Swimming in The Celebrants: Vitality, Self-Care, and the Will to Keep Living

What Swimming Is in the Novel

In The Celebrants, swimming is a concrete, recurring activity tied almost exclusively to Jordy Tosic. The novel never stages a scene of Jordy in the water; instead, swimming appears through dialogue and recollection, which makes it a motif the reader encounters only through the characters' words about it. In chapter 4, as Jordan sorts through his belongings during a rainstorm, he tells Jordy, “You should go for a swim.” In chapter 6, during their argument at Joe Allen's bar, Jordan makes a direct request: “I want you to keep swimming,” adding, “You've been a different person since you've been back in the pool.”

The phrase “back in the pool” implies that Jordy has recently resumed swimming after a period away from it—a detail that aligns with the broader disruption of the couple's life following Jordan's cancer recurrence. Swimming is presented as Jordy's activity, one he does for himself, and one that Jordan observes changing him for the better.

Where the Motif Appears

The motif surfaces at two key moments, both in chapters centered on the Jordans.

Chapter 4 — The closet scene. Jordan is going through his belts, trying to decide what to keep and what to give away, while Jordy sits on the bed watching. The scene is heavy with the weight of Jordan's decline: his pants are getting looser, he is “only going to get more tired,” and Jordy is described as feeling “a deep rage without moving so much as a muscle.” In the middle of this painful inventory, Jordan tells Jordy to go for a swim. Jordy resists, pointing out the rain and asking, “Why would I leave you to go for a swim?” Jordan's reply— “Why won't you let me take care of you?!” —reveals that the suggestion is not casual. Jordan wants Jordy to keep living his own life, to maintain the routines that sustain him, even as Jordan's own body fails.

Chapter 6 — The bar scene. At Joe Allen's, after Jordan announces he wants to discontinue his cancer treatment, he lists the promises he wants from Jordy: keep swimming, stay in touch with his parents, “fuck around,” and eventually settle down. The swimming request comes first, and Jordan frames it with a specific observation: “You've been a different person since you've been back in the pool.” Jordy's response is defiant: “I'll swim if I want to. I'll fuck if I want to.” He rejects the framing of these requests as instructions, insisting he doesn't need the pact or people telling him what to do.

How the Meaning of Swimming Shifts

Across these two scenes, swimming accrues layered meaning.

Self-care and normalcy. In chapter 4, swimming is something Jordy does for himself—an activity that keeps him connected to his own body and routine. Jordan's suggestion that Jordy go for a swim, even as Jordan himself is sorting through his belongings, is an attempt to preserve normalcy and to push Jordy toward self-care rather than caretaking. Jordy's refusal— “Why would I leave you to go for a swim?” —shows how completely his identity has become wrapped up in caring for Jordan.

Vitality and transformation. By chapter 6, Jordan articulates what swimming does for Jordy: “You've been a different person since you've been back in the pool.” The pool is a place of renewal, where Jordy becomes more fully himself. The narrator's description of Jordy as “the athlete wanting to outpace any threats that were clipping his heels” reinforces this connection between physical activity and survival instinct.

A promise and a legacy. When Jordan asks Jordy to “keep swimming,” the request becomes a kind of inheritance—something Jordy is asked to carry forward after Jordan is gone. It is one of several requests Jordan makes (stay in touch with my parents, settle down), but it is the first and the most personal. Swimming is the thing Jordan wants Jordy to keep doing for himself, not for anyone else.

Autonomy and resistance. Jordy's response— “I'll swim if I want to” —transforms the request into an assertion of independence. He refuses to let swimming become a duty or a memorial act. This moment connects to the novel's broader tension around autonomy: Jordan wants control over his own death, and Jordy wants control over his own life after Jordan's death.

