Cheever and O'Conner

The two stories had very interesting structures to them. “The Swimmer” was very unique for two reasons. The first of which was the narration. It was 3^rd person but was odd because it seemed to be set up as stream of conscious (which is usually only possible in 1^st person). The second way it was interesting was how it deconstructed slowly over time. I always enjoy stories that seem happy and joyful but as they develop deconstruct themselves to slowly make it apparent that the joyfulness is the product of some malady. I also enjoy when a story slowly deconstructs the conscious world only to expose that it is a false world and that the real world is much more raw and bleak. I really enjoyed how this exposure swelled throughout. At first there were just some small hints that something was not right but they were easily disregardable. As time went on they seemed more noticeable and seemed more important until eventually by the end they are terminal, so to speak, within the story (I know that word technically doesn’t apply but they are key in the fate of the story). By the end you felt so bad for Neddy and relate so well with him because you (the reader) have slowly came to uncover the harsh reality at the same pace as him and have now suffered this discovery with him. For these reasons I enjoyed this story more and even though it skewed the lines of reality I found it to be an easier read then “Good Country People.” I didn’t really enjoy “Good Country People” very much because I got often confused in the beginning of it. This left me a bit detached from the story and a little cynical of it for the rest of the story however I did enjoy it more as it simplified its characters. The story was interesting how it was narrated in the 3^rd person mostly yet it took two separate views on the same story; first from Mrs. Hopewell and then the rest of the story that was not yet told was picked up by Hulga. This story was similar to “The Swimmer” in that it had a very surprising ending but with little hints placed along the way. I felt like it was making a lot of great points about society and people and intelligence but most of the time I couldn’t tell what they were, I could only acknowledge that they were accurate examples. The only point that seemed to be strong was that generalizations aren’t always accurate, they are just what they say “general.”