The two stories "The Swimmer" by Cheever and "Good Country People" by O'Connor were stories that were told in the same way because they both have the beginning, middle and end. In "the swimmer," Cheever has this man that took his life for granted, and went for his goal. He wanted to swim across the county and at each yard he stopped to swim the length of the pool memories, or a certain place of recongition was written about each. To him the journey had gone by so fast, but when he got back to where he started and time hit him in the face that his family has up and left him, his good friend was ill and his house was sold. In "Good Country People," O'Connor has the story based on a family and a friend and her family. Mrs. Hopewell had two daughters. One of 15 that was married with a baby on the way, and another who was 32 with blonde hair and a fake leg. They meet this boy, Manley Pointer who came to the house selling bibles, but ended up in the end being bad news for Joy-Hulga. He left her stranded with her one real leg in a barn in the middle of the woods. I think both these stories were like any other story being told, and of course in the end had a point to the whole thing. "The swimmer," in not to take what you dont have and then forget what you do have, and in "Good Country People," you shouldn't let your guard down on people until your ready to face the pain afterwards.
These two stories have the same "telling" idea but the structure is a little different, because in "Good Country People" that saying is constantly repeated throughout the text. That oncce you get to know people and have an idea they get labels. In the Swimmer, the man didn't think of the result of him leaving to swim across the county. In O'Connor's story you were more involved in the characters head and what they were thinking at point, but in Cheever's it was much more narrative of what the characters were doing. Both these stories had unhappy endings, and i dont like reading those kind of stories.
4 comments:
I think your are right in saying that these stories are similar, but i think the way they are similar isn't that they are like any other stories we read. i don't believe they are like regular stories. in most stories we can see a build up of events leading to the climax. these stories are more like the likes of stories where we don't know or we can't predict what's going to happen in the end. i found these stories to be a little bland up until we actually found out what the message was the author's were trying to portray.
This isn't personally to you, it's to everyone : I don't think Neddy's family left him because the story says he sold their house and that he had been around asking to borrow money. His wife, Lucinda is also in the beginning of the story when he starts the swim. So I think it's financial troubles and something happened to his kids like illness or an accident.
**OK moving on to your comment**
I don't think the story is completely about his taking his life for granted. yes, I see that as part of it, especially with him being such a heavy drinker. I see it as his realizing how he has lived his life in general. The upper middle class play a big role in the description of his friends and the lifestyle he is supposed to leave. #1 Everyone owns a pool. You think pools are expensive now, this story was written in 1964, it was a sign of wealth. His swimming through each of these pools I think symbolizes him seeing through all the bullshit that these people are full of basically. He mentions at one point how everyone always talked about money and only money. I think this story is about a man who wasted his life yes, but wasted it on buying into all the pompous, pretentious bullshit he has lived in for years.
I agree with you that these stories have similarities, but I think I thought they were similar by the way they both shock you at the end. There's no way to predict what's going to happen because the main part the of story is vague and seemingly ridiculous, but at the end there's a twist and the reader is left stunned with the outcome.
I agree both these stories were really depressing..."Good Country People" really surprised me. ( I was mad that he stole the leg but at the same time she was horrible).
I don't really think that the stories were told in the same way though. Cheever's followed one person the entire time while O'Connor's let you into the mind of several characters.
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