summary of deep water in 150 words
Answers
Summary
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 swimming 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. 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 throbbed 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 Maine Lakes, New Hampshire, Deschutes, Columbia and Bumping Lake etc. 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 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 sarcastically 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.
Answer:
The story, 'Deep Water', has been taken from William Douglas's autobiography, 'Of Men and Mountains'. In this piece, he tells about his fear of water and how he conquered it with determination and willpower.
As a child, when he was three or four years old, he would go to the beach in California with his father. He was frightened when the huge waves swept over him and it instilled fear in his subconscious mind.
A few years later, in his eagerness to learn to swim, he joined a swimming pool where an incident further increased his terror. He was pushed by a boy into the deeper edge of the pool and he experienced death closely.
Many years after that incident, he stayed away from water but the desire to go fishing and swim in nature was strong enough to motivate him to overcome his fear.
He learned swimming with 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 mind would grim him over and over again. He always wanted to overcome that fear.
William faced it sarcastically, thinking that now, as he knew how to swim, what harm could it do to him. He challenged his fear of water and finally, it vanished. It was a baseless fear instilled in his mind. This experience was worth memorable and valuable for William. During that incident, he experienced terror and death. He overcame it and finally conquered it over time with strong dedication and willpower.
Over time, William realized that death is peaceful and it is the fear of death that is terrorizing. His will to live grew intensely as he had overcome his fear and started living fearlessly.
#SPJ2