The Significance of the Title

The title works on two levels at once, and this double meaning is the key to the whole essay. On the literal level, "deep water" names the exact physical danger of the story: the deep end of the Y.M.C.A. swimming pool, which was nine feet deep and well over the small boy's head, where he was thrown and nearly drowned. It is the concrete setting of the trauma and of the eventual triumph, since Douglas finally proves his cure by swimming across deep lakes alone. …