CBSE Class 12 English Deep Water Notes Set B

About The Author

William Douglas (1893-1980) was an American born in Maine Minnesota. He graduated in English and Economics and then later advanced his career in law. He remains the longest-serving justice in the history of court, serving a term of thirty six years. He became the adviser of the President Franklin D Roosevelt. The excerpt “Deep Water” is taken from an autobiography ‘Of Men and Mountains’ written by William Douglas. In this excerpt he has narrated the incidence which was the reason of developing hydrophobia and his strategies through which he braved his fear.

Summary

The author recollects his first encounter with his fear of water as a three or four year old child. His father had taken him to a beach in California. He held his father tightly. However, a wave knocked him down. He felt smothered and scared. When the writer was ten years old he planned to learn swimming but this time he took caution. He chose YMCA pool as it was safer than Yakima river. The pool was 2 feet at its shallow end and 9 feet at the deeper end.

He got a pair of water wings. He mustered courage and paddled aping others. He started regaining his confidence. But, this newly found courage was soon lost. An 18 year old boy hurled him into deep side of the pool. There was nobody close to the pool. Douglas went to the bottom of the pool. He was alert. He planned to push himself up on touching the bottom of the pool, then lie flat and paddle to the edge of the pool. But that seemed to be a never ending fall. These nine feet appeared to him like ninety feet. He felt acute uneasiness and his lungs seemed to burst. As soon as he touched the bottom, he tried to jump but much to his disappointment it was very slow and all he could see was water. He felt extremely terrified and suffocated. Douglas started making desperate efforts for survival. He looked for a rope but could not find it. He could see only water all around. His legs got stiff like
lifeless objects. He again sank back to the bottom of the pool. Breathless, he hit at the bottom with all his strength.

His screams were lost in water. He got a throbbing pain in his head, his lungs almost gave up and he started filling dizzy. However, his mind was still planning to escape this drowning. He was panic-stricken. He was going down endlessly. There was water all around. He was extremely frightened but his limbs gave up. He tried calling for help but it was in vain. Then fortunately he saw light. His eyes and nose came to the surface but then he sank again for the third time as this success was momentary. The writer gave up all his efforts. He accepted this as his destiny and went into oblivion.

When he regained his consciousness, he found himself vomiting next to the pool. The boy who hurled him was saying that he was fooling around. Douglas had a close meet up with death. This incident had a deep-seated impact on him. He reached home and was feeling weak and trembling. He could not eat anything that night. For days he was terrified. Consequently, he avoided water whenever he could. This fear of childhood followed him. This did not let him relish the joy of fishing, canoeing, boating or swimming.

Once Douglas grew old he was determined to overcome this fear. Finally, he decided to get an instructor to learn swimming. He went to the pool and practiced five days a week, one hour each day. The instructor put a belt around him which was attached to a rope. So he practised swimming forward and backward. For weeks he practiced. It took almost three months for the tension to release. The instructor taught him the breathing techniques of exhaling underwater and inhaling by raising his nose. He practised it hundreds of times. Then the instructor taught him to kick with his legs in water. Initially, his legs got stiff but gradually he developed complete control on them. Soon Douglas could swim across the length of the pool. But he was still scared when left alone in the pool. His childhood fear petrified him.

Therefore, he thought of conquering his fear. He went to Lake Wentworth in New Hampshire, dived off a dock at Triggs island, and swam two miles across the lake to Stamp Act Island. For once did the terror return but he continued to swim. For his own reassurance, he went up the Tieton to Conrad Meadows, up the Conrad Creek trail to Meade Glacier and camped at the side of Warm Lake. He swam across the other shore and back. He was thrilled that he had finally overcome his fear. The narrator felt victorious that he had finally conquered his fear. He quoted that the death is full of peace, but the fear of death terrorises. In this excerpt Douglas has narrated his near-death  experience and the way fear of death intensifies his will to live.

