Literary Analytical

I read the short story called “The Swimmers” by F. Scott Fitzgerald. This story shows immigration through the eyes of a man named Henry. Henry faced immigration two times; as an American to France and as a Frenchman to America. Because of this, he illustrates the topic from two perspectives. The story showed the setting changing from France to America and through that, the plot changed drastically in mood and feeling. Suddenly, his seemingly perfect French family fell apart. His wife that was his main reason for living in France, Choupette, left him for another man and they were fighting for custody over their sons. This story showed immigration completely changing because of how different American and French cultures are. It is kind of suggesting that it is somewhat of a mistake to immigrate to America. And if not a mistake, it was like the really cold feeling you get coming out of a swimming pool. This idea was echoed throughout the story. Henry decides he wants to come back to America after being taught to swim by an American girl whom he saved. He continued swimming in America and at the end of the story he had to swim to save his life and to get custody of his sons from Choupette. This theme of swimming connects with what Fitzgerald seemed to be trying to portray about immigration: that moving from one culture to another one is shockingly difficult and usually requires a lot of sacrifices. This story added deeper meaning and understanding to the topic of modern immigration. It showed how different cultures are and how American culture is unlike any other culture in the world and vice versa. Fitzgerald writes this through Henry, “In England, property begot a strong place sense, but Americans, restless and with shallow roots, needed fins and wings.” (521) This quote really shows the differences between cultures and how each culture develops its own values and ways of living that may be completely opposite from that of another place. It also shows’ how hard immigrating to America is and how Americans maybe don’t make it any easier.