“Touching bottom”

The story “Touching Bottom” by K.S. is about the fear of the unknown and the overcoming of it. In the story a woman is at the beach with her stepson and he wants to go deeper in the water. The woman that has a fear of unclear water since her childhood and is afraid, but she is finally doing it.
But then the situation gets out of control. They are in too deep water and they can’t get back to the beach. Now the woman has to decide whether she rescues herself or her stepson. She overcomes her fear and can rescue her stepson and herself.

The story is full of conflicts in every sort. It is a conflict between the woman and the water, when she tries to survive, a conflict between the woman and herself, when she fights against her own fear, another conflict between the woman and her dad, when he doesn’t come to her marriage, and also a conflict between the woman and herself again, when she has to decide whether she wants to rescue her stepsons life or her own life.

I think the water is a metaphor for her whole life, after that day she finally recognizes that her husband didn’t deserve her and that she had to care more about her life and things that are happening in it.
She isn’t afraid anymore of the ocean, but she has respect.

I know the fear to swim without knowing what is on the ground. Once, when I was younger, a friend told me a story about a part of a train that is in the ground of a lake, that we used to swim in. From that day on I always had a bad feeling when I was swimming in the middle of a lake. I always had the bad feeling that something could be sticking out and o could hurt myself swimming right in the middle, and having no way to get back to the shore. Because if that I can feel how the woman in the story feels about the ocean.
She is afraid because she has no idea if she will survive or not.