shadows, not wanting to accept the truth of life which is prevented by intelligible language.

Language deceives, making truth feeble and the future certain. Cheever in “The Swimmer” initially portrays a ‘realist’ suburban United States of America, but the events that happens in the story changes the course and...