The Story of My Life (pages 41-88)

The Story of My Life- Helen Keller

Summary:

 After the holidays Annie and Helen celebrated together with other deaf and blind children, Annie took Helen to Boston for a trip. Helen liked going to trips away from home, so Annie took her to the north every winter. In spring 1890, Helen learns to speak.  The impulse to utter audible sounds had always been strong within her. She used to make noises, keeping one hand on her throat, while the other hand felt the movement of her lips. When Helen was young, she was a quick learner when it came to talking, but after her illness was found, she had ceased to speak because she could not hear. She remembers one word, water; she pronounced it like "wa-wa.' in the winter of 1892, Helen started to write her own short stories after she lost her charm in books. Annie took Helen to many places around the world. That way, she can see many wonders from different parts of the earth. She was able to learn about inventions, treasures of industry and skill, and many more activities in the human life. In the summer of 1894, Helen attended the meeting at Chautauqua of the American Association to promote the teaching of speech to the Deaf. It was arranged that she would go to the Wright-Humans on School, an accompanied by Annie Sullivan. The school was chosen for the highest advantages in vocal culture and training in lip-reading. There, Helen studied arithmetic, physical, geography, French and German. Two years later, Helen attended the Cambridge School for Young Ladies to prepare for Radcliffe. In Radcliffe, she studied many classes and Annie was there to help her by writing words on her hands. Helen felt upset because there were too many students in the class, so she did not receive any special attention. She would get frustrated sometimes because she was not able to take notes; she was too busy reading with her hands. 

Quotation:

“It was my ambition to speak like other people, and my teachers believed that this could be accomplished; but, although we worked hard and faithfully, yet we did not quite reach our goal” (Keller 60).

Reaction: 

I think choosing Annie Sullivan was a great teacher to Helen Keller. Before Annie came, Helen was a mess, she never took care of herself and she always got what she wanted. Annie came to teacher her all the things she should know, like manners, how to dress herself, etc. Annie helped Helen with school for many years and helped her prepare for college. In college, she took many classes and successfully passed them all. The author, Helen Keller, wanted to speak as if all other human beings did, but failed because she was not able to hear any words. I also think Helen Keller was a very smart girl, because for someone who was blind and deaf, she knew French, German, Latin and English, along with arithmetic.