ENGLISH PROJECT

DEEP WATER
By Willaim Douglas

NAME : ANU MITHRA M P

CLASS : XII
REGISTER NUMBER :
LESSON : DEEP WATER
AUTHOR : WILLIAM DOUGLAS
 BONAFIDE CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that ANU MITHRA M P, a student of Grade

XII has successfully completed English project entitled
‘DEEP WATER’ under the guidance of Mrs. SHABANA
PARVEEN (PGT ENGLISH) during the academic year 2023-
2024 in partial fulfillment of English project conducted by
AISSCE , New Delhi.

REGISTER NUMBER :
DATE OF SUMBISSION :

INTERNAL EXAMINER EXTERNAL EXAMINER

PRINCIPAL
 ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Determined and competitive in nature, William O. Douglas

set the record for longest continuous service on the Supreme
Court. Douglas was born on October 16, 1898, in Maine,
Minnesota, to Julia Fisk and Reverend William Douglas. His
peers described him as shy; however, Douglas was active in
his high school debating team and rarely lost a debate.
Douglas was a star of the debating team, student congress
president, and president of Beta Theta Pi. He wrote for the
campus literary magazine, occasionally delivered sermons at
campus services, and tutored students for his economics
professor. In 1923, he married Mildred Riddle and spent most
of his savings in order to do so. Douglas graduated second in
his class at Columbia in 1925 and began working for one of
the most prestigious Wall Street law firms. He retired in 1875
with a term lasting thirty six years and remains the longest
serving Justice in the history of court.
 LESSON SUMMARY
This lesson reveals how 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 overcame it. He
did it with strong will power, courage, hard work, and firm
determination. Once he took courage, the fear vanished. That
Shows most of our fears are baseless. Fear creates dangers
where there is none.

The incident in the swimming pool where a bully nearly

drowned him as a youngster and the boyhood experience of
being knocked down by the waves at the California beach
contributed to a dread of water that haunted him even as an
adult. He ultimately made the decision to face his anxiety
because he was unable to enjoy swimming, fishing, or
boating like others. His further attempts to get over the fear,
demonstrate his guts and willpower. Therefore, the message
being sent to us is that one must get above their fear.
The story has been taken from the author’s autobiography-
‘Of Men and Mountains’. In this piece, he tells about his fear
of water and how he conquered it by determination and
willpower.
As a child, when he was 3 or 4 years old, he would go to the
beach in California with his father. He would get scared by the
might of the huge waves which swept over him and it instilled
fear in his subconscious mind. A few years later, in his
eagerness to learn swimming, he joined a swimming pool
where an incident further increased his terror. He was pushed
into the pool by another boy and experienced death closely.

Many years after that incident, he stayed away from water

but the desire to go fishing and swimming in nature was
strong enough to motivate him to overcome his fear. He
learned swimming with the help of an instructor who
ensured that William knew swimming well enough to be able
to swim in huge lakes and waterfalls also.

Still, when he would swim, the fear from his childhood

experiences, embedded in his subconscious mind would grip
him over and over again. He wanted to conquer that fear.
He faced it sarcastically, thinking that now, as he knew how to
swim, what harm could it do to him. He challenged his fear in
the face of it and finally, it would vanish.

It was a baseless fear instilled in his subconscious mind. This

experience was valuable for him. He had experienced terror
and death. He overcame it and finally conquered it.
William realized that death is peaceful and it is the fear of
death that is terrorizing. His will to live life grew intensely as
he had overcome his fear and started living fearlessly.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS
THEME :
The theme of the story is Victory in facing the fear.

Proof to support the theme :

1. The author had a fear of water since he was a child. He
had a traumatic experience of almost drowning in a pool
when he was a young boy. This fear had stayed with him
for years and prevented him from learning how to swim.

2. The author started taking swimming lessons and faced

his fear of water. He struggled at first but gradually
became more confident. He learned different techniques
and practiced regularly.

3. In the end, the author was able to swim across the lake
without any fear. He felt a sense of victory and
accomplishment. He had overcome his fear and
achieved something he never thought possible.
SUB THEME :
Psychological analysis of fear.

“I went down, down endlessly…..Now I must go to sleep.”

