Summary of Chapter 3 Deep Water Class 12 Flamingo
Summary of Deep Water by William Douglas
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.
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.
