Deep Water by William Orville Douglas | Class 12 English | Explained by Preeti Mehta

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 will power.
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 a fear in his sub – conscious 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 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 sub-conscious mind. This experience was valuable for him. He had experienced terror and death. He overcame it and finally conquered it.b
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.