Character Sketch of William Douglas
William Douglas had a severe phobia of water. He was a young boy when he had an awful experience. At the age of five, he was pushed into the deep end and he almost drowned in a swimming pool. He was a shy, reserved individual who lacked confidence. Because of his fear, he was afraid of being teased, mocked, and denigrated by his classmates. His fear of the water often gets in the way of his confidence. He could not fulfil his desire of swimming in fresh water lakes. He made the decision to get over his phobia of water, and with the help of a swimming instructor, he started taking swimming classes. He practiced continuously until he mastered swimming because he was dedicated to his objective and was motivated to achieve it. Finally, he defeated the fear and realized that it only existed in his mind. The victory made him live a better and fulfilling life.

Character Sketch of Swimming Instructor Mr. Ross
Mr. Ross, the swimming instructor, is a kind and understanding individual. He is a passionate swimming coach who is knowledgeable and experienced. His students feel comfortable around him since he is approachable, kind, and calm. He has a great sense of humor, that adds to the fun of learning to swim. He is aware of how crucial it is to be patient and kind when interacting with phobia sufferers. By supporting William, complimenting him for his accomplishments, and paying close attention to him, he helps William in overcoming his fear. Along with teaching him how to swim, he also conveys him the important life lessons like the value of conquering one’s anxieties, the benefits of hard effort and perseverance, and the joy of accomplishing one’s goals

About the Author
William Orville Douglas (1898 – 1980) was an American jurist and politician who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Nominated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Douglas was confirmed at the age of 40, as one of the youngest justices appointed to the Supreme Court. His term, lasting 36 years and 209 days (1939 – 1975), is the longest term in the history of the Supreme Court.

Theme
The author, William Douglas, talks about his fear of water and how he finally overcame it. He narrates an autobiographical incident that occurred when he was ten or eleven years old and almost drowned in the Y.M.C.A swimming pool. As a result, he developed a fear of water, which he was able to conquer after several years, by sheer determination.

Message
The story ‘‘Deep Waters’’ tells us how the writer overcame his fear of water and learned swimming through sheer determination and will power. He had developed a terror of water since childhood. William Douglas was able to overcome his fear by sheer determination. The message conveyed by this story is that it is not death but the fear of death that creates terror in our mind, so that fear needs to be shaken off. Also, any fears can be conquered if we try hard enough.

Justification of Title
This extract is appropriately entitled ‘‘Deep Water’’. The author recounts his fear of swimming following an incident in which he had been swept away by a wave. Another incident which further aggravated his fear was when a bully pushed him into the deep side of a swimming pool and he nearly drowned. But slowly, he overcame his fear through determination and strong will. He learnt swimming from an instructor. He swam in different pools and lakes to overcome his fear. The title also signifies that the author’s fear was a deep rooted one.

Summary
‘‘Deep Water’’ tells us how the writer overcame his fear of water and learned swimming. He had developed a fear of water during childhood. When he was three or four years old, the writer had gone to California with his father. One day on the beach, the waves knocked him down and swept over him. He was terrified but his father laughed as he knew that the author was not in any real danger. This experience created for him an aversion to water and bred a permanent fear of water. Another, more serious, incident occurred when the writer was trying to learn swimming in the Y.M.C.A. swimming pool. One day, while he was waiting for the other boys, a bully boy of eighteen suddenly played a dangerous prank and pushed him into the water. The writer was terribly frightened. He went down nine feet into the water. His lungs were full of unreleased air. When he reached the bottom, he jumped upward with all his strength. He came up, but very slowly. He tried to catch hold of something, but grasped only at water.The writer then tried to shout but no sound came out. He went down again. His lungs ached, head throbbed and he grew dizzy. He felt paralyzed with fear. Only the movement of his heart told him that he was alive. Again he tried to jump up. But this time, his limbs would not move at all. He looked for ropes, ladders and water wings, but all in vain. Then he went down again, the third time; this time all efforts and fear ceased. He was moving towards peaceful death. The writer was at peace. When he came to consciousness, he found himself lying on the side of the pool with the other boy nearby and the coach remonstrating with him for nearly causing him to drown. As a result of the near death experience, the terror that the writer had experienced in the pool never left him. It haunted him for years. It spoilt many of his expeditions of canoeing, swimming and fishing. It spoilt his pleasures in Maine lakes, new Hampshire, Deschutes, Columbia and Bumping Yet, the writer was determined to conquer his fear. He took the help of a swimming instructor to learn swimming. The instructor taught him various actions necessary in swimming. He trained Douglas how to breathe while swimming. He practiced this for several weeks. He had to kick with his legs for a few weeks on the side of the pool. At last, he combined all these actions and made Douglas swim. Thus, he learned swimming; yet the terror continued. Whenever he was in water, his terror returned and the author tried to face the new challenge. When the terror came, he confronted it by asking it sarcastically, what could it really do to him? He plunged into the water as if to defy the fear. Once he took courage, the terror vanished. He faced the challenge deliberately in various places like the Warm Lake. This is how he at last conquered his fear of water.

