Narrative Technique

The story is written in the first person narrative form, yet is unique and quite
interesting. The narrator describes his life in Toronto as well as connects with his past and
parents living in Bombay. As already mentioned, the narration of the story goes back and
forth in time and space, as the life of his parents in Bombay, their relations and
expectations intersect the narration of his life in Toronto. It revolves around his present
life and memories of his past. When he looks at the sick man in his building, he
remembers his sick grandpa in Bombay and how his mother used to take good care of
him till things became very complicated and he had to be removed to the hospital. When
the narrator goes to register for swimming lessons, he remembers how he failed to learn
swimming because the deep blue sea of Chaupatty beach was grey and murky with
garbage, and too filthy to swim in.
The narration of the story in Toronto is intersected by his parents reactions to his letters in
Bombay. These reactions are given throughout in italics, making it a subtext tagged along
with the main narrative. Kersi has sent his book home to be read by his parents; their
discussion about its contents, focus and certain omissions provides an interleaved sub-text
to the story as well as the whole collection. These intersections are very cleverly handled
and the most interesting aspect of the discussion between mother and father is the
minimal use of punctuation, the sentences run along very fluidly, presenting a kind of
unbroken continuity. The Direct is mixed with the Indirect. The sentences are
inordinately long, providing a feeling of breathless excitement. One sentence covers a full
paragraph, such is the flow of the language and emotion. Thus, Mistry cleverly includes
within this story a commentary on and a critique of his own writing. He unites two
traditions in the short story: the conservative, semi-autobiographical mode that specializes
in connected stories of childhood; and the newer self- reflexive mode in which the
function of the story is to comment on itself. The story thus gains in stature and becomes
an excellent example of a complex yet effective narrative technique which achieves a
double purpose.
Style
Point of View
For most of the story, the narrator tells the events. When the typeface becomes italic, the
story shifts to Bombay where the narrator’s parents discuss their son, his life in Toronto, and,
after it arrives in the mail, the manuscript of stories he has written since he immigrated to
Canada. One effect of this shift is to give a double vision of the narrator. He is seen as he
displays himself and also as his parents see him from halfway around the globe. His self-
revelation is sometimes very intimate; he talks about sexual fantasies and very private scenes
from his life. But his parents’ talk about him also comes close to being embarrassing at
points; it has the feel of parents discussing their children when they are not around.
Style
The style of the story is realism; that is, the events in the story are things one would expect to
happen in “everyday life.” The narrative dwells on encounters between characters in the
apartment lobby and mundane conversations in the laundry room. The most dramatic event in
the story is the narrator’s moment of terror at his swim lesson when the instructor is close by.
In other words, there is no great drama, no supernatural agent, not even a direct confrontation
between the characters, unless one counts Bertha’s bouts of screaming at her husband and
son. This kind of low-key realism is often termed “psychological realism” because its focuses
on the “inner life,” or psychology, of one or two central characters. In “Swimming Lessons”
the focus is on the narrator, his human interactions, his sensitivity to social environments, and
his perception of images and symbols from “the page of life itself,” as he puts it. Things
happen, but they are subtle things that must be noticed by careful observation and interpreted
by understanding their psychological and symbol significance.
Symbols and Imagery
When the narrator brings up a point about symbols, it reminds readers that he is a writer, the
kind of person who thinks about such literary things. He says, “symbols, after all, should be
still and gentle as dewdrops, tiny, yet shining with a world of meaning.” He has noticed that
water imagery has been a constant in his life. His tone is almost that of an excuse—his actual
life has handed him the symbol and he apologizes for how obvious it is. All this should also
be a hint to look for more subtle symbols throughout the story. Of course, the most striking
image pairing in the story is the pubic hairs of the woman in his swim class that arouse him
and later the hair he sees caught in the drain plug of his tub. A psychological reading of this
image set is that sexuality is under the surface of things. The narrator says, suggestively “The
world outside the water I have seen a lot of, it is now time to see what is inside.”
The images of two old men, one in Canada and the other the memory of his grandfather in
Bombay, are also important in the story. The story opens and closes with the old man and its
most significant event is his death. A counterpoint between the ongoing cycle of the seasons
and the limited linear time of human life is made clear by that death. And the narrator’s
mother emphasizes this important symbol when she says grandfather’s spirit blessing him is
her favorite part of his story.
This leads to a final feature of the story that should be noted. Notice that the mother is
discussing the very story the reader is reading as he or she is reading it. The effect is often
called “metafiction.” The narrator breaks the spell of the narration to draw attention to its
“storyness,” to discuss it, to speak directly to the reader, to suggest changes, etc. In this case
the writer’s parents do it, but the effect is the same. “Are you sure, said Father, that you really
told him this [about the grandfather’s spirit blessing], or you believe you told him because
you like the sound of it, you said yourself the other day that he changes and adds and alters
things in the stories but he writes it all so beautifully that it seems true, so how can you be
sure.” Metafiction discloses the artistry of fiction writing and invokes that very question—it
seems true, how can you be sure?
Historical Context
Canada
Since the 1960s, and particularly since 1980, Canada has been embroiled in a series of
disputes arising out of efforts to “patriate” and modernize Canada’s constitution. Quebec
nationalists, provincial premiers, and, more recently, feminists and aboriginal leaders have
sought and sometimes won major victories as Canadians have attempted to transform their
constitution and move from a commonwealth based in British law to an independent republic.
India
An ongoing conflict between India and Pakistan after independence from Great Britain came
over Kashmir in 1947-49. With independence and partition, the numerous states had to
choose to join either Hindu India or Muslim Pakistan. Contiguous to both India and West
Pakistan, Kashmir was ruled by a Hindu prince, but the majority of its population was
Muslim. In 1947, Pakistan invaded Kashmir in support of an uprising by Muslim peasants.
The maharajah fled to Delhi, where he signed papers giving Kashmir to India. Indian troops
defended the former princely state, which drew the Pakistani army into the conflict. Fighting
continued in Kashmir until a United Nations commission arranged a truce in January 1949.
Kashmir was then divided along the cease-fire line, with India holding about two-thirds and
Pakistan the remainder. Periodic fighting has broken the uneasy peace often since then and
India and Pakistan remain bitter enemies.
Bombay
Greater Bombay, of which the southernmost part is the island of Bombay, was formed into a
metropolitan municipal organization in 1957, when it was officially renamed Mumbai. About
two-thirds of the population is concentrated on Bombay Island, which has an area of 26
square miles. Bombay has one of the highest population densities in the world, in some areas
reaching 1,500 persons per square mile. The city attracts a large number of migrants,
particularly from the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh. The principal
languages spoken are Marathi, Gujarati, and Hindi. Of all of India’s huge cities, Bombay
offers the greatest religious diversity. More than half its population is Hindu; the rest is
divided among Parsis, Christians, Jains, Muslims, and others.