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Deep Water

Submitted By :- Manish Narwariya

Anand Kumawat

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About The Author

William DouglasWilliam Douglas (1898-1980) was born in Maine , Minnesota. After graduating with a Bachelors of Arts in English and Economics, he spent two years teaching high school in Yakima. However, he got tired of this and decided to pursue a legal career. He met Franklin D. Roosevelt at Yale and became an advisor and friend to the President. He retired in 1975 with a term lasting thirty-six years and remains the longest-serving justice in the history of the court. The following expert is taken from Of Men And Mountains by William O. Douglas. It reveals how as a young boy William Douglas nearly drowned in a swimming pool. In this essay he talks about his fear of water and thereafter, how he finally overcome it. Notice how the autobiographical part of the selection is used to support his discussion of fear.

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Notes“It had happened when I was ten or eleven years old. …………………in the water when the misadventure happened.”

Author was around 10 years old. He tried swimming in Y.M.C.A. pool. The author tells about his old memories of learning swimming with his father. He was frightened about his lost breath . His Introduction to YMCA revived the old unpleasant memories. He tries to learn by watching other boys.

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“I went to the pool when no one else was there…………then I would go to the edge of the pool and be safe.”

One day he went alone at the pool. A muscled boy of 18 came to him and tossed the author in deep end of the pool. He was frightened and planned to hit the bottom and jump out from water. He came out slowly an saw nothing but water. His mouth was under water therefore, no sound came outside the pool. He tried to bring his legs up. But he felt his legs paralyzed and rigid . He was sinking to the bottom again. He lost all his breath ,his lungs was paining, his head was throbbed. He was

getting dizzy. But he remembered the strategy ---that “I would spring from the bottom of the

pool and come like a cork to the surface. I would lie flat on water, strike out with my arms, and thrash with my legs. Then I would get to the edge of the pool and be safe

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“I went down, down endlessly…………..Now I must go to sleep.”

He went to the bottom, he had terror seized him, he was paralyzed under water.

Only his heart, and pounding in his head, said that ‘I am alive’.

He tried to jump but it made no difference. He was still surrounded by water.

This time all efforts and fear ceased. He was moving towards peaceful death.

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“I crossed to oblivion ………….the joy of canoeing, boating. And swimming.”

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 spoilt many of his expeditions of canoeing, swimming and fishing. Whenever he was in water the terror returned. Hence forward the writer

tried to terrorize terror itself. Once he took courage the terror vanquished. The experiences of the writer throw some important lights on certain

aspects of life.

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“I used every way I knew to overcome ……….. And climb the peaks and to brush aside fear.”

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.

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Questions & Answers Q. What is the “misadventure” that William Douglas speaks about?

Ans. William O. Douglas had just learnt swimming. One day, an eighteen year old big bruiser picked him up and tossed him into the nine feet deep end of the Y.M.C.A. pool. He hit the water surface in a sitting position. He swallowed water and went at once to the bottom. He nearly died in this misadventure.

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Q. Why was Douglas determined to get over his fear of water?

Ans. Douglas regretted being deprived of enjoying water activities like canoeing, boating, swimming, fishing, etc. The wish to enjoy them and the craving to regain his lost confidence, while being in water, made him try every possible way to get rid of his fear. He was finally able to overcome this mental handicap by getting himself a swimming instructor and further ensuring that no residual fear was left.

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Q. How did Douglas overcome his fear of water?

Ans. After his misadventure in the pool at the Y.M.C.A, Douglas was amidst the fear of the water. He realized that his fishing trips, canoeing, swimming and boating were over. He tried his best to overcome it but the haunting of the water followed him everywhere. Finally he decided to engage an instructor to learn to swim and overcome his fear. He went to the pool and practiced five days a week, an hour each day. The instructor put a belt around him and a rope was attached to the belt. The rope went through a pulley that ran an overhead cable. Douglas held one end of the rope and went back and forth across the pool. On each trip some of the terror would seize him up. After three months, the tension began to decrease.Piece by piece he shed the panic. He taught him to put his face under water and exhale. He also learnt how to raise his nose and inhale.This exercise was repeated hundreds of times. Now he was able to shed part of the fear that seized him under water. He went to lake Wentworth Trigg's island and Slamp act island. He swam two miles across the lake. Now he was determined and he swam on. He shouted with joy and he had conquered his fear of water.

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Difficult Words treacherous: unpredictable danger; not dependable or trustworthy

subdued my prid: to lower or restrain the intensity of self-respect and confidence

flailed at the surface: to strike or lash out vigorously at the surface of the water in trying to come out

fishing for landlocked salmon: to go fishing for a specific variety of salmon available in certain lakes

misadventure: an incident that turns out to be a disasterbob to the surface like a cork: to float or show the characteristics of buoyancy as a cork in water

curtain of life fell: to indicate that life has ended or a near-death experience

back and forth across the pool: to swim across the swimming pool from one side to the other

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