Helen Keller Sparknotes

“One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar” (Helen Keller, 78). The Story of My Life is an autobiography that was written by Helen Keller. Known by many as the deaf and blind girl, Helen Keller not only accomplished many things that were thought to be impossible, but also paved the way for those like her. She writes about the trials and tribulations that she had to endure as a child to communicate with others. The frustrations she went through not being able to see or hear, but also the willingness of wanting to learn. She describes the pain she went through when she heard about her father’s death, and how this was going to be the first death she experienced. The book also tells about the time she spent at the Perkins Institute and the loving friendships that she made with Anne Sullivan and Dr. Alexander Graham Bell. She tells the story of how her communication disorder came about, how she fell ill, to what doctors describes as an “acute congestion of the brain and stomach” an illness that her parents were told she would not survive, but instead recovered, only to recuperate without sight or hearing (Keller, 5). Helen also talks about her time spent at the Cambridge School for Young Ladies, and

Arthur and Kate asked Dr. Anagnos to search for a teacher for Helen. In March of 1887 a teacher by the name of Anne Sullivan was sent to live and teach Helen in the Keller home (Keller, 12-13). A year at the Keller’s home, Anne had taught Helen a new way of communication, through spelling words on the palm or her hand and having her feel the object she was spelling. Helen had a difficult time at first understanding what Ms. Sullivan was doing, but caught on quickly. She was even able to truly understood the association between the words “doll” and “water” and its objects. It was because of Anne’s persistence, continuously spelling the words on her palm and teaching her, that Helen becomes more