John W. Cheever

Introduction

John W. Cheever is famous for his writings and the unique nature they harbor. This paper will attempt to shed light on John W. Cheever and his writings with respect to the role of subliminal meaning. The discussion will attempt to highlight how John W. Cheever chooses to make use of some of the most common elements of urban mythology in an attempt to communicate with the reader. In this regard, it is essential to note that the discussion will mainly focus on the theme of remorse and suppression in John W. Cheever's work. In order to facilitate this analysis, the discussion will constitute an analysis of John W. Cheever is famous for his writings and the unique nature they harbor. This paper will attempt to shed light on John W. Cheever and his writings with respect to the role of subliminal meaning. The discussion will attempt to highlight how John W. Cheever chooses to make use of some of the most common elements of urban mythology in an attempt to communicate with the reader. In this regard, it is essential to note that the discussion will mainly focus on the theme of remorse and suppression in John W. Cheever's work. In order to do so, the discussion will substantiate arguments by presenting examples in John W. Cheever's writings.

John W. Cheever was born in Quincy, Massachusetts. One of Cheever's ancestors was Ezekiel Cheever (1615-1708), the author of Accidence: a Short Introduction to the Latin Tongue. His father, Frederick, owned a shoe factory and was relatively wealthy until he lost his business in the 1929 stock market crash and deserted his family. The support the family, Cheever's mother, Mary Liley, ran a gift shop; she drank herself to death. The young Cheever was deeply upset by the breakdown of his parent's relationship. His formal education ended when he was seventeen. After leaving home, Cheever studied at Thayer Academy, but was expelled for smoking. The experience was the nucleus of his first published story, Expelled (1930), which Malcolm Cowley bought for New Republic. For a time Cheever lived with his brother in Boston (Josyph). He wrote synopses for MGM and sold stories to various magazines. After a journey in Europe, Cheever returned to the US. He settled in New York, where he was acquainted with such writers as John Dos Passos, Edward Estlin Cummings, James Agee, and James Farrell. In 1933 he attended the Yaddo writer's colony in Saratoga Springs.

Discussion

Cheever contrasted often the ordinary suburban milieu with the chaotic or hidden emotional states of his characters. Several stories, such as The Five-Forty Eight, about the revenge of a humiliated woman, were set in the fictional suburban commuter town of Shady Hill, a fallen Paradise. Eventually Cheever's middle- or upper-middle-class characters come to face their own shortcomings. In three novels Cheever used two brothers to represent different values of modern life. One of his most famous stories, The Swimmer (1964), portrays a man, who refuses to acknowledge his failures.

John W. Cheever wrote ...