Diving Board By Shel Silverstein Summary

Fear is an emotion that can control our everyday thoughts and actions. Fear keeps people from

experiencing the joy of new things all the time! "I don't want to ride this roller coaster, it looks

too scary." "If I jump in the deep end of the pool, I might not be able to get out!" These are just a

few things our fear keeps us from experiencing. In the poem, “Diving Board”, the author, Shel

Silverstein illustrates the theme of fear using a young boy scared to dive off a diving board. In

society people at times allow fear to grip them firmly in place. Fear of action, fear of change,

fear of adventure. Fear stops many people from truly living.

In the short poem, "Diving Board", Silverstein portrays the idea of how fear can paralyze

someone’s thoughts.

He does this metaphorically using a child on a diving board and symbolizes
the theme through the precautions the boy takes.

The child is scared of diving into the water so

he begins to stall by checking to be sure the board is safe. "You've been up on that diving board,

making sure that it's nice and straight." (Stanza 1) Normally and individual does not check to

make sure the board is "nice and straight". By stalling and avoiding diving the child shows signs

of fear. He is so fearful of diving into the water he may miss the opportunity to try something

new and potentially fun.

Throughout the poem, Silverstein over exaggerates the actions the child takes to check the

stability and safety of the board. The text shows you he is "stalling" by listing all of the

precautions he takes. For example, "You’ve made sure it can stand the weight." (Stanza 4) This

is not something parents tell a child to do for safety before walking on a diving board. This is a

stall tactic to give the child more time to deal with their fear. "You've made sure that the spring

is tight." (Stanza 5) Clearly shows the child is searching for a reason as to why it may not be safe

to dive. You can tell, even by his facial expression, that he does not want to dive. Instead of just

jumping, the child is over thinking which is making him more fearful. Throughout the context

of
this poem, the child's actions clearly show his continuous fear of diving. He probably doesn’t

realize it, but fear is already controlling how he perceives the diving board and what he does to
keep from diving.
Overall, Silverstein uses the child and diving board to symbolize real life situations. On many
occasions’ people allow fear to control them. Just like the boy was using all of his own
"precautions" to keep him from diving, people use methods of stalling to keep from facing their
own fears. For example, a boy who is scared of a roller coaster may say he'll get too nauseous as
an excuse to not ride it. Although, if the boy went on the rollercoaster, he may have found that he
enjoyed it. Silverstein's overall moral of the short poem is to not let your fear control what you
do in life. Face them and explore the world around you!
You may be thinking, "Well this doesn’t apply to me. I don’t let fear control me or tell me what
to do and think." If you are thinking this, then you're absolutely incorrect! Fear doesn't pick and
choose who encounters it, everyone does! You may not realize it but we all feel fear and let it
manipulate our brains every day. Next time you encounter something that scares you, remember
what Silverstein is trying to teach you. You know what they say; the only thing to fear is fear
itself!