His now deceased father, who trained him in the art named the boy, in his ignorance, Artemis, believing this to be the patron saint of artesian wells.
He lives with his elderly mother, but yearns to find a wife he hopes will resemble the virginal, fresh-faced girls depicted on oleomargarine packages.
She offers Artemis a copy of her husband's best-selling book titled Shit (italics), a historic and cultural overview of fecal matter, in all its details.
When Mrs. Fuller's advances become oppressive, Artemis seeks as escape in a short overseas vacation; his travel agent arranges a cut-rate excursion to Moscow.
[2][3][4] Declaring that "water is the redemptive agent" in the story, literary critic Patrick Meanor detects references to Greek mythology in the name of the protagonist.
Artemis's father, himself a well-digger, has maladroitly named his son after the Greek virginal fertility goddess Artemis-Diana, in the mistaken belief that this was the patron of artesian wells.
[5] Meanor considers the Cold War era elements of the story "an Ovidian dramatization of how harmless texts are metamorphosed into subtexts of international intrigue"[6] which in turn serve to disabuse Artemis of his romantic illusions: "The innocence that Artemis loses during his story is not his virginity but his naive vision of the way the world operates.
[8] Critic Lynne Waldeland writes: "Despite the comedy and satire in the story, its dominant note is the poignant characterizations of Artemis, a sort a portriature at which Cheever excels.