English (Core) · Ch 3 — Deep Water
Summary
Summary
- Context: Deep Water is an autobiographical excerpt from William O. Douglas's memoir Of Men and Mountains, recounting his childhood fear of water and how he overcame it.
- Story: At age three or four, Douglas was knocked down and buried by a wave at a California beach, which planted an early dread of water. Later, at age ten or eleven, a big older boy at the Y.M.C.A. pool in Yakima threw him into the nine-foot deep end as a joke; he sank and rose three times, nearly died, and was pulled out and revived. This trauma left him with a paralysing fear of water for years.
- Characters: The narrator (young Douglas), the big older boy who throws him into the pool, and the swimming instructor who later trains him. No other named characters.
- Themes: Fear and its psychological grip; the power of determination and will; the process of overcoming deep-seated phobias through systematic, patient effort. …