How the Past Possesses the Present: “The Swimmer”

            When determining how the past possesses the present, one must first determine to what depth or even what context they are going to analyze. In “The Swimmer” by Jon Cheever, the main character travels home by pool and eventually realizes that his home has been foreclosed upon. He doesn’t seem to remember that he has lost his home, but it begs the question as to whether he actually forgot, or if he cognitively removed that event from his memory. Regardless of the reason for forgetting, this scenario actually initiates a reversal of the prompt. Since he is under the impression, for majority of the short story, that he still lives in the foreclosed while swimming to his no longer home the present may be, in fact, possessing the past. He goes on with his day as if it is the same as yesterday, even though he has experienced a significant traumatic event.            

            On the mythological side, the past possesses the present in terms of repetition. The journey he takes on his way through the pools is reminiscent of Odysseus’s journey in The Odyssey. He travels home, by water, and reaches his destination with a place that was once his having been taken away. His stops seem to line up too perfectly with the detours in the odyssey. For example when he stops at the party for a drink he stays a while. He contemplates the idea of staying and enjoying himself having been mesmerized of the people and the libations. This all happens in a similar way to Odysseus arriving on Calypso’s island. The past, being the epic of Odysseus, possesses the present, the swimmer’s travels, in the context of reference and repetition.