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Summary of Deep Water - William Douglas

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DEEP WATER
               –William Douglas

Douglas decides to learn swimming amidst fears
When Douglas was about ten or eleven years of age he decided to learn swimming at a pool at the Y.M.C.A. in Yakima.  While the Yakima River was considered dangerous for swimming, the pool was safe.  The pool had a gradual slope with just a two or three feet depth at the shallow end and nine feet at the other. Equipped with a pair of water wings, he went to the pool.
At this point, Douglas recalls a surfing experience with his father at the California beach when he was two or three years old. He was knocked down from his surf by a wave.  This mishap terrified him and created in him an aversion to water.
When Douglas joined the Y.M.C.A. swimming pool, his fear of water was revived. But he managed to gather his confidence and, imitating other boys, started to paddle with his water wings. As he started to feel comfortable with two or three days of effort, a misadventure happened at the pool.
The ‘misadventure’ and Douglas’s struggle to keep himself from drowning
One day, Douglas reached the pool before anyone else. Apprehensive about entering the pool alone, he sat on the side waiting for the others to come. Suddenly, a strong boy of around eighteen years approached him. He tossed Douglas into the deep side of the pool, just for the fun of it. Douglas began to go down the water, but he did not lose his wits straight away. In spite of being terrified, he planned to allow himself to go down and that once he hit the bottom, he would jump to the surface of the pool and paddle himself to the edge. As his feet touched the floor of the pool, he tried to execute his plan. But, he moved up slowly. He reached the surface and flailed at the water before going down again. He panicked and felt suffocated, but remembered his strategy and decided to employ it once again.  However, the moment he opened his eyes in the water, terror gripped him. He made desperate efforts, but his lungs ached as he gulped water. Even though he managed to come to the surface again, he could not sustain there and began to go down for the third time. This time, however, there was no more fear; he had given up, accepted death.
But he survived; someone managed to get him out of the water just in time. Nonetheless, the author’s fear of water only increased after this fateful incident.
Douglas' ‘haunting fear’ of water becomes his handicap
This incident had a major impact on the day-to-day activities of Douglas. For years, he was felt deprived of all water related activities such as wading, canoeing, boating, swimming, fishing, etc. Whenever he went near the water, terror would strike again.
The process of building a swimmer
In order to deal with his fear, Douglas decided to get a swimming instructor, who engaged him in relentless practice.
The first exercise involved swimming back and forth the pool, with the instructor and Douglas both connected to each other by means of a rope, belt, pulley and an overhead cable. This was to make him comfortable inside the pool. The instructor then made Douglas learn and master individual techniques of swimming, like putting his head in the water, exhaling and inhaling while in water, movements of his hands, body and legs, etc. Soon Douglas was able to conquer his fear to a great extent. Six months later, he integrated these perfected steps to build a swimmer out of Douglas.
Dealing with the vestiges of the fear
To make sure he had actually overcome his fear, Douglas decided to test himself. He was resolute to get rid of it entirely. First, he tried swimming alone in the pool. Then, he went to Lake Wentworth in New Hampshire to dive. Initially, tiny vestiges of fear seized him, but he fought those back. At long last, he conquered his fear in the diving expedition in the Warm Lake.
Reflection on the whole experience
The author concludes the section by saying that the entire experience made him realize that “in death there is peace”. He quotes Roosevelt, “All we have to fear is fear itself”, and states how his encounter with death strengthened his will to live.
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