The Deep Water (Flamingo) Class 12th English

 Class 12th English (flamingo )

  The Deep Water  English  

    (Class 12th )

 Introduction :

William Douglas (1898-1980) was born in Maine, Minnesota. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in English 
and Economics, he spent two years teaching at a high school in Yakima. He was an advisor and a friend to President 
Roosevelt. Douglas was a leading advocate of individual rights. He retired in 1975 with a term lasting thirty-six years 
and remained for a time the longest period-serving justice in the history of the court. “Deep Water” has been taken from 
his book “Men and Mountains”. It was his personal experience. It reveals how as a young boy, William Douglas nearly 
drowned in a swimming pool. In this extract, he talks about his fear of water and thereafter, how he finally overcame it.

Summary :

Douglas was about four years old. He visited a beach with his father. They stood in the surf. A powerful wave 

swept him and knocked him down. He was terrified. He had avoided water since then. 

When Douglas was about eleven years old, he had a desire to learn swimming. The Yakima River was treacherous. 

Many people had drowned in it. His mother advised him never to try to swim in it. But the YMCA pool was safe. It 

was only two to three feet deep at its shallow end. The other end was about nine feet deep and the drop was gradual. 

Douglas decided to learn swimming there. He bought a pair of water wings and went to the pool. He paddled 

with water wings. He imitated others.

One day he was sitting all alone on the edge of the pool, a well-built young man came there. He looked at skinny 

Douglas and out of mirth, picked him up and tossed him into the deepest part of the pool. Douglas hit the water surface 

in a sitting position and began to sink to the bottom slowly. Douglas was terrified, but he could think of a plan to save 

himself. He decided to spring from the bottom of the pool as soon as his toes touched it.

He hoped he would pop like a cork to the surface. Then, he would lie flat and paddle to the edge of the pool.

As soon as his toes touched the tiled floor of the pool, Douglas bounced with all his strength. But he did not rise 

quickly. He came up slowly. He opened his eyes. He could see only water. He grew panicky. He was suffocating. He 

tried to shout but there was no sound. Finally, his eyes and nose came out of the water. He beat his arms. He tried to 

raise his legs. But they hung like dead weights. He felt something was pulling him downward again. 

Once again, he slipped downwards. He had spent all his energy. His lungs ached and his head throbbed. He was 

getting dizzy. But fortunately he could remember his strategy. Once again he sprang from the bottom of the pool. He 

was paralysed, stiff and rigid. But when he jumped, he could see only water around him. Then, suddenly he reached 

the surface. His eyes and nose came out of water. But he began to go down once again.

Once again, he began to drift downwards. He could make no effort. He was relaxed. There was no fear. There 

was no panic. It was all quiet and peaceful. He felt as if he were floating in space. He was unconscious. When Douglas 

regained his consciousness, he realised that he had been saved. He was lying on his stomach. He was vomiting. He 

heard voices. Someone said he had nearly died. The young man who had thrown him into the pool said that he had 

done it out of fun. 

After sometime, Douglas went home. He was weak and trembling. The dreadful experience haunted him again 

and again. A few years later he went to the waters of the Cascades. He wished to wade into them. The terror seized him 

again. His legs were paralysed. Whenever and wherever he went fishing, canoeing, bathing and swimming, he was seized with terror. The joy of living was lost. Finally, Douglas decided to get an instructor to help him overcome his fear 

of water. The instructor helped him bit by bit, piece by piece. First, he put a belt round Douglas and attached the belt 

with a rope. He held the end of the rope as they moved up and down the pool. He made Douglas put his face under 

water and exhale. He held Douglas on the side of the pool and made him kick with legs. He was with Douglas for about 

six months. When he felt that Douglas was able to swim alone, he left.

Though Douglas was able to swim the length of the pool up and down, he was not sure that the old fear had left 

him completely. He, however, was prepared to overcome it if it reappeared. Then, he went to Lake Wentworth in New 

Hampshire. He dived off a dock at Triggs Island. He swam two miles across the lake to Stamp Act Island. He used all 

the strokes he knew. Only once did the terror return. But Douglas was able to overcome it at once. He still wanted to 

test himself. So Douglas went to Warm Lake. There, he swam across the other shore and back. Terror did not reappear. 

Douglas gave out a cry of victory.

