The Ghost of Pool Party's Future

In "The Swimmer" each of the pools Neddy swims through represents a period of time and so his whole journey represents the passage of time itself. By the end he has aged and his whole life has changed. His house is now empty, he has lost his family and wealth as well as his social standing. This is largely due to his denial and ignorance of the fact that life is just as full of unpleasantness as it it is of happiness. He loses everything he thinks is "right" in the world and is eventually left completely and utterly alone.

The problem I have with this is the story paints this as some sort of inevitability, making the reader believe that no matter what it is bound to happen to Neddy. However for the series of events that leads to his downfall to occur, Neddy must operate under the exact identity as he did at the beginning. He must be in his state of blissful denial and youthful outlook. The problem then stands that the story demonstrated that Neddy is capable of recognizing the mistakes he's made and he can see how they stem from his character. He even comes to regret them greatly once he sees the consequences. If then Neddy is capable of this kind of development then his "downfall" can never actually occur as he would recognize is, as he did on his journey, and make changes to prevent it from getting any worse. This makes the progression in his journey actually impossible because it leaves him in some sort of non dynamic stasis in which he has no agency over his decisions. He is no longer Neddy, he is just watching what Neddy's life could become if he doesn't change Instead of going through his life in a normal fashion and doing this however he just swims through his life, only touching on certain points in a span of time that we can assume is years long. In this way his journey is like the Christmas Carol where Neddy is visited by the ghost of pool party's future so he can learn the error of his ways.