Mohd Ishaq Shah
While teaching a lesson titled as “Deep Water” by William Orville Douglas (October 16, 1898 – January 19, 1980) who was an American jurist and served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1939 to 1975, I tried to get some philosophical insights out of this autobiographical story. And I thought of recreating it as a critical review of the said story and give it a new dent to the extent that it becomes a symbolic sort of story for the readers rather than just a content of syllabus for the Sr. Secondary Students. Douglas was known for his strong progressive and civil libertarian views and is often cited as the most liberal justice in the U.S. Supreme Court’s history. Nominated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939, Douglas was confirmed at the age of 40, becoming one of the youngest justices appointed to the court. He is the longest-serving justice in history, having served for 36 years and 209 days.
Before going ahead with the topic I would like to mentions some inputs from the biography of the writer so that the readers come to know what makes a writer to compose such stories of universal nature. Douglas was born in 1898 in Maine Township, Otter Tail County, Minnesota, to William Douglas and Julia Bickford Fisk. Douglas’s father was a Scottish itinerant Presbyterian minister from Pictou County, Nova Scotia. The family first moved to California and then to Cleveland, Washington. Douglas said he suffered from an illness at age two that he described as polio, although a biographer reveals that it was intestinal colic. His mother attributed his recovery to a miracle, telling Douglas that one day he would be President of the United States.
His father died in Portland, Oregon in 1904, when Douglas was six years old. Douglas later claimed his mother had been left destitute. After moving the family from town to town in the West, his mother, with three young children, settled in Yakima, Washington. William, like the rest of the Douglas family, did odd jobs to earn extra money, and a college education appeared to be unaffordable. He was the valedictorian at Yakima High School and did well enough in school to earn a full academic scholarship to attend Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington.At Whitman, Douglas became a member of Beta Theta Pi fraternity. He worked at various jobs while attending school, including as a waiter and janitor during the school year, and at a cherry orchard in the summer. Picking cherries, Douglas would say later, inspired him to pursue a legal career. He once said of his early interest in the law: I worked among the very, very poor, the migrant laborers, the Chicanos and the I.W.W’s who I saw being shot at by the police. I saw cruelty and hardness, and my impulse was to be a force in other developments in the law.
In this story, he narrates an incident of drowning at Y.M.C.A pool which was altogether a strange experience for him. His mother had told him often about the treacherous nature Yakima River as there had been many incidents of drowning that had been recorded so for. So she warned him about going to the river for any sort of adventure like swimming and fishing etc. The phobia that the writer had inside him was associated with his childhood when he had visited California beach alongside his father where the overpowering waves had almost taken him with them, but his father would not let him drown. Now that he had planned to learn swimming at Y.M.C.A pool, he visited there and waited for other boys to come and learn by aping them. But all of a sudden a strong built boy came and threw him in the pool at the deeper end. Douglas mentions the depth of the pool as 3-4 feet at the shallow end and 9 feet at the deeper end having a gradual slope in the depth. After coming out of the pool, he had fallen ill seriously with the fever and nausea. Later on Douglas would hire a trainer who would take him to the river for 5 days a week and 6 hours per day. Gradually, the master trainer made him a full swimmer following the regular practice and consistency in the practice. So the philosophy embedded in this story is all about the preparation for life and making it a meaning full one by living independently and courageously. In life everyone has two challenges:
To survive through the life and maintaining a standard of morality. As the narrator gets skillful to accomplish his goals without thinking of any immoral or illegal ways to accomplish his ends.
- Second one being the psychological trauma that one goes through while facing the difficulties throughout the life. The moral that comes out of this story is: One must act very tactfully with a courage and foresightedness that have been the qualities of most the great men in the world. The statement by D. Roosevelt is of utmost importance here “The only thing we have to fear is the fear itself.
“Deep Water” symbolizes the sea of life that is shallow at some points and deep at the most. This is the sea that is sometimes very difficult to swim across without being trained, skilled and mentally prepared. The narrator represents a common man while the strong built man represents the devil that is sometimes very naughty to throw us down at the bottom the moral sea. It may often take our body and soul. The phobia can be paralleled with the ‘suspicion’ or “waham’ that the devil always tries to put into our heart so that we are derailed from the main track and we are trapped by him and led towards hell.
The pragmatic approach to overcome the moral and spiritual phobia is to obey God and follow his commandments. Regular worship and righteousness are the skills that can help us to come out of phobia. Follow the principles laid down by the prophet (pbuh). And go ahead with the daily life discourse. And that surely will lead you to salvation.
The author can be reached at ishaq7007@gmail.com
