A big boy threw Douglas into the swimming pool. how did this experience affect Douglas ???

it was a near death experience for douglas. he suffered from euphoria due to lack of oxygen during his third journey into the pool. he forgot all his strategy and remembered the comforting thoughts of his childhood. he got to the terms that death is imminent. this experience changed his life by implanting the aversion from water in his heart. whenever he used to see the water his legs used to get rigid and used to suffer from the same pangs he had underwent when he was drowning.

Douglas takes us through his near death experience at the Y.M.C.A. pool by detailing every little aspect associated to it. He details minutes of his emotional, mental and physical struggle with the paralyzing fear of being drowned in the water. The first person narration of the incident also helps us to associate with his experience more deeply.

Though he did not lose his wits initially, he panicked when his strategy didnt work. His feeling of suffocation, fear and losing hold on sense perceptions make the readers experience what he does. His eyes couldnt see beyond the dirty yellow water. His voice did not assist him. His nose and mouth could only manage to take water to the lungs. His limbs became paralyzed with fear and his mind dizzy. His desperation to save himself kept him struggling until he went down the third time and blacked out.