The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and The Swimmer

The Swimmer

Estefanía Díaz, 1º Nivel Avanzado

1.      What is your interpretation of this story?

“The Swimmer” is a strange story. In my opinion, the writer tried to show how the American middle-class life was.

Apparently, Neddy Merrill had a perfect life. However, we realize that it was not as idyllic as it seemed because the relationship between the neighbourhood was a bit hypocritical. They criticized each other even though they shared parties.

In addition, we discovered ha had had a mistress in spite of his apparently perfect family.

Maybe to show that the middle class didn’t want any kind of relationship with other people, Neddy Merrill got to the public swimming pool and he ran away. He was in his comfort zone and he didn’t know how other people lived.

To sum up, I think this story is a metaphor of the American dream which faded in the end.

2.      Say which of the two stories we have read in this book you have liked more and why.

I prefer “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” rather than “The Swimmer”.

The first one is a very original story which made me think about our lives and the difference between what we want to do and what we should do according to our age and society.

I think sometimes we do things because we believe they are things which we must do, although we don’t think whether we want to do them.

I’ve also liked “The Swimmer” but it’s a bit strange story and it was much more difficult for me to know what the message that the writer wanted to release was.