His terror of water and his conquest of it, gave him an insight into the meaning of life and death. He had experienced the fear of death as well as the sensation of dying. He felt there is peace in death. So he lived more intensely. He enjoyed life.

Excerpts for understanding [4 marks each]

Q. 1. Read the passage given and answer the questions following:

 It had happened when I was ten or eleven years  old. I had decided to learn to swim. There was a pool at the Y.M.C.A. in Yakima that offered  exactly the opportunity. The Yakima River was  treacherous. Mother continually warned against  it, and kept fresh in my mind the details of each 

drowning in the river. But the Y.M.C.A. pool was  safe. It was only two or three feet deep at the  shallow end; and while it was nine feet deep at  the other, the drop was gradual. I got a pair of 

water wings and went to the pool. I hated to walk  naked into it and show my skinny legs. But I  subdued my pride and did it.

a. When did the writer decide to learn to swim (1 marks) 

b. Where did he decide to learn swimming? (1 marks)  

c. His mother warned him against swimming in the Yakima River because many people __________  .                 (1 marks) 

d. The author hated to walk naked to the pool as he had

(a) skinny arms

(b) bony chest

(c) skinny legs

(d) hairy legs 1

Ans.

a. The writer decided to learn to swim when he was about ten or eleven years old.

b. He decided to learn in a swimming pool at YMCA.

c. had drowned there.

d. (c) skinny legs.

Q. 2. Read the passage given and answer the questions following:

 My introduction to the Y.M.CA. swimming pool revived unpleasant memories and stirred childish fears. But in a little while I gathered confidence. I paddled with my new water wings, watching the 

other boys and trying to learn by aping them. I did this two or three times on different days and was just beginning to feel at ease in the water when the misadventure happened. I went to the pool when no one else was there. 

The place was quiet. The water was still, and the tiled bottom was as white and clean as a bathtub. 

I was timid about going in alone, so I sat on the side of the pool to wait for others.

I had not been there long when in came a big bruiser of a boy, probably eighteen years old. He had thick hair on his chest. He was a beautiful physical specimen, with legs and arms that showed rippling muscles. He yelled, “Hi, Skinny!  How’d you like to be ducked?”

a. What got revived in Douglas’ memory at the 

introduction to the Y.M.C.A swimming pool?   (1 marks) 

b. Who was with Douglas when the misadventure at the Y.M.C.A pool happened?     ( 1 marks)

c. The boy who threw Douglas into the pool was about

(a) twenty years old

(b) eighteen years old

(c) twenty-one years old

(d) fifteen years old.      (1 marks) 

d. What was the title given to the boy by Douglas?           (1 marks)

Ans.

 a. The childhood fear of water got revived in the memory of Douglas

b. Douglas was alone at that time.

c. (b) eighteen years old.

d. Douglas called him a beautiful physical specimen.

Q. 3. Read the passage given and answer the questions following:

 I used every way I knew to overcome this fear, but it held me firmly in its grip. Finally, one October, I decided to get an instructor and learn to swim. I went to a pool and practiced five days a week, an 

hour each day. The instructor put a belt around me. A rope attached to the belt went through a pulley that ran on an overhead cable. He held on to the end of the rope, and we went back and forth, back and forth across the pool, hour after hour, day after day, week after week. On each trip across the pool a bit of the panic seized me. Each 

time the instructor relaxed his hold on the rope and I went under, some of the old terror returned and my legs froze. It was three months before the tension began to slack. Then he taught me to put my face under water and exhale, and to raise my 

nose and inhale. I repeated the exercise hundreds of times. Bit by bit I shed part of the panic that seized me when my head went under water.

a. Whose help did Douglas decide to take?    ( 1 marks) 

b. To which part of Douglas’ body was the rope attached?                     (1 marks) 

c. How long in a week did he practice in the pool?                     ( 1 marks) 

d. Douglas’ tension started slackening after

(a) four months 

(b) three months

(c) five months 

(d) one month .                    (1 marks) 

Ans. 

a. Douglas decided to take help of an instructor.

b. The rope was attached to Douglas’ belt.

c. Douglas practiced for five days in a week in the swimming pool.

d. (b) three months.

Q. 4. Read the given passage and answer the questions that follow:

 Yet I had residual doubts. At my first opportunity I hurried west, went up the Tieton to Conrad Meadows, up the Conrad Creek Trail to Meade Glacier, and camped in the high meadow by the side of Warm Lake. The next morning I stripped, 

dived into the lake, and swam across to the other shore and back — just as Doug Corpron used to do. I shouted with joy, and Gilbert Peak returned the echo. I had conquered my fear of water. 