CHAPTER IN A NUTSHELL
William Douglas talks about his fear of water
and thereafter, how he finally overcame it.
The autobiographical element in the lesson is used to support his discussion of fear.

Author’s Aversion to Water
1. started when he was three or four years old.
2. visited a beach in California with his father/stood with his father in the surf.
3. the waves knocked him down and swept over him.
4. he was buried in water/breath was gone/ frightened.
5. father laughed
6. there was terror in his heart at the overpowering force of the waves.

‘Misadventure’ at the YMCA
1. the author was sitting on the side of the pool.
2. a big bruiser of a boy tossed him the deep end of the pool.
3. the author landed in a sitting position, swallowed water, and went at once to the bottom.
4. the author was frightened.
5. planned that he would jump and come to the surface/paddle to the edge of the pool.

(i) Its impact:
(a) he was weak and trembling
(b) shook and cried when he lay on his bed/couldn’t eat that night.
(c) for days a haunting fear remained in his heart.
(d) slightest exertion upset him and made him wobbly in the knees and sick in the stomach.
(e) never went back to the pool.

(ii) Subsequent:
(a) the fear remained-in a river or pool legs would become paralyzed.
(b) icy horror would grab his heart.
(c) deprived Douglas of enjoying water sportruined his fishing trips/deprived him of the joy.
(d) in canoes on Maine lakes fishing for landlocked salmons.
(e) bass fishing in New Hampshire, trout fishing on the Deshutes and Metolius in Oregon, fishing for salmon on the Columbia, at Bumping Lake in the Cascades-fear of water followed him.

(iii) Conquering his fear:
(a) engaged an instructor to learn swimming.
(b) instructor made him practice five days a week, an hour everyday
(c) put a belt around him.
(d) a rope attached to the belt went through a pulley that ran on an overhead cable
(e) instructor held on to the end of the rope.
(f) author went back and forth several times each day.
(g) took three months to learn
(h) instructor taught him to put his face under water and exhale
(i) to raise his nose and inhale
(j) instructor made him kick with his legs
(k) thus piece by piece he finally learnt how to swim
- though the author had learnt to swim, he still felt that the old fear would grip him again.
- went to lake Wentworth-swam two miles across the lake.
- swam the crawl, breast stroke, side stroke and back stroke.
- the old sensation returned in miniature.
- then went up the Tieton to Conrad Meadows, up the Conrad Creek Trail to Meade Glacier, and camped by the Warm Lake.
- swam across to the other shore and back
- he had finally conquered his fear.

(iv) Draws a larger meaning from this experience:
(a) in death there is peace
(b) there is terror only in the fear of death/as Roosevelt said “All we have to fear is fear itself”
(c) since the narrator had experienced both the sensation of dying and the terror that fear of it can produce; the will to live grew in him.

