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M.E.S Indian School, Doha - Qatar: Notes - 2021-2022

The document contains questions and answers related to the short story "Deep Water" by William Douglas. It discusses Douglas' experience of almost drowning as a child and how it left him with a deep fear of water. It then summarizes how Douglas was determined to overcome this fear. He hired a swimming instructor who gradually built up his skills and confidence in the water. Douglas then continued to challenge himself, swimming alone and diving in lakes, until he felt he had fully conquered his old terror of drowning.

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36 views

M.E.S Indian School, Doha - Qatar: Notes - 2021-2022

The document contains questions and answers related to the short story "Deep Water" by William Douglas. It discusses Douglas' experience of almost drowning as a child and how it left him with a deep fear of water. It then summarizes how Douglas was determined to overcome this fear. He hired a swimming instructor who gradually built up his skills and confidence in the water. Douglas then continued to challenge himself, swimming alone and diving in lakes, until he felt he had fully conquered his old terror of drowning.

Uploaded by

Justin Saju
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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M.E.

S INDIAN SCHOOL, DOHA –QATAR


Notes - 2021- 2022
Section: Boys’ Date : 25/04/2022
Class & Div. :XII (All Divisions) Subject: English
Lesson / Topic: Deep Water
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Q1: What is the “misadventure” that William Douglas speaks about?


Ans: Douglas refers to the incident at the Y.M.C.A. swimming pool where he almost drowned as a
“misadventure.” The author was about ten or eleven years old at the time and had barely begun to
learn swimming, primarily by aping others. As he was thrown suddenly into the water by someone and
he couldn’t swim, he started drowning. The struggle to come to surface and to avoid getting drowned
left him with a deep fear of water which deprived him from enjoying water-related activities for many
years.
Q2: What were the series of emotions and fears that Douglas experienced when he was thrown into the
pool? What plans did he make to come to the surface?

Ans: The sudden realization of being thrown into the pool did not make him lose his wits immediately.
Although frightened, he thought of a trick to come up to the surface but couldn’t execute it
successfully. He panicked and felt suffocated by the water. His sense-perceptions gave way, his heart
pounded loudly, his limbs became paralyzed with fear, his mind became dizzy and his lungs ached as
he gulped water while making desperate attempts to come out of the water. Finally, he lost all his
strength and willingness to keep struggling and blacked out. Douglas planned to allow himself to go
down till his feet hit the bottom so that could make a big jump to come back to the surface like a cork.
Then, he would lie flat on the surface of water and paddle to the edge of the pool.

Q3: How did this experience affect him?


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 activity.
Q4. 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.
Q5: How did the instructor “build a swimmer” out of Douglas?

Ans: The instructor worked gradually on Douglas’ psychology, moved on to his physical movements
and then integrated each part to build a swimmer out of him. Initially, he made Douglas swim back
F 061, Rev 01, dtd10th March 2020
and forth across the swimming pool so that he could get used to it. He used an elaborate mechanism
with a rope, belt, pulley and an overhead cable to help them stay connected while Douglas was in the
pool. Then, one-by-one, he made Douglas master the individual techniques of swimming, like putting
his head in the water, exhaling and inhaling while in water, movements of his hands, body, legs, etc.
Finally, he integrated these perfected steps into a whole experience of swimming for Douglas.

Q6: How did Douglas make sure that he conquered the old terror?

Ans: Even after the swimming training was over, Douglas wasn't confident about his swimming or
that he had overcome the fear. He was determined to completely get rid of it forever.  He swam alone
in the pool. He went to Lake Wentworth to dive. There, he tried every possible stroke he had learnt.
He fought back the tiny vestiges of terror that gripped him in middle of the lake. Finally, in his diving
expedition in the Warm Lake, he realised that he had truly conquered his old terror.
Q7: How did Douglas overcome his fear of water?

Ans: At first, he tried to overcome his fear of water on his own.  But when this failed, he got an
instructor for himself who worked on Douglas’ fear very methodically. With his help, Douglas began
by learning to be at ease in water. After this, he practiced exhaling-inhaling in water to eliminate the
fear of putting his head inside the water. Then, he moved on to master individual steps of swimming
which were, finally, integrated into a complete experience of swimming, by his instructor. After about
six months, Douglas could not only swim well but was, also, free of his fear to a great extent. At this
stage, Douglas’ journey of truly overcoming his fear to its tiniest vestiges began. He swam alone in the
pool. He went to Lake Wentworth to dive. He tried every possible stroke he learnt. Finally, in his
diving expedition, in the Warm Lake, he conquered his fear completely. 

F 061, Rev 01, dtd10th March 2020

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