A protagonist that embodies the flaws and weaknesses of the writer distracts the reader from the narrative itself. Agree/disagree?

“The Swimmer” reflects Cheever’s personality through a lot of symbolism, and a pool of subliminal messages. Mainly, Cheever does this through his protagonist, and the severe and obvious flaws belonging to Neddy Merrill make it extremely difficult to sympathise with him.

The first thing that struck me about this narrative is the references to alcohol. In fact, the first line, “It was one of those midsummer days where everyone sits around saying ‘I drank too much last night’” indicates that alcohol is going to play a significant part in this plot. Neddy begins as a strong, independent swimmer, with a wife and a family, who has a drink on occasion. Nonetheless, it becomes evident that he has a mistress, and begins to resort to alcoholism. John Cheever himself had severe troubles with alcohol addiction. In fact, in an interview from The Guardian with his daughter, she stated “without alcohol, he became himself”, openly admitting that her father contorted into a different personality when intoxicated. It’s possible that Cheever explored the ‘drunken version’ of himself through Neddy.

I think it could distract the reader from the narrative itself, but only if you knew about John Cheever himself, and you researched. If you picked it out of the library with no idea as to whom he was chances are you’d be clueless as to his references, and images to the person he was.

Flawed protagonists are becoming increasingly popular. Before World War 2, in novels like ‘The Barsoom Novels’ by Edgar Rice, the protagonist hasn’t one flaw. He defeats the villain, saves the town, and gets the girl. But then comes WW2. Those who survived had a very different view on the world. The written universe was severely affected by it. Look at Han Solo from Star Wars. He was looking out for himself, and his ship. This selfishness made him real making it easier for their reader’s to sympathise.

In today's literature, Harry Potter has admitted that he’d be nowhere without his friends, and it’s obvious that he is awful with girls. Katniss Everdeen can’t say no to a bit of revenge, and gets herself stuck in a greedy love triangle. Flawed characters are all around us, and we love them, because we believe them.