Deep Water


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.

Answer:


2. How did Douglas overcome his fear of water?

Answer:


DABP006903


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?

Answer:


Talking about the text

1. “All we have to fear is fear itself”. Have you ever had a fear that

you have now overcome? Share your experience with your

partner.

Answer:


2. Find and narrate other stories about conquest of fear and what

people have said about courage. For example, you can recall Nelson

Mandela’s struggle for freedom, his perseverance to achieve his

mission, to liberate the oppressed and the oppressor as depicted

in his autobiography. The story We’re Not Afraid To Die, which you

have read in Class XI, is an apt example of how courage and

optimism helped a family survive under the direst stress.


Thinking about language

If someone else had narrated Douglas’s experience, how would

it have differed from this account? Write out a sample

paragraph or paragraphs from this text from the point of view

of a third person or observer, to find out which style of narration

would you consider to be more effective? Why?


Writing

1. Doing well in any activity, for example a sport, music, dance or

painting, riding a motorcycle or a car, involves a great deal of

struggle. Most of us are very nervous to begin with until

gradually we overcome our fears and perform well.

Write an essay of about five paragraphs recounting such an

experience. Try to recollect minute details of what caused the

fear, your feelings, the encouragement you got from others or

the criticism.

You could begin with the last sentence of the essay you have

just read — “At last I felt released — free to walk the trails and

climb the peaks and to brush aside fear.”


2. Write a short letter to someone you know about your having

learnt to do something new.

DABP006902