Power Point Presentation

Deep Water

Submitted By :- Manish Narwariya

Anand Kumawat
Click on Wanted Sub-Heading

About the Author

Notes

Questions & Answers

Difficult words
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.

Click on The Arrow to

go Back
 Notes
“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.

Next Page
“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

Next Page
“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.

Next Page
“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.

Next Page
“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.

Click here & Go to Home page

 1.
Questions & Answers
Q. What is the “misadventure” that William
Douglas speaks about?

Next
Question

Ans. William O. Douglas had just learnt swimming. One day, an

eighteen year old big bruiser picked him up and tossed him into the
nine feet deep end of the Y.M.C.A. pool. He hit the water surface in a
sitting position. He swallowed water and went at once to the bottom. He
nearly died in this misadventure.
 2.

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.
Next Question
3. 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.
Going to home …….wrooooommm……

Oh stop!! … press
Home Icon Plzz …
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
Thank You For Watching