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Deep Water
Describe the various attempts that Douglas had to make while he was in the Y.M.CA. pool.
When Douglas was thrown into the nine feet deep Y.M.C.A. pool, he landed in a sitting position in the beginning. He swallowed water and went down at once to the bottom. On the way down he was frightened but not completely out of wits. His lungs were ready to brust but made a strategy to spring upwards on hitting the bottom. He came up slowly and saw the dirty water on all his sides. He wanted to cry for help but water entered in his mouth. His legs became paralysed stiff and rigid ? A great force was pulling him under. He started his back journey to the bottom for the second time. He could not bob to the surface like a cork as he had thought. He went down and down endlessly.
The sheer stark terror seized him. He was crying under water. He called his mother to help him but nothing happened. He looked for ropes, water ladders, water wings for help but there was no help. He was tremblilng with fear. He started down a third time. In place of air, he sucked water everytime. All his efforts stopped.
Black darkness covered his brain. There was no panic, no fear and no terror. It was calm and peaceful. It was nice and he felt sleepy as if he had been in his mother’s arms. The curtain of life fell and he lay unconcious.
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Why was Douglas determined to get over his fear of water?
How did the instructor 'build a swimmer’ out of Douglas?
How did Douglas make sure that he conquered the old terror?
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.
How did Douglas overcome his fear of water?
Why does Douglas as an adult recount a childhood experience of terror and his conquering of it? What larger meaning does he draw from this experience?
“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.
Find and narrate other stories about conquest fear and what people have said about courage. For example, you can recall Nelson Mandela’s courage and his struggle for freedom, his perseverance to achieve his mission, to liberate the oppressed and the oppressor as depicted in his autobiography. The story “We’re Not Afraid To Die,” which you have read in class XI, is an apt example of how courage and optimism that helped the family service under the direst stress.
If some one else had narrated Douglas’s experience how would it have differed from this account. Write out a sample paragraph or paragraphs from this text from the point of view of a third person or observer, to find out. Which style of narration would you consider to be more effective? Why?
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 relased – free to walk the trails and climb the peaks and to brush aside fear.”
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