Jordy and the Athlete's Survival Instinct

The swimming motif is inseparable from Jordy's characterization as an athlete. The narrator observes that “strength defin[es] so much of his nature, at least on the outside—the athlete wanting to outpace any threats that were clipping his heels.” Swimming is the concrete expression of that strength. It is the activity through which Jordy's physicality and his will to survive become visible—both to the reader and to Jordan, who notices the difference in his husband when he is swimming regularly.

This athletic framing also connects to the novel's treatment of mortality. Jordy is the one who insists, “I will survive,” and swimming is the activity that makes that claim believable. It is a form of self-preservation that is physical, habitual, and entirely his own.

Jordan's Request as an Act of Care

Jordan's request that Jordy keep swimming is, at its core, an act of care. The narrator notes that if Jordan had to leave Jordy now, “he very much wanted to leave him okay.” The swimming request is part of that desire. Jordan is not asking Jordy to remember him or to mourn in a particular way; he is asking Jordy to keep doing the thing that makes him feel most like himself.

The placement of the request is also significant. Jordan makes it in the middle of an argument, after announcing he wants to stop treatment and after Jordy has challenged him to trigger the pact. The request cuts through the conflict and reveals what Jordan actually wants: not to be mourned, but to know that Jordy will continue to live fully.

Connections to the Novel's Themes

The swimming motif connects to several of the novel's central themes:

• Confronting mortality through planned farewells. Jordan's requests to Jordy function as a kind of living will—a list of things he wants Jordy to promise before he dies. Swimming is the first item on that list.

• Autonomy and control in the dying process. Jordan wants to control how he dies; Jordy wants to control how he lives afterward. The swimming exchange is a negotiation over who gets to decide what Jordy's life looks like.

• Leaving nothing unsaid. Jordan uses the moment at the bar to say what he needs to say—including what he needs Jordy to hear about swimming.

• Chosen family as a support system. The requests are made in the context of the pact, the group of friends who have agreed to throw one another living funerals. Jordan's requests to Jordy are part of the larger web of care the friends provide one another.

For more on these ideas, see the analyses of confronting mortality through planned farewells, autonomy and control in the dying process, and leaving nothing unsaid.

Study Questions

1. Why does Jordan ask Jordy to keep swimming, and why does he phrase it as a promise?

Jordan asks Jordy to keep swimming because he has observed that swimming changes Jordy for the better— “You've been a different person since you've been back in the pool.” The request is phrased as a promise (“I want you to keep swimming”) because Jordan is trying to ensure that Jordy will continue to take care of himself after Jordan is gone. It is one of several requests Jordan makes at the bar, but it is the first and the most personal, suggesting that Jordan sees swimming as essential to Jordy's wellbeing.

2. How does Jordy's response to the swimming request reveal his character?

Jordy's response— “I'll swim if I want to” —is defiant and self-asserting. He rejects the idea that he needs to be told what to do, insisting, “I don't need people telling me what to do. I will survive.” This reveals his independence and his resistance to being managed, even by the person he loves most. It also shows that he is determined to survive on his own terms, not as a memorial to Jordan but as himself.

3. What does the swimming motif reveal about how Jordan views Jordy's survival?

Jordan views Jordy's survival as something that requires active maintenance. Swimming is the activity that keeps Jordy “a different person”—a better, more vital version of himself. By asking Jordy to keep swimming, Jordan is acknowledging that survival is not automatic; it requires ongoing effort and self-care. He wants Jordy to have a reason to keep going, and swimming is part of that.

4. How does the swimming motif connect to the novel's broader themes of autonomy and control?

The swimming motif is a site of negotiation over autonomy. Jordan wants to control his own death—he announces he is discontinuing treatment and makes requests of Jordy. But Jordy resists being controlled, even by Jordan's loving requests. His “I'll swim if I want to” is a declaration that he will live his own life on his own terms. This mirrors the novel's larger tension between the desire for control and the reality that some things—like death, and like how others live after we're gone—cannot be controlled.

For more on the characters central to this motif, see the profiles of Jordy Tosic and Jordan Vargas, or return to the book overview.