Every human being is different, everyone has their own obstacles and fears, for some they could be heights, spiders or clowns, for our protagonist in the story The Swimmer by SJ Butler Fear is about life itself, where every little decision you make can change everything in your life. The story takes place along a river, near a field surrounded by trees and an office where a woman watches the river every day. The weather is described as warm and everything is very calm. In the river the environment is the opposite of the surrounding one, it is cold, fresh, and “the water is opaque, swirling with tiny particles, a dirty and muddy green due to the soil it carries”. The main character has a feeling of wanting to try or do something new, something refreshing and different just like the river. The opposites between the river and its surroundings have an important meaning for the development of the main characters. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The main character is a person who, according to this story, lets himself be held back from many things, simple things like going for a swim in the lake, because “what if someone sees me?” Even though swimming in a lake is a simple and normal task, she is still afraid of fishermen seeing her, saying she once made it all the way to the riverbank only to give up and turn back. The second time she enters it without thinking too much, perhaps because she knows that if she does so she will lose her courage, she expresses some concern for the current and the depth of the water, fearing she will be dragged under water, symbolizing that she doesn't know how deep they are. her anxiety and fear are strong, and she is not confident enough to believe she can do it, but also symbolizing herself as a person, she doubts not only her physical strength, but also her personal strength not having the ability to bring accomplish what she really wants. At the first step into the water he barely touches the water, but then he takes the leap and bathes in the cold water and feels as if his body has awakened from the daze. Here she undergoes great development as her confidence grows and she moves away from the safety of the shore and swims upstream towards the bend. It's also a stark contrast to the small, warm office he sits in every day, where he can only look out at the river. Once she is swimming, she realizes that her fear of being noticed was a much smaller problem than she thought, the banks are 10 feet high and easily hide her from view. The swan she encounters symbolizes herself. The swan seems calm and still “though under the surface it must surely be wallowing” Just like the woman, who may seem normal on the outside, but still has a lot to fight on the inside. He is confronted by the swan and "there is nowhere to hide". Now she is facing her fear and as time passes she finds herself able to get closer and closer to the swan, symbolizing that she is slowly finding herself again, the person who is not weighed down by fear or insecurities. She stops worrying about being seen, and is attracted to the swan more often than not, "Her grandmother told her that a swan can break a man's arm with its wing", she stops worrying about "what it might do to her". , down in the water.” In his last swim in the story he gets completely close to the swan and realizes that the swan is stuck and tangled in the line and cannot free himself, he helps it by “untying the line where the bird tied itself in its struggle”. There are many similarities between the trapped swan and the “trapped” woman. They are both struggling to become free and their endings have somewhat similar traits. Without the woman's help, the swan could not free himself, and without the swan's "help", the..