Art of Reading - "The Swimmer" Reading Response

1) Regimentation - "...and as soon as he entered the crowded enclosure he was confronted with regimentation." (Cheever)
Here regimentation is used as a noun to describe the harsh, cold orders presented.
"ALL SWIMMERS MUST TAKE A SHOWER BEFORE USING THE POOL. ALL SWIMMERS MUST USE THE FOOT BATH. ALL SWIMMERS MUST WEAR THEIR IDENTIFICATION DISKS." (Cheever)

Contaminate - "Neddy remembered the sapphire water at the Bunkers' with longing and thought that he might contaminate himself--damage his own prosperousness and charm--by swimming in this murk, but he reminded himself that he was an explorer, a pilgrim, and that this was merely a stagnant bend in the Lucinda River." (Cheever)
Cheever's uses contaminate in a way meaning "to make inferior." Because Cheever defines the word in the clause following, it is clear that there is a social difference.

2) Cheever uses a two act structure to define the first and second halves of "The Swimmer." Route 424 is the dividing symbol in the story. On one side of 424 Neddy is at home, his neighbor's welcome him and offer him drinks, he is free to swim the Lucinda River as he pleases, and he is comfortable. He even feels comfortable enough to be nude. As he crosses, Neddy experiences discomfort, he is described as "close to naked," "a victim." On the other side he is contaminated as he swims in the public pool and made increasingly aware that he is not well physically and mentally at each stop. In a way the public pool is an anti-baptism stripping him of his comforts.

3) "The Swimmer" is about awareness. Neddy, the swimmer, is ignorant of reality, but the further along he is in his voyage the more aware he becomes of his family and his status in the community. Drinks gauge one's reputation in the community, and at the beginning of Neddy's journey he is offered drinks at every house, but after he crosses Route 424 he is refused a drink, scoffed at by a bar back, and then shunned from the house of his former lover. While the drink is a status symbol it is also a blinder, shading his eyes from reality.