Allegory of risk society in John Cheever’s “the Swimmer”

Abstract

This article suggests that Ulrich Beck’s concept of the “risk society” provides a novel framework for interpreting literary texts, especially those dealing with themes such as uncertainty, disaster, and risk. Beck’s theory delineates the transition from traditional to modern and postindustrial societies based on their perceptions of risk, hazard, and disaster, and this study focuses on John Cheever’s seminal 1964 short story “The Swimmer” as it registers the historical shift from industrial to late-modern society. Beck’s work has been influential in sociology but underutilized in literary studies, except for a limited number of narratives on climate change, environmental degradation, and nuclear disaster. Cheever’s narrative, through the surreal and disorienting journey of its protagonist Neddy Merrill, is positioned in this article as an allegory of the rise of the risk society in the United States of America of the 1960s. “The Swimmer” is analyzed as a critique of the American dream and the existential decadence of affluent suburban life, where the protagonist’s journey through suburban pools symbolizes a broader transition from the relatively predictable, orderly world of industrial modernity to the complex, unstable conditions of postindustrial society. The article argues that Cheever successfully captures the social consciousness of a period marked by growing awareness of insecurity, alienation, and risk. This interpretation contributes to the limited scholarly discourse on Cheever’s story and offers a new perspective on the intersection of literature and sociological theories.