Deep Water

Based on the sources, here is a summary of the chapter “Deep Water” and answers to the questions posed within the text.

The chapter “Deep Water” is an autobiographical account by William Douglas about how he overcame his debilitating fear of water. This fear began with a terrifying experience at a California beach when he was three or four years old, where he was knocked down and buried by a wave. Later, at the age of ten or eleven, he decided to learn to swim at the YMCA pool in Yakima, which was considered safe. However, a “misadventure” occurred when a big boy tossed him into the deep end of the pool, causing him to nearly drown. He went down three times, experiencing immense panic and terror, despite his attempts to implement a strategy to push off the bottom and surface like a cork. He eventually lost consciousness. This near-drowning experience left him with a haunting fear of water that affected him for years, preventing him from enjoying activities like fishing, canoeing, boating, and swimming.

To overcome this handicap, Douglas hired an instructor. The instructor worked with him five days a week, hour after hour, helping him learn the basics of swimming, such as putting his face underwater and exhaling, raising his nose and inhaling, and kicking with his legs. The instructor gradually built him into a swimmer, piece by piece. Even after the instructor was finished, Douglas continued to test himself, swimming alone in the pool and confronting the lingering terror. To ensure he had truly conquered the fear, he swam in Lake Wentworth and later in Warm Lake, deliberately putting himself in situations that would challenge him. He recounts that overcoming this terror had a deep meaning for him, teaching him that terror exists only in the fear of death, and conquering it intensified his will to live, as reflected in Roosevelt’s quote, “All we have to fear is fear itself”.

Here are the answers to the questions from the text:

Understanding the text

1. The “misadventure” that William Douglas speaks about is when a “big bruiser of a boy” picked him up and tossed him into the deep end of the YMCA swimming pool, leading to a near-drowning experience. 😟
2. When he was thrown into the pool, Douglas initially felt frightened, but not yet “frightened out of his wits”. His plan was to make a big jump from the bottom, come to the surface, lie flat, and paddle to the edge. As he went down, his lungs were ready to burst. At the surface, he felt panicky, was suffocating, tried to yell but no sound came out, flailed at the surface, swallowed and choked, and felt his legs hang as dead weights, paralysed and rigid. Going down the second time, he struck at the water, expending strength, lost breath, felt his lungs ache, head throb, and became dizzy, but still remembered his strategy. Going down endlessly the third time, sheer, stark terror seized him, a terror that knew no understanding or control; he was shrieking and paralysed underwater with fear, his screams frozen in his throat. He felt a “great charge of electricity,” shook and trembled, and couldn’t move his arms or legs.
3. This experience affected Douglas deeply and negatively. He was weak and trembling for hours after the incident. He shook and cried at home and couldn’t eat that night. For days, a haunting fear stayed in his heart, and slight exertion made him wobbly and sick. He never went back to the pool, feared water, and avoided it. The terror would return and seize him whenever he tried to enter water, paralysing his legs and grabbing his heart, which ruined his fishing trips and deprived him of the joy of water activities. 😨

Understanding the text

1. Douglas makes the sense of panic clear through vivid descriptions of his physical and emotional state. Details include: his initial plan followed by its failure, the feeling of being suffocated, the inability to make a sound when trying to yell or scream, his flailing limbs, his legs becoming paralysed dead weights, the feeling of being pulled under by a great force, comparing his struggle to a nightmare, the physical pain of aching lungs and throbbing head, the overwhelming, uncontrollable “sheer, stark terror”, shaking and trembling with fright, and the final moments of giving up and feeling peaceful just before losing consciousness. 🌊➡️😟➡️😱➡️😵
2. Douglas overcame his fear by first deciding to get an instructor. He practiced with the instructor, learning techniques like proper breathing (exhaling underwater, inhaling while raising the nose) and kicking. The instructor used a rope and pulley system to keep him secure while they practiced moving across the pool. The instructor gradually taught him piece by piece and then combined them into a complete swimming stroke. After the instructor finished, Douglas continued to test himself alone in the pool to challenge the remaining fear. Finally, he went to Lakes Wentworth and Warm Lake and swam long distances by himself to confirm that the terror was gone, confronting it when it resurfaced and dismissing it. 💪🏊
3. Douglas recounts this childhood experience and its conquest as an adult because it had a deep personal meaning for him. He wanted to share the insight that only those who have known and conquered stark terror can truly appreciate the experience. The larger meaning he draws is that terror resides only in the fear of death, while death itself can be peaceful. He connects his experience to President Roosevelt’s idea that “All we have to fear is fear itself”. By experiencing both the sensation of dying and the terror of it, his will to live grew stronger. He recounts it to illustrate the psychological process of overcoming fear and its profound impact on his life, allowing him to feel “released” and “free”. ✨🔓

Talking about the text

1. Douglas was determined to get over his fear of water because the haunting fear followed him, ruining his enjoyment of outdoor activities like fishing, canoeing, boating, and swimming. He felt the fear was a handicap that needed to be overcome so he could fully participate in life.
2. The instructor built a swimmer out of Douglas piece by piece. This involved putting a belt around him attached to a rope and pulley system, guiding him back and forth across the pool to help him shed panic. The instructor also taught him to put his face underwater and exhale, and to raise his nose and inhale, repeating this hundreds of times. Next, he worked on his legs, holding him at the side of the pool until his legs relaxed and he could command them for kicking. Once individual skills were perfected, they were integrated into a complete swimming stroke, like the crawl. 🏗️🏊‍♂️
3. To make sure he conquered the old terror, Douglas continued practising and challenging himself after the instructor was finished. He swam alone in the YMCA pool, length after length, confronting any returning fear. He then went to Lake Wentworth and swam two miles across it, using different strokes. When the terror returned in miniature in the middle of the lake, he laughed at it and swam on. His final test and confirmation of conquering the fear was swimming across and back Warm Lake, after which he shouted with joy. 🎉

Please note that the sections titled “Talking about the text”, “Thinking about language”, “Writing”, and “Things to do” in the sources provide prompts for discussion, writing tasks, or activities, rather than questions about the content of the story itself that can be answered directly from the text provided.