Cheever tells "The Swimmer" in the third person, yet the story stays so close to Neddy Merrill's perspective that readers share his illusions until reality intrudes. This closeness makes the story an excellent tool for teaching point of view, and also a tricky one to assess. Students often confuse the narrator with the character, or use the phrase unreliable narrator without understanding what makes a narrative unreliable.

Before assigning an essay on perspective, clarify the vocabulary your class will use. Distinguish between the narrator, who tells the story, and the character whose thoughts and perceptions the story follows. In this case, the narration is limited to Neddy's viewpoint, which means the reader must notice the gaps between what he believes and what the story quietly reveals.

Grading becomes easier when you know which kind of claim a student is making. Some will argue that Neddy is deceiving himself, others that the narration itself withholds information, and a few will claim that the story shifts into something dreamlike. Each can be a legitimate argument, but each requires different evidence, so your rubric should reward the match between claim and support.

Evidence That Supports Claims About Perspective

Strong essays point to moments where Neddy's assumptions collide with what other characters say or do. When a neighbor offers condolences for troubles Neddy does not seem to remember, or when a former acquaintance reacts coolly, the reader sees a gap between his version of events and the world's. A student who identifies these gaps and explains how they accumulate is building a credible argument about unreliability.

• Names the specific limits of the narrator's access to information
• Identifies moments when other characters contradict Neddy's assumptions
• Explains how the reader's understanding changes as the story proceeds
• Avoids treating every strange detail as proof of unreliability
• Connects perspective to the story's larger ideas about denial or loss

Common Misunderstandings to Watch For

A frequent mistake is assuming that an unreliable narrator must be lying on purpose. Neddy is not deceiving the reader so much as protecting himself from facts he cannot face, and the difference matters for the quality of interpretation. Feedback should encourage students to distinguish between deliberate deception, honest misperception, and psychological avoidance.

Another common issue is the tendency to describe the effect without describing the technique. A student may write that the story feels confusing, but never explain how Cheever uses shifting time, sudden weather changes, and abrupt social reactions to create that feeling. Ask students to identify at least one specific technique and show how it works on the page.

Scoring Interpretations That Differ From Yours

This story invites several readings, including realistic, psychological, and allegorical ones. If a student argues that the journey is a literal series of events that Neddy misreads, while another argues that it is a symbolic descent through memory, both can earn high marks if supported carefully. The rubric should reward evidence, logic, and clarity, rather than agreement with the teacher's preferred reading.

It can help to include a rubric line about acknowledging complexity, since strong essays on this subject rarely claim certainty. A student who notes that the story never confirms exactly what happened to Neddy's family, and then explains how that ambiguity shapes the reader's experience, demonstrates mature thinking. Giving explicit credit for that kind of nuance encourages students to resist oversimplified conclusions.

Feedback Strategies for Perspective Essays

Effective comments on point of view often take the form of questions that push students back into the text. Ask what the reader knows at the moment Neddy dismisses a warning, and what the reader suspects by the time he reaches the last pool. Questions like these prompt students to consider timing and reader response, which are central to perspective analysis.

When working through a large stack of papers, it helps to group comments by the type of issue rather than writing each from scratch. A tool that organizes feedback by rubric criterion can produce a draft quickly, leaving you to add references to the particular scenes the student chose. This approach saves time while preserving the specificity that makes feedback worth reading.

Connecting the Skill to Other Texts

Point of view analysis is a transferable skill, and students benefit when you point out connections to other works they will read. Comparing the limited perspective in this story to a first-person narrator in a novel can help them see that unreliability takes many forms. These comparisons also deepen their understanding of how authors manage what readers know.

Encourage students to carry a few guiding questions to every text, such as who is telling the story, what do they know, and what might they be missing. Those questions improve both reading and writing across the curriculum. A rubric that rewards them in this unit helps establish habits students can use for years.