The story talks about how the terrifying memories of the childhood haunt even the adult mind and the shadow of these frightening experiences continue to lurk in the mind and rob one of all the confidences. It is imperative to make deliberate planned efforts to get over that fear which otherwise can lead to a lifelong complex.
William O. Douglas had a desire to learn swimming since childhood. At the age of three or four, he was knocked down and buried by a wave at a beach in California. He developed a great aversion to water. At the age of ten or eleven he decided to learn to swim with water wings at the Y.M.C.A pool since it was safe at the shallow end.
A misadventure: - while sitting alone and waiting for others to come at the Y.M.C.A pool, a big boy came and threw Douglas into deep end of the pool. Douglas swallowed water and went straight down to the bottom of the pool. While going down he planned to make a big jump upwards but came up slowly. Stark terror seized him.
Tried to shout but could not…… As he went down the pool for the second time, he tried to jump upwards but it was sheer waste of energy. Terror held him deeper and deeper. During the third trial, he sucked water instead of air.
Light was going out and there was no more panic. So, he ceased all efforts and he became unconscious. He crossed to oblivion. When revived, he found himself vomiting beside the pool. He was in the grip of fear of water and it deprived him of the joys of canoeing, boating, swimming and fishing. Later, to overcome his phobia for water, he hired an instructor to learn swimming.
The instructor taught him swimming piece by piece. He went to different lakes to swim and found tiny vestiges of fear still gripped him. He challenged the fear and swam. Swimming up and down the Warm Lake he finally overcame his fear of water. He realized that in death there is peace and there is terror only in fear of death. Will to live is stronger than fear of death.

- William O. Douglas had a desire to learn swimming since childhood.
- At the age of three or four, he was knocked down and buried by a wave at a beach in California.

- He developed a great aversion to water.
- At the age of ten or eleven he decided to learn to swim with water wings at the
- Y.M.C.A pool since it was safe at the shallow end.
- A misadventure:- while sitting alone and waiting for others to come at the Y.M.C.A pool, a big boy came and threw Douglas into deep end of the pool.
- Douglas swallowed water and went straight down to the bottom of the pool.
- While going down he planned to make a big jump upwards but came up slowly.
- Stark terror seized him.
- Tried to shout but could not……
- As he went down the pool second time, he tried to jump upwards but it was a waste of energy.

- Terror held him deeper and deeper.
- During the third trial he sucked water instead of air.
- Light was going out and there was no more panic.
- So he ceased all efforts and he became unconscious.
- He crossed to oblivion.
- When revived he found himself vomiting beside the pool.
- He was in grip of fear of water and it deprived him of the joys of canoeing, boating swimming and fishing.
- Hired an instructor to learn swimming.
- The instructor taught him swimming piece by piece.
- He went to different lakes to swim and found tiny vestiges of fear still gripped him.
- He challenged the fear and swam.
- Swimming up and down the Warm Lake he finally overcame his fear of water.
- He realized that in death there is peace and there is terror only in fear of death.
- Will to live is stronger than fear of death.

SUMMARY

William O. Douglas had a desire to learn swimming since childhood. At the age of three or four, he was knocked down and buried by a wave at a beach in California. He developed a great aversion to water. At the age of ten or eleven he decided to learn to swim with water wings at the Y.M.C.A pool since it was safe at the shallow end.
A misadventure:- while sitting alone and waiting for others to come at the Y.M.C.A pool, a bi boy came and threw Douglas into deep end of the pool. Douglas swallowed water and went straight down to the bottom of the pool. While going down he planned to make a big jump upwards but came up slowly. Stark terror seized him.
Tried to shout but could not…… As he went down the pool second time, he tried to jump upwards but it was a waste of energy. Terror held him deeper and deeper. During the third trial he sucked water instead of air.
Light was going out and there was no more panic. So he ceased all efforts and he became unconscious. He crossed to oblivion. When revived he found himself vomiting beside the pool.He was in grip of fear of water and it deprived him of the joys of canoeing, boating swimming and fishing. Hired an instructor to learn swimming.
The instructor taught him swimming piece by piece. He went to different lakes to swim and found tiny vestiges of fear still gripped him. He challenged the fear and swam. Swimming up and down the Warm Lake he finally overcame his fear of water. He realized that in death there is peace and there is terror only in fear of death. Will to live is stronger than fear of death.