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Deep Water

English class 12 work

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rimmik1977
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229 views26 pages

Deep Water

English class 12 work

Uploaded by

rimmik1977
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

• William 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 adviser and
friend to the President. Douglas was a leading
advocate of individual rights. 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 excerpt 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 overcame it. Notice
how the autobiographical part of the selection
is used to support his discussion of fear.
SUMMARY
The story has been taken from the author’s autobiography- ‘Of Men and Mountains’.
In this piece he tells about his fear of water and how he conquered it by determination and will
power.

As a child, when he was 3 or 4 years old, he would go to the beach in California with his father. He
would get scared by the might of the huge waves which swept over him and it instilled a fear in his
sub – conscious mind.

A few years later, in his eagerness to learn swimming, he joined a swimming pool where an incident
further increased his terror. He was pushed into the pool by another boy and experienced death
closely. He learned swimming with the help of an instructor who ensured that William knew
swimming well enough to be able to swim in huge lakes and waterfalls also.
Still, when he would swim, the fear from his childhood experiences, embedded in his sub-conscious
mind would grip him over and over again. He wanted to conquer that fear.

He faced it sarcastically, thinking that now, as he knew how to swim, what harm could it do to him.
He challenged his fear in the face of it and finally it would vanish.
It was a baseless fear instilled in his sub-conscious mind. This experience was valuable for him. He
had experienced terror and death. He overcame it and finally conquered it.
William realized that death is peaceful and it is the fear of death that is terrorizing. His will to live
life grew intensely as he had overcome his fear and started living fearlessly.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
• Q1. What is the “misadventure ” that • Q3. How did this experience
William Douglas speaks about?
Ans. William O. Douglas had just learnt affect him?
swimming. One day, an eighteen year old big Ans. This experience revived his
bruiser picked him up and tossed him into aversion to water. He shook and
the nine feet deep end of the Y.M.C.A. pool.
He hit the water surface in a sitting position. cried when he lay on his bed.
He swallowed water and went at once to the He couldn’t eat that night. For
bottom. He nearly died in this misadventure.
many days, there was a
• Q2. What were the series of emotions and
fears that Douglas experienced when he haunting fear in his heart. The
was thrown into the pool? What plans did slightest exertion upset him,
he make to come to the surface? making him wobbly in the
Ans. Douglas was frightened when he was
thrown into the pool. However, he was not knees and sick to his stomach.
frightened out of his wits. While sinking He never went back to the pool.
down he made a plan. He would make a big
jump when his feet hit the bottom. He would
He feared water and avoided it
come to the surface like a cork, lie flat on it, whenever he could.
and paddle to the edge of the pool.
• 3. Why does Douglas as an adult • How did Douglas overcome his
recount a childhood experience of fear of water?
terror and his conquering of it? What Ans. When Douglas grew up, he
larger meaning does he draw from took the help of an instructor to
this experience? learn swimming. His training went
Ans. The experience of terror was a on from October to April. For three
handicap Douglas suffered from months he was taken across the
during his childhood. His conquering pool with the help of a rope. As he
of it shows his determination, will went under, terror filled him and
power and development of his his legs froze. The instructor taught
personality. him to exhale under water and
He drew a larger meaning from this inhale through raised nose. He
experience. “In death there is peace.” made him kick his legs to make
“There is terror only in the fear of them relax. Then he asked him to
death.” He had experienced both the swim. He continued swimming
sensation of dying and the terror that from April to July. Still all terror
fear of it can produce. So, the will to
had not left. He swam two miles
live somehow grew in intensity. He
across Lake Wentworth and the
felt released- free to walk the
whole length to the shore and
mountain paths, climb the peaks and
back of Warm Lake. Then he
brush aside fear.
overcame his fear of water.

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