John Cheever's "The Swimmer" and Katherine Mansfield's "The Garden Party

John Cheever's "The Swimmer" & Katherine Mansfield's "Garden Party"

THE SECRET PRICE OF WEALTH REVEALED

The common thread that seems to be woven throughout Katherine Mansfield's Garden Party Stories, and John Cheever's The Swimmer, is that affluence and social status have the potential to be limiting and destructive.

There is a persistent message in these texts that, if one acquires too much opulence, it is common to lapse into a state of non-reality, or at least to be unable to tap into the bank of common sense.

The Garden Party's series of short stories, although the plots and characters are woven together only at the end, is a collection of discrete tales that reflect the facets of societal structure during the author's lifetime. The poorer class is often portrayed to ultimately possess a higher degree of morality, while the wealthy class tends to be frivolous, indifferent and often, doomed.

A great way to sell books is to illustrate for the poorer book-buying masses that, although it is fascinating to get a peek into high society, finally it is full of people whose lives are shallow and miserable, who are often over-indulgent and generally less respectable. By leveling the class-structure playing field in this way, this literary theme can prove comforting to the less wealthy reading majority.

Neddy Merrill, Cheever's swimmer, is implied to have been a social climber who, when his wealth is lost, makes the symbolic trek back down the social ladder by swimming across the county in the pools of its wealthy residents, the swimming pool being representative of great wealth. Neddy is experiencing some kind of psychological meltdown, since when the story opens, it is not clear whether he is in his own home or has spent the night with friends, the Westerburys. "...he had slid down his banister that morning and given the bronze backside of Aphrodite on the hall table a smack, as he jogged toward the smell of coffee in his dining room." Later in the story we learn, and Neddy remembers, that he no longer owns his house, and the home he is seeking may be simply symbolic.

It becomes clear that the story is set on a morning of alcohol hangovers, and that he is at the Westerburys' pool when he decides to make his swimming journey back to his home.

In a complicated way, Neddie's self-image during this siege upon his sanity is precariously tied to the image he has tried to portray to others.

A while he lacked a tennis racket or a sail bag the impression was definitely one of youth, sport, and clement weather." Obviously, his entire status as a person has been tied to the image he has tried to build for himself and those in his social group. Another example of this is illustrated with the thought that, "He was not a practical joker nor was he a fool but he was determinedly original and had a vague and modest idea of himself as a legendary figure." His luxurious lifestyle and subsequent loss of wealth has obviously driven him to a delusional state, and increasingly severe alcoholism. Moreover, the "river" of pools he has named after his wife indicates that he has been pushed by her to achieve and maintain a lifestyle that has eventually destroyed him. Thus, Cheever is warning us of the pitfalls of wealth, which includes bad relationships, poor health and self-destruction. The key to Cheever's message lies in one line of the story: "Was his memory failing or had he so disciplined it in the repression of unpleasant facts that he had damaged his sense of the truth?" This theme, which repeats itself in Mansfield's stories, is that people who live in opulence tend to lose touch with reality, possibly by choice, and thus grow shallow and pitiable.

Over the course of the day, Neddy realizes he has gone too far to ever return to his former self. "In the space of an hour, more or less, be had covered a distance that made his return impossible." Half naked, with his lack of sanity showing, he is headed down the social ladder, down to where Cheever thinks we should all feel lucky to be. As his journey progresses, Neddy realizes that much of what he thought was true is, in fact, not. His memory is deteriorated from alcohol, as well as from madness, the true price of opulence.

Katherine Mansfield's hints at the hazards of wealth are perhaps more subtle. The first Chapter in the Garden Party is dedicated to the beauty and deep appreciation of nature at a summer vacation resort at the beach. These are seen through the eyes of a simple shepherd, to whom Mansfield gives an angelic quality. Within an almost other-worldly description of the morning, the shepherd whistles peacefully and smokes his pipe, with only the sheep, cat and dog for company. "He was a grave, fine-looking old man. As he lit up and the blue smoke wreathed his head, the dog, watching, looked proud of him."

This sanctified character will contrast sharply with the wealthy resort guests, whose lives are portrayed in the short stories that follow.

We learn that Stanley is a type-a, obsessive businessman through his acquaintance, Jonathan, who is not. Stanley is competitive, even in trying to get to the beach first in the morning, and is irritated by what he considers trivialities. Jonathan feels that, "There was something pathetic in his determination to make a job of everything."

Even this early in the story, Mansfield has told us that, although this man can afford a summer resort vacation, he cannot enjoy his life, in sharp contrast to the poor shepherd who seems to see and value everything around him.

Mansfield frequently associates troubled relationships with wealth. Like Neddy the swimmer, Stanley's drive for economic security seals his fate for an unhappy marriage. Stanley is miserable. After his departure for work, his sister ponders, "Oh, the relief, the difference it made to have the man [Stanley] out of the house. Their very voices were changed as they called to one another; they sounded warm and loving and as if they shared a secret. She wanted, somehow, to celebrate the fact that they could do what they liked now." Of course, their unquestioned subservience to this beast was a sign of the times in which Mansfield lived. His wife pays her dues for their lush lifestyle, as well.

A she saw her Stanley so seldom. There were glimpses, moments, breathing spaces of calm, but all the rest of the time it was like living in a house that couldn't be cured of the habit of catching on fire, on a ship that got wrecked every day. And it was always Stanley who was in the thick of the danger. Her whole time was spent in rescuing him, and restoring him, and calming him down, and listening to his story. And what was left of her time was spent in the dread of having children.

Even sadder, Stanley's wife "... did not love her children. It was useless pretending."

The social status of her characters is often identifiable by Mansfield's switch into odd misspellings and cockney vocabulary.

Phrases such as, "Limonadear" meaning, lemonade here, and "It's a nemeral," meaning, it is an emerald, and the misspelled "HANSOME GOLE BROOCH" distinguish the voices of the poor characters in Mansfield's stories, who are undereducated and careless about the image they portray.

Mansfield provides contrast between rich and poor with grammar and manners, and even goes so far as to come out and name the issue through Laura, a privileged girl who is coordinating the setup of her garden party

Oh, how extraordinarily nice workmen were, she thought. Why couldn't she have workmen for her friends rather than the silly boys she danced with and who came to Sunday night supper? She would get on much better with men like these. It's all the fault, she decided,... Of these absurd class distinctions."