Every human being is different, everyone has their own obstacles and fears, for some it might be heights, spiders or clowns, for our protagonist the short 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 on the banks of a river, near a field surrounded by trees and an office where a woman monitors the river every day. The weather is described as warm and everything is very calm. In the river, the setting is the opposite of its environment, it is cold, fresh, and “the water is opaque, swirling with tiny particles, a muddy green and dirty from the soil it carries”. The main character feels like he wants to try or do something new, something refreshing and different, just like the river. The oppositions 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 Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essay The main character is a person who, according to this story, lets himself be held back by many things, things as simple as trying a swim in the lake, because “what if someone saw me?” Even though swimming in a lake is a simple and normal task, she is always afraid that the fishermen will see her, she mentions that once she reached the bank of the river only to give in and turn around. The second time she enters without thinking much about it, perhaps because she knows she would lose courage if she does, she expresses some concern about the current and the depth of the water, fearing 'being dragged under, symbolizing that. she doesn't know how strong her anxiety and fear are and that she doesn't have enough confidence in herself to believe that she can get through it, but also by symbolizing herself as a person, she doubts no only from her physical strength, but also her personal strength in not having the ability to achieve what she really wants. At the first step in the water, she barely touches the water, but then she jumps and she bathes in the cold water and it is as if her body has been awakened from a stupor. Here she experiences a major development as her confidence grows and she moves away from the safety of the bank and swims upstream towards the bend. This also stands in stark contrast to the hot little office she sits in every day, where she can only gaze at the river. Once she swims, 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 meets symbolizes herself. The swan looks calm and still, “although beneath the surface it must surely be paddling.” Just like the woman, who may appear normal on the outside, but still has a lot to face on the inside. She is confronted by the swan and “she has nowhere to hide.” She now faces her fear, and as time goes by, she gets closer and closer to the swan, symbolizing that she is slowly finding herself, the person who is not weighed down by fear or insecurity. She no longer cares about being seen and is most often attracted to the swan. “Her grandmother told her that a swan could break a man’s arm with its wing,” she stops worrying about “what that might do to him.” , in the water. During her last swim in the story, she gets completely close to the swan and realizes that the swan is stuck and tangled in the line and cannot free herself, she helps him by "Untwisting the line where the bird bonded in his struggle.” There are many..