Deep Water

Daniel Becker
Mr. Graf


Imagine being a four year old and your dad takes you to the ocean to play in the water for the first time. A huge wave knocks you down and you almost drown. To make it worse your dad laughs at you and does not help you up or help you get out of the water. The short story “Deep Water”, by William O. Douglas, was a great story explaining how when you’re young and something really dramatic happens, it will change your life entirely.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2004, there were 3,308 unintentional drownings in the United States, an average of nine people per day. As of 2004, fatal drowning remains the second-leading cause of unintentional injury-related death for children ages one to fourteen years old. With these outstanding facts, more people in the U.S. should realize this and pay the money to have their kids learn how to swim. Unfortunately the parents of the main character did not put their son in swim class fast enough.
An example of an accidental drowning was reported by the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office in California. On February 4, 2010 a woman drowned on the Sonoma Coast north of Bodega Bay. The reason for the tragedy was the 51 year old woman was chasing after her dog, which was swept up into the waves. Sheriff's Sgt. Dave Thompson said the 51-year-old woman and her boyfriend were walking two pug dogs along Portuguese Beach when one of the dogs was swept into the waves. The woman tried to save the dog and was also pulled into the waves. Her boyfriend, a State Park ranger, and another person were able to get the woman back on the shore. Unfortunately she had been in the cold water for about 20-25 minutes. State Park’s personnel gave the woman CPR before the Sonoma County Sheriff's helicopter arrived but the woman was pronounced dead at the scene. The dog perished and washed ashore.

Many fears come with almost drowning or witnessing someone drown. According to phobialist.com some of the fears that could come with almost drowning are hydrophobia which is the fear of water. Dinophobia is the fear of depth. People would be afraid of going in to deep places because when people drown it is usually in deep water and if the person would go into a deep place they would remember themselves almost drowning. Agoraphobia is the fear of leaving a safe place. People that have almost drowned would not want to leave the safety of their house because they would not want to risk falling into water and drowning.

The main character in “Deep Water” was bullied by his father because his father saw him almost drown and only laughed and the 18 year old boy at the YMCA swimming pool when he almost drowned the main character. People that have been bullied probably have many fears not necessarily about water but about being bullied. The two short stories “The Glorious Whitewasher” and “All Summer in a Day” were about bullying. All the bullies in the stories including “Deep Water” have things in common. First the bully picks on the weak and that’s how it is in, real life. All three authors of the short stories have probably been picked on in real life and they are expressing their feelings in stories by writing about people getting bullied.

Almost drowning is extremely life changing and very scary and that’s what William O. Douglas the author of the short story “Deep Water” explains. When people almost drown they get angry and feel like it is their fault. Anyone who has almost drowned is scared, but years later they will be able to conquer their fear, and live a happy life.