SHRI RAM GLOBAL SCHOOL, WHITEFIELD

CHAPTER: DEEP WATER

GRADE: 12
CHAPTER AT A GLANCE

Deep Water summary will assist you in understanding the meaning of this chapter. It is an
extract from the book ‘Men and Mountains’ by William Douglas. Over here, the author tells us
about how he overcomes the deep-rooted fear of water. We learn that the author develops fear of
water following two very dreadful incidents. In this first one, he is four years old when a wave
knocks him down. Similarly, in the second one, he is 11 years of age. A bully throws him in the
deep end of the pool and almost drowns. Thus, having gone through such scary experiences, he
fears water deeply. However, he does work really hard to overcome it. Finally, we learn about
the measures he takes to overcome this fear. Moreover, he accomplishes in overcoming the fear
and gives us all a great lesson of determination and will power.

Deep Water is about the writer’s journey of overcoming the fear of water, which is deeply
rooted in him since childhood. The author started fearing water since the age of four. It starts
when he was visiting California with his father. He visits a beach where a wave knocks him
down and sweeps over him. This terrifies the author, although the father laughs at this knowing
it was no danger. However, this experience terrifies him and develops a fear of water. After that,
when the author is 11 years old, he experiences another incident which escalates his fear.
He is at a swimming pool in Yakima, trying to learn swimming. On one fine day, a bully
decides to pull a dangerous prank. He pushes him in the deep end of the pool which frightens
the author. He reaches nine feet into the water and starts struggling desperately to hold on to
something.

Moreover, he yells for help but he starts feeling paralyzed and only his heart was moving now.
Thus, he gives up and readies himself to die but wakes up at the side of the pool. However, the
terror he experiences while drowning never goes away. It continues to haunt him for many years
and even spoiled his future expeditions concerning canoeing, swimming, fishing and more.
He even visits Marine Lakes, Columbia, New Hampshire and more but is not able to enjoy it.
Thus, he decides to overcome this fear by hook or by crook. He enrols himself in a swimming
class and tries to learn from the instructor. The instructor teaches him many tips and tricks for
swimming. He begins with the inhaling and exhaling part then he practices it for many weeks.
Further, he moves on to the kicking the legs on the side of the pool. Finally, he combines all this
with the final move of swimming. Although the author knows how to swim, he is still terrified
of water. Thus, in order to get rid of the fear, he decides to confront it. He mocks it by thinking
what can it really do? Consequently, he plunges in to the water and to his surprise, his fear goes
away. He faced it in many places and at last, manages to conquer it.
Conclusion of Deep Water
To sum up, Deep Water summary, we learn that if we are determined enough and have the
courage, we can overcome any fear that comes our way without letting the fear overpower us.

NCERT SOLUTIONS

1. What is the “misadventure” that William Douglas speaks about?

Answer
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.

2. What were the series of emotions and fears that Douglas experienced when he was
thrown into the pool? What plans did he make to come to the surface?
Answer
Douglas was frightened when he was thrown into the pool. However, he was not
frightened out of his wits. While sinking down he made a plan. He would make a big
jump when his feet hit the bottom. He would come to the surface like a cork, lie flat on it,
and paddle to the edge of the pool.

3. How did this experience affect him?

Answer
The near death experience of drowning had a very strong impact on his psychology.
He was deeply perturbed and shaken by the whole experience. A haunting fear of
water took control of his physical strength and emotional balance for many years. As
he couldn’t bear being surrounded by water, he was deprived of enjoying any water-
related activity.
4. Why was Douglas determined to get over his fear of water?
Answer
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.

5. How did the instructor “build a swimmer” out of Douglas?

Answer
The instructor built a swimmer out of Douglas piece by piece. For three months he
held him high on a rope attached to his belt. He went back and forth across the pool.
Panic seized the author every time. The instructor taught Douglas to put his face under
water and exhale and to raise his nose and inhale. Then Douglas had to kick with his
legs for many weeks till these relaxed. After seven months the instructor told him to
swim the length of the pool.

