Kevin Park

12/8/15
English II

Ms.

McGee/Mr. Romano

Swimming Pool Textual Analysis

Childhood memories make you who you are today. Parents are a huge
part of ones childhood experience. This theme of parents being an
important ingredient of ones childhood memories is revealed in The
Swimming Pool, by Elizabeth Strout. The Swimming Pool is a story about a
girls childhood memories, and her memories revolve around mostly her
parents, or father.
The central idea of The Swimming Pool, by Elizabeth Strout is that
parents are a huge portion of ones childhood memories. The central idea
was mostly revealed through characterization. Characterization is a literary
device that is used step by step in literature to highlight and explain the
details about a character in a story. The narrator describes the idea of
parents shaping a childs personality is shown in quote I was afraid to take
the actual test in front of him. It was not his displeasure I feared, if I failed I dont imagine he would have been experienced any displeasure/ I imagine,
in fact, he would have shrugged and told me to try again another day/ But I
would have felt, I think, an almost unbearable level of shame to fail in front
of my father.. This example shows how the narrator is doesnt want to fail
in front of her father, even though she knows that her father wont get upset

or disappointed at her for failing. This moment demonstrates how the

narrator wants to impress her father, and show him the best of her. The idea
of the narrator wanting to impress her father is further supported in the
passage with quote -and whenever I learned something new, a different
way to roll over under water, to dive without holding my nose, my father
was the one I wanted watching me.. The narrator describes the idea of
parents being a huge portion of ones childhood memory is shown in quote
We look at life once, in childhood; the rest is memory. There is much to
look at once; and the sunlit lawns, the sparkle of the pools water, the red
pencils thick, oily line on paper, the bottom of a soggy, chocolate-soaked
waffle cone - all these things seem to present to me, in middle age, the most
innocent part of my childhood. They have come to represent, in fact, what I
call joy. what I call hope. This example does not directly show the readers of
the parents affecting ones childhood, but in the quote, the narrator
mentions that there is much to look at once, and names all the things and
places that represents and was the most memorable of her childhood, such
as the sunlit lawns, the sparkle of the pools water, the red pencils thick,
oily line on paper, the bottom of a soggy, chocolate-soaked waffle cone. On
the list of things and places that was memorable of the narrators childhood,
a good portion of them most likely would not exist without the narrators
father, such as the red pencils thick, oily line on paper, because the
narrator was playing with the red pencil at her fathers work, and

chocolate-soaked waffle cone, which was the narrator and her fathers
favorite flavor.
Parents are a huge part of a childs childhood memory. For example, in
The Swimming Pool by Elizabeth Strout, the narrator tells the readers that
she wants her father to see the best of her. This is supported when the
narrator decides not to take a swimming test in front of her father, because
she didnt want to fail in front of her father, even though she knew that her
father wouldnt have been angry or disappointed at her for failing. She
further supports this by saying that whenever she learned a new or different
tricks in swimming, it was her father that she wanted watching her. Also,
when the narrator as an adult lists the things and places that represented
and was the most memorable of her childhood, a good portion of the list
would not have been there without her father. Therefore, one can learn from
this essay and The Swimming Pool by Elizabeth Strout how much of an
impact parents are to ones childhood.