 The experience had a deep meaning for me, as only those who have known stark terror and conquered it can appreciate. In death there is peace. There is terror only in the fear of death, as Roosevelt knew when he said, “All we have to fear is fear itself.” Because I had experienced both 

the sensation of dying and the terror that fear of it can produce, the will to live somehow grew in intensity.

 At last I felt released — free to walk the trails and climb the peaks and to brush aside fear.

a. Which peak returned the echo of Douglas voice?       (1 marks) 

b. ‘All we have to fear is fear itself. Who said these 

words?        (1 marks) 

c. With his hard work, Douglas had

(a) conquered his fear of water 

(b) conquered Mount Everest

(c) got a good job

(d) got a promotion.             (1 marks)

d. What was the feeling of Douglas at the end of the experience?            ( 1 marks)

Ans. 

a. Gilbert peak returned the echo of Douglas’ voice.

b. President Roosevelt said these words.

c. (a) conquered his fear of water.

d. At the end of the experience, Douglas felt released.

Short Answer Type Questions.   
[2 marks each]

(Answer the following questions in about 30-40 words each.)

Q. 1. Why did Douglas’ mother recommend that he should learn swimming at the YMCA swimming pool ?                                         [Delhi Set I, 2015]

Ans. Douglas’ mother recommended that he should learn swimming at the YMCA pool because it was safe. It was only 2-3 feet deep at the shallow end. The other end was about 9 feet deep and the drop 

was gradual.             

Q. 2. Why was the YMCA pool considered safe to learn swimming ?

 [Comptt., Outside Delhi III, 2015]

 OR

 Why did Douglas prefer to go to YMCA pool to learn swimming ?

 [Comptt., Delhi Set-III, 2014]

OR

 Why did William Douglas use the YMCA pool and not Yakima river to learn swimming ?

 [Outside Delhi Set-I, 2013]

Answer : Douglas preferred to go to the 

YMCA pool because it was safe as it was only two to three feet deep at its shallow end and nine feet deep at the other end and the drop was gradual. Whereas yakima river was treacherous and many 

cases of drawing had been reported.

Q. 3. How did William Douglas’ aversion to water begin ?

 [Comptt., Delhi Set-I, 2013]

OR

 Why did William Douglas develop an aversion to water when he was three or four years old ?

 [CBSE, SQP I, 2012, Comptt. Delhi Set-I, 2010] [Foreign Set I, 2017]

 OR

 When did Douglas first start fearing water?

 [Comptt. Outside Delhi Set-II, 2017]

Answer : William Douglas’ aversion to 

water started when he was three or four years old and his father took him to the beach in California. They stood together in the surf. He hung onto 

his father, yet the waves knocked him down and swept over him. He was buried in water. His breath was gone and he was frightened. His father laughed, but there was terror in his heart at the overpowering force of the waves.

Q. 4. What did Douglas feel and do when he was pushed into the swimming pool ?

 [Comptt., Outside Delhi Set-I, 2014]

OR

 How did Douglas hope to come out when he was thrown into YMCA pool ?

  [Foreign Set-III, 2017]

Answer : When he was pushed into the 

swimming pool, he was scared but planned to hit the bottom as soon as he touched the ground and come up to the surface like a cork. Then he lay flat on the surface of water and paddled to the edge of the pool.

Q. 5. How did Douglas’ experience at the YMCA swimming pool affect him ?

 [Delhi Set III, 2016]

Answer : Douglas’ experience at the 

YMCA swimming pool left him weak and trembling. When he reached home, he shook and cried, he couldn’t eat. The fear of the experience always haunted him and the slightest exertion upset him. At a later stage he couldn’t go near water for years. It deprived him of the joy of canoeing, 

boating, swimming and fishing as the fear of water strengthened with the passage of time

Q. 6. Mention any two long-term consequences of the 

drowning incident on Douglas.

[CBSE, SQP, 2015]

Ans. The near death experience of drowning had a very 

strong impact on his psychology. He was deeply perturbed and shaken by the whole experience. A haunting fear of water took control of his physical 

strength and emotional balance for many years, as he couldn’t bear being surrounded by water. He was deprived of enjoying any water - related activities like swimming, fishing or canoeing. 

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