He went down the water, feeling paralysed as terror gripped

him tightly. His only reminder that he was alive was the
constant thudding of his heart. No matter how hard he tried
jumping back up, he was still surrounded by water. At one
point, all his time and effort ceased, and he was moving
towards peaceful death.

“This handicap stayed with me as the years rolled

by…deprived me of the joy of fishing, canoeing, boating and
swimming.”

The terror that he had experienced in the pool never left him.
And because of his fear, he refrained from taking part in
pleasurable events like boating, canoeing, swimming, etc.
“I used every way I knew to overcome….And climb the peaks
and brush aside fear.”

Experiences of pain or pleasure in childhood remains in the

subconscious mind and influences our feelings in the future
too. Even after becoming an expert in swimming, the writer
felt fear. But once he took the courage, the fear vanquished.
The writer’s experiences further confirm the proverbial truth
“Where there is a will, there is a way”.

DIFFICULT WORDS
• Treacherous → Dangerous
• Drop → Slope from the shallow area to the deep
area.
• Subdued → To overcome
• Pride → Self-respect
• Aversion → Dislike
• Revived → Brought back to mind
• Tinge → Touch of colour
• Stark → Severe
• Vestiges → Traces
• Paralysed → incapable of movement
• Curtain of life fell → Life came to an end
• Handicap → a circumstance that makes progress
or success difficult.
• Deprived → To take away
• Slack → To reduce
 CHARACTER ANALYSIS
✓ William Douglas – Narrator and protagonist
✓ Douglas’ Mother – A concerned mother
✓ An 18 year old boy – Careless, thoughtless,
muscular
✓ The Instructor – Highly skilled, insightful.

LITERARY DEVICES

1. SIMILE :
a) Nine feet felt like ninety –
Because of the author’s fear, even though the
pool was only nine feet deep, he felt like he was
drowning forever, and that it took a very long
time to even reach the bottom.
 b) I would bob to the surface like a cork –
Whilst the writer was drowning, he was planning
an escape plan. He figured he would go to the
bottom of the pool, and then push against the
ground and reach the surface, just like how a
cork would float passively.

2. REPETITION :
a) I went down, down, endlessly -
The writer feels like the time had stopped as he
kept drowning towards the bottom of the pool.
This statement justifies his previous remark
about how nine feet felt like ninety.

3. PERSONIFICATION :
a) Stark terror seized me –
Fear like had never known had taken a firm grip
on him, and didn’t let go. It tells us that he
couldn’t get rid of the fear no matter how hard
he tried.
b) Terror that knows no understanding
c) Terror that knows no control

4. MATAPHOR :
a) Curtain of life
5. APOSTROPHE :
a) “Trying to scare me, eh? Well, here’s to you!”

6. PARADOX :
1. All we have to fear is fear itself.

UNDERSTANDING THE TEXT

1. How does Douglas make clear to the reader the
sense of panic that gripped him as he almost
drowned? Describe the details that have made the
description vivid.
Douglas gives a detailed account of his feelings and
efforts to save himself from getting drowned. He uses
literary devices to make the description graphic and vivid.
For example, ‘Those nine feet were more like ninety’, ‘My
lungs were ready to burst.’, ‘I came up slowly, I opened my
eyes and saw nothing but water….. I grew panicky!’, ‘I was
suffocating. I tried to yell, but no sound came out!’
2. How did Douglas overcome his fear of water?
When Douglas grew up, he took the help of an instructor to
learn swimming. His training went on from October to
April. For three months he was taken across the pool with
the help of a rope. As he went under, terror filled him and
his legs froze. The instructor taught him to exhale under
water and inhale through raised nose. He made him kick
his legs to make them relax. Then he asked him to swim.
He continued swimming from April to July. Still all terror
had not left. He swam two miles across Lake Wentworth
and the whole length to the shore and back of Warm Lake.
Then he overcame his fear of water.

3. Why does Douglas as an adult recount a childhood

experience of terror and his conquering of it? What
larger meaning does he draw from this experience?
The experience of terror was a handicap Douglas suffered
from during his childhood. His conquering of it shows his
determination, will power and development of his
personality. He drew a larger meaning from this
experience. “In death there is peace.” “There is terror only
in the fear of death.” He had experienced both the
sensation of dying and the terror that fear of it can
produce. So, the will to live somehow grew in intensity. He
felt released- free to walk the mountain paths, climb the
peaks and brush aside fear.