Lazy River Writing Prompt Response

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/12/18/the-lazy-river

Prompt: Analyze “The Lazy River” and how Zadie Smith uses the metaphor of a lazy river to create the mood of the short story.

The concept of a lazy river is quite interesting. It's a bunch of people going around and around in water. Most people use floaties in order to just lay on the water and relax. You are simply and literally going with the flow. You don't play games or swim around with your friends, it's family friendly and there's no real effort into getting into this circular water path. There is a constant current that isn't too strong, but it is just enough to keep you moving at a constant speed. Zadie Smith compares real world attitudes and life to a lazy river. In order to set up for the rest of “The Lazy River” she opens the story by explaining how we as human beings relate to those who vacation to places and enjoy a lazy river.
The beginning of this story is written in the second person to show the reader that they too are a part of the story and they can place themselves in the shoes of the characters. She says that as a human being just try to float along and rarely take risks in order to better themselves or make life challenge. The story starts off with “We’re submerged, all of us. You, me, the children, our friends, their children, everybody else. Sometimes we get out: for lunch, to read or to tan, never for very long. Then we all climb back into the metaphor” which creates the negative tone about how we deal with the same things without much challenge or new experience because the lazy river is our place of comfort. As Zadie Smith tells a story about how a family goes on vacation she goes into this metaphor. During vacation it is all about new experiences and excitement. By the family being in their phones constantly, they aren't enjoying new experiences because they stuck in what they are always stuck in.
Zadie Smith wants the reader to feel despair and shame as they read this story. The adults in the story use their phones to entertain them when they are no longer in the river. These families are on vacation, a time in which people get away from day to day life and enjoy the new surroundings. Zadie Smith is criticizing social media and electronic devices. When the two girls are taking photos Smith writes “this business of photographs is a form of labor that fills each day to its limit, just as the Lazy River fills ours. It is an accounting of life that takes as long as life itself” criticizing the point of taking photos because it is just another way of filling and wasting our time. As I read this I started to think about how photos are useless. We take time in the present to hopefully recreate the memories for the future when we could just enjoy the feeling in the moment because all that really matters is the moment we are in. The point of life is to enjoy new things and not to get stuck in this “lazy river” called life because that's when you end up at the end regretting everything.