6. How did Douglas make sure that he conquered the old terror?
Answer
Even after the swimming training was over, Douglas wasn't confident about his
swimming or that he had overcome the fear. He was determined to completely get rid
of it forever. He swam alone in the pool. He went to Lake Wentworth to dive. There,
he tried every possible stroke he had learnt. He fought back the tiny vestiges of terror
that gripped him in middle of the lake. Finally, in his diving expedition in the Warm
Lake, he realised that he had truly conquered his old terror.

7. How does Douglas make clear to the reader the sense of panic that gripped him
as he almost drowned? Describe the details that have made the description vivid.
Answer
Once Douglas was sitting alone at the Y.M.C.A pool waiting for others to come. Then
there came a big bruiser of a boy. He tossed him up and threw him into the deep end of
the pool. Douglas went deep and swallowed water. He was at the sitting position at the
bottom. He was frightened but was not out of his wits. On the way down, he had a
strategy in his mind. When his feet touched the bottom, he would make a great spring
upward. Then he would paddle to the edge of the pool, but he came up slowly. He
 opened his eyes and saw dirty water. He was deeply frightened. His legs seemed
paralysed. A great force was pulling him down. A stark power overpowered him. He
shrieked in the water but only the water heard him. After feeling the tiles under his
feet, he jumped withal his might but it made no difference. His lungs ached and heart
throbbed. Stark terror took him in its grip. His legs and arms could not move. He again
tried for the third time. He searched for air but swallowed water. He felt drowsy and
ceased all efforts. He was crossed to oblivion. The curtain of his life fell and he lay
unconscious.

8. How did Douglas overcome his fear of water?

Answer
After his misadventure in the pool at the Y.M.C.A, Douglas was amidst the fear of the
water. He realised 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 Triggs 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.

9. Why does Douglas as an adult recount a childhood experience of terror and his
conquering of it? What larger meaning does he draw from his experience?
Answer
Douglas had two childhood experiences of terror. One at the California beach when
the waves knocked him down and swept over him. He was terror stricken. At the other
occasion he was thrown into the deep end of the Y.M.C.A pool by a big bruiser of a
boy. A stark terror overpowered and gripped him. It followed and haunted him
wherever he went. He realised that his joys of fishing, canoeing, boating and
swimming had ruined. Keeping in view its severe consequences, he engaged an
instructor who trained him in swimming and Douglas was able to conquer his fear.
This experience had a deeper meaning for Douglas. Because he had experienced both
the sensation of dying and the terror that the fear of it can produce, he learnt the will to
live in great intensity. This experience can only be realised by those who had faced to
 conquer it. This exactly happened with Douglas. He knew: In death, there is peace.,
there is terror only in the fear of death.’’ Thus, one can estimate what matters is the
will to live. As Roosevelt said ‘‘All we have to fear is fear itself.’’ So will to live is
great and it can take man to touch the highest peaks of life.

10. “All we have to fear is fear itself”. Have you ever had a fear that you have
now overcome? Share your experience with your partner.
Answer
Roosevelt has appropriately said ‘‘All we have to fear is fear itself.’’ These words
have a deeper meaning for all of us. It implies that we fear from fear. Those who have
undergone this experience of fear, they can only appreciate its worth. William O.
Douglas has faced it twice in life. He had a terrible fear of water. He could not go for
swimming, canoeing, boating and rafting etc. He realised that it would ruin his career
since it was following and haunting him wherever he went. Fear is our hard-core
enemy. We must get rid of it at the earliest like Douglas. I too had a terrible experience
in my life.
A small tributary flows near our village. During the summer vacation, we used to go
there for swimming and bathing. Very often, we were made cautious by the villagers
not to bathe in it since there is a deeper hole inside the stream. Being children, we
never bothered. One day we took out our clothes and plunged into it. By chance, the
water was overflowing the bank and the current was fast. While diving, two among us
got stuck into the hole. We cried and cried out. We were going deeper and deeper. We
thought that it was the end of our life. One of the boys came outside and saw the
villagers. He cried and cried. They came and brought us out of the water. But this
enabled us to challenge the fears of life and we can take adventurous life.

