DEEP WATER

•   Introduction to the author

William Douglas was an American author. He 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, one of the youngest justices appointed to the court. He started his career as a teacher but later in his life he changed it. This chapter is an excerpt from his “Of Man and Mountains” and based on his childhood experience of drowning in water.

•  Introduction to the chapter:

The story “Deep Waters” tells us how the writer overcame his fear of water and learned swimming with sheer determination and will power. He had developed a terror of water since 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 the child down and swept over him. The child was terrified, but the father who knew there was no harm laughed. The experience bred a permanent fear of water in the child’s sub-conscious mind. Still another incident, more serious, increased his terror. The writer was trying to learn to swim in the Y.M.C.A. swimming pool in Yakima. One day while he was waiting for other boys, a big boy 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 the 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 like a rope but grasped only at water.            He tried to shout, but no sound came out. He went down again. His lungs ached, head beaten and he grew dizzy. He felt paralyzed with fear. All his limbs were paralyzed. 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 in peace. When he came to consciousness, he found himself lying on the side of the pool with the other boys nearby. The terror that he had experienced in the pool never left him. It haunted him for years and years to come. It spoilt many of his expeditions of canoeing, swimming and fishing. It spoilt his pleasures in water bodies. But the writer was determined to conquer his terror. He took help of a swimming instructor to learn swimming. The instructor taught him various actions necessary in swimming, part by part. He put his face under water and exhaled and inhaled raising it above water. He practiced it for several weeks. He had to kick with his legs a few weeks on the side of the pool. At last he combined all these actions and made the writer swim. He learned swimming, but the terror continued. So deep goes our childhood experiences! So fearful is the fear of fear! Whenever he was in the water the terror returned. Hence, forward the writer tried to terrorize terror itself. He tried to face the new challenge. When terror came, he confronted it by asking it mockingly as to what it can really do to him? He plunged into the water as if to defy the fear. Once he took courage the terror vanquished. He faced the challenge deliberately in various places like the Warm Lake. He conquered it at last.

            The experiences of the writer throw some important lights on certain aspects of life. Experiences of pain or pleasure in childhood remain in the sub-conscious mind and influence our feelings later too. The fear of water acted on the writer in that way. Even after being an expert in swimming, the writer felt terror. There was no reason at all. Once he took courage, the fear vanished. That shows most of our fears are baseless. Fear creates dangers where there is none. The writer’s experiences further confirm the proverbial truth, “Where there is a will, there is a way”.

•  Write a critical appreciation of chapter deep water by William Douglas?

Ans. The chapter deals with two basic aspects of human nature: the creation of fear due to any particular circumstance and the ability to overcome that fear. The author of the chapter develops a deep fear for water because of a childhood incident. He is completely handicapped by this fear and is unable to enjoy any activity related to water. The fear is real and he has to face this fear alone to get rid of it. His strong willpower and his skilled trainer pull him out of this darkness of fear. The events of the chapter show us that minor incidents of childhood can have a long lasting and damaging effect on one's mind. Such effects remain active in a person's subconscious mind till the time he makes a conscious effort to wipe them from his mind. A strong determination, courage and a well thought plan can help one overcome the biggest fear of his life. Same was done by the writer in this chapter. He is helped by his coach to become a good swimmer but his quest for fearlessness doesn't end here. He has to do it alone; where his only companion is his capability, his resolve and his nerves of steel. Ultimately he is able to achieve his aim and come out of deep waters drowning all his fears forever.

•  “All we have to fear is fear itself.” Discuss.

Ans. William O. Douglas’ Deep Water justifies President Roosevelt’s assertion that all we have to fear, is fear itself. William O. Douglas’ aversion to water began with his mother’s warnings about the Yakima River and a childhood sea holiday where he first experienced the power of water. At the YMCA pool, where a boy pushed Douglas into the water nearly drowning him, turned the fear into a phobia. However, Douglas decided to challenge this and struggled hard to overcome fear of deep water. With the help of an instructor, and using a pulley connected by a belt to his waist, Douglas re-learnt how to swim in a pool. He learnt to dip his head, exhale underwater and inhale on resurfacing, holding breath. Even though, the trainer declared him as good swimmer Douglas tested himself in treacherous and unfamiliar waters till his phobia vanished completely. Thereafter, William O. Douglas realized that once the ‘fear of fear’ disappeared, true success awaited.

•  How did William Douglas overcome his fear of water?

Ans. Douglas challenged the fear itself and struggled hard to overcome it. With the help of an instructor, and using a pulley connected by a belt to his waist, he re-learnt how to swim in a pool. He learnt to dip his head, exhale underwater and inhale on resurfacing, holding breath. Even though, the trainer declared him as a good swimmer Douglas tested himself in treacherous and unfamiliar waters till his phobia vanished completely. Thereafter, William O. Douglas overcomes the fear of water.

• Describe the misadventure that made Douglas hydrophobic? 

Ans. When Douglas was of ten or eleven years old he had a desire to learn swimming. As he already had a bad experience with water so he was little scared to go to deep water. Still he goes to YMCA pool at Yakima because water in YMCA pool was not that deep. One day he was alone in the pool when he was pushed into the deep end of the YMCA pool by a bruiser boy. Gripped by paralyzing fear, in vain, Douglas tried to spring upwards to the surface twice. He almost lost consciousness before he was saved. This misadventure made Douglas hydrophobic.

EXTRA QUESTION

Short answer questions –

1. What was the misadventure that William Douglas speaks about?

2. What was the writer’s first reaction on being flung into the pool?

3. Why did William Douglas hate the idea of getting into the water?

4. How did the instructor build a swimmer out of William Douglas?

5. How did William Douglas make sure that he conquered the old terror? 

LONG QUESTIONS

1.It is Douglas’ will power that enabled him to overcome his fear of water. This reveals that with a strong will human beings can overcome all kinds of fear. Explain with two illustrations from real life.
2.Which experience made the writer feel terrified of water?
3.Explain in brief William Douglas’ attempt to come out of the pool.
4.How did the instructor help the writer learn swimming?