Deep End

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of sexual content and physical abuse.

Throughout Deep End, the inward dive symbolizes Scarlett’s trauma. Scarlett has a fraught relationship with this particular dive because of an incident that occurred two years before the narrative present. During the NCAA championships, she “entered the water at the wrong angle” while performing the inward (12)—which resulted in an array of injuries including a concussion, ruptured eardrum, twisted neck, labral tear in her shoulder, and a sprained wrist and ankle. In the narrative present, Scarlett has finally healed from her injuries and returned to the Stanford diving team. However, she still can’t perform the inward dive. Each time she tries, she ends up performing another of the six main dives. Hazelwood indicates that these errors are a result of her mental block—a phenomenon that happens to gymnasts and divers where they lose their mental place while in the air.

Hazelwood frames Scarlett’s struggle with the inward dive as a symptom of her lingering psychological wounds. On the day before the NCAA championship, her abusive father broke the terms of his restraining order and contacted Scarlett; and on the day of the championship, Scarlett’s boyfriend Josh called to break up with her.