NCERT Class 12 English Deep Water

Deep Water

William Douglas (1898-1980) was born in Maine,Minnesota. After graduating with a Bachelors of Artsin English and Economics, he spent two years teachinghigh school in Yakima. However, he got tired of this anddecided to pursue a legal career. He met Franklin D.Roosevelt at Yale and became an adviser and friend tothe President. Douglas was a leading advocate ofindividual rights. He retired in 1975 with a term lastingthirty-six years and remains the longest-serving Justicein the history of the court. The following excerpt is takenfrom Of Men and Mountains by William O. Douglas. Itreveals how as a young boy William Douglas nearlydrowned in a swimming pool. In this essay he talksabout his fear of water and thereafter, how he finallyovercame it. Notice how the autobiographical part of the selection is used to support his discussion of fear.It had happened when I was ten or eleven years old. I haddecided to learn to swim. There was a pool at the Y.M.C.A.in Yakima that offered exactly the opportunity. The YakimaRiver was treacherous. Mother continually warned againstit, and kept fresh in my mind the details of each drowningin the river. But the Y.M.C.A. pool was safe. It was onlytwo or three feet deep at the shallow end; and while it wasnine feet deep at the other, the drop was gradual. I got apair of water wings and went to the pool. I hated to walk naked into it and show my skinny legs. But I subdued my pride and did it.

From the beginning, however, I had an aversion to thewater when I was in it. This started when I was three orfour years old and father took me to the beach in California.He and I stood together in the surf. I hung on to him, yetthe waves knocked me down and swept over me. I wasburied in water. My breath was gone. I was frightened.Father laughed, but there was terror in my heart at theoverpowering force of the waves.

My introduction to the Y.M.CA. swimming pool revived unpleasant memories and stirred childish fears. But in a little while I gathered confidence. I paddled with my new water wings, watching the other boys and trying to learn by aping them. I did this two or three times on different days and was just beginning to feel at ease in the water when the misadventure happened.

I went to the pool when no one else was there. The place was quiet. The water was still, and the tiled bottom was as white and clean as a bathtub. I was timid about going in alone, so I sat on the side of the pool to wait for others.

I had not been there long when in came a big bruiser of a boy, probably eighteen years old. He had thick hair on his chest. He was a beautiful physical specimen, with legs and arms that showed rippling muscles. He yelled, “Hi, Skinny! How’d you like to be ducked?”

With that he picked me up and tossed me into the deep end. I landed in a sitting position, swallowed water, and went at once to the bottom. I was frightened, but not yet frightened out of my wits. On the way down I planned: When my feet hit the bottom, I would make a big jump, come to the surface, lie flat on it, and paddle to the edge of the pool.

Writing

1. Doing well in any activity, for example a sport, music, dance or painting, riding a motorcycle or a car, involves a great deal of struggle. Most of us are very nervous to begin with until gradually we overcome our fears and perform well. Write an essay of about five paragraphs recounting such an experience. Try to recollect minute details of what caused the fear, your feelings, the encouragement you got from others or the criticism. You could begin with the last sentence of the essay you have just read — “At last I felt released — free to walk the trails and climb the peaks and to brush aside fear.”

2. Write a short letter to someone you know about your having learnt to do something new.

Please refer to attached file for NCERT Class 12 English Deep Water