Power Point Presentation

Deep Water

Submitted By :- Karim Khan

Class - 12 – B
Roll no. - 18
About the Author

About the Story

Questions & Answers

Difficult words
AUTHOR

William
Douglas
(1898 – 1980)
About The Author
William Douglas

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 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.
 About the Story
“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.
“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
DROWNING
“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.
“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.
“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.
 QUESTIONS
Q. How does Douglas make clear to the reader the sense
of panic that gripped him as he almost drowned?

William describes his experience where he had a close brush with

death at the Y.M.C.A. Swimming pool. As it a first-person
account, he has described it deeply. The emotional, mental and
physical struggle and the paralyzing fear of drowning have been
discussed in detail.
William retained his intelligence and had a plan to come to the
surface. He tried it but I did not work and after a few trials to
save his life, death dawned upon him.
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.
 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.
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 disaster
bob 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
Thanks For
Reading!