EXTRA QUESTIONS (IMPORTANT)

Question 1. “I crossed to oblivion, and the curtain of life fell.” What was the incident which
nearly killed Douglas and developed in him a strong aversion to water?
Answer. The incident which nearly killed Douglas occurred when he was ten or eleven years
old. He had decided to learn swimming at the YMCA pool, and thus get rid of his fear of water.
One morning, when he was alone at the pool, waiting for others, a big bully of a boy tossed him
into the deep end of the pool. Though he had planned a strategy to save himself as he went
down, his plan did not work. He went down to the bottom and became panicky. Thrice he
struggled hard to come to the surface, but failed each time. He was almost drowned in the pool.
He lost his consciousness and felt that he would die. Though he was ultimately saved, this
misadventure developed in him a strong aversion to water.

Question 2. Desire, determination and diligence lead to success. Explain the value of these
qualities in the light of Douglas’ experience in ‘Deep Water.’
Answer. The terror of water followed Douglas wherever he went. To get rid of it, he made a
strong determination. He decided to overcome his fear through his “will.” He engaged an
instructor who would perfect him in swimming. The instructor first helped him drive away his
fear, and then gave him many exercises besides teaching him to exhale and inhale in water.
The practice went on for months together, during which his fear came back to haunt him, but his
desire and firm will made him persist in his- efforts. It was only through sheer determination
and diligence that Douglas could not only counter his terror, but also become an expert
swimmer.
He swam across and back lakes to ensure that his fear of water did not return. He had now
completely lost his fear. His desire, determination and diligence succeeded in banishing his fear
of water.

Question 3. “…….there was terror in my heart at the overpowering force of the waves.”
When did Douglas start fearing water? Which experience had further strengthened its
hold on his mind and personality? (All India 2010)
Answer. Douglas developed an aversion to water in his early childhood, When he was three or
four
years old, his father took him to a beach in California. The waves knocked him down and
swept over him. He was buried in water. He was frightened but his father was laughing. Perhaps
this was the moment his fear of water took root inside his mind.
Further, when Douglas was ten or eleven years old, he decided to learn to swim and went to
the YMCA pool. Here an incident took place that finally established his aversion to water as a
big fear. One day when Douglas was alone at the pool sitting on the edge and waiting for others
to come, a big boy of 18 years of age threw him into the deep end of the pool.
What followed was a nightmarish experience for him. Douglas tried very, hard and applied all
his knowledge to come to the surface of the water but to no avail. Somehow, he was saved. Thus
after this fearful incident, his fear of water got implanted in his heart and mind
permanently.

Question.4. How did the instructor make Douglas a good swimmer?

Answer. To overcome his fear of water, Douglas finally decided to get an instructor to learn
swimming. The instructor started working with him five days a week, an hour each day. The
instructor put a belt around Douglas. A rope was attached to the belt that went through a pulley
that ran on an overhead cable. The instructor held on to the end of the rope and , along with
Douglas went back and forth, across the pool, hour after hour, day after day,
week after week. On each trip across the pool a bit of panic seized Douglas. It took almost three
months before the tension reduced.
Then the instructor taught him to put his face under the water and exhale and to raise his nose
and inhale. For weeks, his instructor made him kick with his legs. Until, he was able to
command his legs at his will.
In this way, piece by piece, his instructor made Douglas a swimmer. When Douglas perfected
each piece, his instructor put them together into an integrated one. As a result, in nearly six
months Douglas was able to swim, dive, crawl and so on.

EXAM POINT OF VIEW QUESTIONS (TO BE PRACTISED)

1. How did the incident at the YMCA pool affect Douglas?

2. When Douglas realised that he was sinking, how did he plan to save himself?
3. Why did William Douglas develop aversion to the water when he was three or four years
old?
4. What sort of terror seized Douglas as he went down the water with a yellow glow? How
could he feel that he was still alive?
5. In Deep Water, which qualities of the swimming instructor played a role in helping Douglas
overcome his fear?