CBSE Class 12 English Deep Water Notes Set C

Deep Water — William Douglas

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 Lake, etc.

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 sport ruined 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.