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Helen Keller informative essay
Helen Keller informative essay
Write up of Helen Keller
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Helen Keller is one of the most inspirational people in American history. She had to overcome physical disabilities and many other obstacles to live the life that she did. Keller was born on June 27, 1880 in Tuscumbia, Alabama. Her parents, Arthur Keller and Kate Adams, both served for the Confederates in the Civil War (Thompson, 2003). Like most parents, they were ecstatic when Keller was born. At 18 months old, she was a happy, healthy baby already learning to say her first few words. However, one morning, she woke up with an extremely high fever and had to go to the hospital. The doctor told her parents she had a serious illness know as “acute congestion of the stomach and brain.” This illness caused her to lose her sight and hearing for the rest of her life (Wilkie, 1969). She was unable to communicate with anyone and was shut off from the entire world.
For years, Keller would just hang on to her mother’s skirt to get around and feel of people’s hands to try to find out what they were doing. She learned to do quite a few things this way including milk a cow and knead the dough bread. She learned to recognize people by feeling their face and clothes. By the age of six, Keller had made up 60 different signs to communicate with her family (Keller, 1988). She was a bright child, but she started getting frustrated and angry that she could not talk and began throwing temper tantrums. The family knew they had to do something to help the child, so they began looking for a teacher.
In March of 1886, 21 year old Anne Sullivan arrived at the Keller’s house; she immediately began teaching Keller how to communicate by spelling letters into her hand. A month after Sullivan arrived, Keller had a big breakthrough in c...
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...to the National Statuary Hall Collection (Wilkie, 1992). Keller has even had multiple films made of her life story.
Keller was an author, lecturer, political activist, and an individual that many Americans will never forget. She conquered multiple obstacles and rose above her disabilities to gain international fame. Her dedication allowed her to help other disabled people live fuller lives. The struggles she had to overcome prove to people that if they put their mind to it, they can accomplish anything.
Works Cited
Forrest, Ellen. Helen Keller. Tucson: Learning Page, 2005. Print.
Keller, Helen. The Story of My Life. New York: Bantam Dell, 1988.
Thompson, Gare, and Nancy Harrison. Who Was Helen Keller? New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 2003. Print.
Wilkie, Katharine E. Helen Keller: From Tragedy to Triumph. New York: Bobbs-Merrill Co., Inc., 1969.
Alice Cogswell - The Beginning of American Deaf Education - Start ASL. (n.d.). Retrieved September 19, 2016, from https://www.start-american-sign-language.com/alice-cogswell_html
Helen Keller was one of the most successful people in the world. She helped in so many ways to change many people's lives. She was a very humble person despite her successes. I want to tell you about a story I read which touched me and shows what a special person Helen Keller was.
For those who are not familiar with the story of Helen Keller or the play 'The Miracle Worker', it recalls the life of a girl born in 1880 who falls tragically ill at the young age of two years old, consequently losing her ability to hear, speak, and see. Helen's frustration grew along side with her age; the older she got the more it became apparent to her parents that she was living in more of an invisible box, than the real world. Her imparities trapped her in life that seemed unlivable. Unable to subject themselves to the torment which enveloped them; watching, hearing and feeling the angst which Helen projected by throwing plates and screaming was enough for them to regret being blessed with their own senses. The Kellers, in hopes of a solution, hired Anne Sullivan, an educated blind woman, experienced in the field of educating sensory disabilities arrived at the Alabama home of the Kellers in 1887. There she worked with Helen for only a little over a month attempting to teach her to spell and understand the meaning of words v. the feeling of objects before she guided Helen to the water pump and a miracle unfolded. Helen understood the juxtaposition of the touch of water and the actual word 'water' Anne spelled out on her hand . Helen suddenly began to formulate the word 'wa...
Keller in her essay “The Day Language Came into My Life” notes many contrasts between her lives before and after she acquired language. Keller even states at the beginning of her essay the “immeasurable contrast between the two lives which it connects” (72). When Keller first met her teacher Anne Mansfield Sullivan she described herself as dumb, expectant, like being at sea in a dense fog. Before language, Keller recalls her fingers lingered unconsciously on familiar objects such as leaves and blossoms. Before Keller met Anne Sullivan, she was not aware words even existed.
Works Cited: "Amazon.com Talks to Dorothy Allison." http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/show-interview/a-d-llisonorothy/ 1261-2240565-375045 (22 March 1998). "An Evening to Remember:Dorothy Allison." http://www.progway.org/dorothy.html (22 March 1998). Megan, Carolyn E. "
She learnt to speak and ‘hear’ by following the movements of people’s lips. Keller was extremely hardworking and she personified willpower and diligence by patiently untangling the taboos of society to prove her critics
Seaver, James E. A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison. ed. June Namias. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Publishing Division of the University, 1992.
Butler, Mary G. “Sojourner Truth A Life and Legacy of Faith.” Sojourner Truth Institute of
“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” Helen Keller believed that in order to be successful and make a difference, problems must be confronted, tried, and solved. Keller’s words of wisdom go hand in hand with the American way of success today. Without argumentation, criticism, or suffering, the nation cannot progress and succeed. With people like Helen Keller in society, who are always ready to challenge popular beliefs, America can and will continue to progress.
Helen Keller, against all odds, became a mouthpiece for many causes in the early to mid-twentieth century. She advocated for causes such as building institutions for the blind, schools for the deaf, women’s suffrage and pacifism. When America was in the most desperate of times, her voice stood out. Helen Keller spoke at Carnegie Hall in New York raising her voice in protest of America’s decision to join the World War. The purpose of this paper will analyze the devices and methods Keller used in her speech to create a good ethos, pathos, and logos.
Morin, Karin Venable. "Mother Teresa." The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History. : Oxford University Press, 2008. Oxford Reference. 2008. Date Accessed 14 Mar. 2014
In an Article titled The Radical Dissent of Helen Keller published July 12 of 2012 Peter Dreier walks through his own views on the life, and the greatness of the conspicuous Helen Keller. He shows this in her early life, when she lets her voice be heard, and
Magill, Frank M. Great Lives From History, American Women Series II. Pasadena: Salena Press, 1995.
Kelley, Mary. Introduction. The Power of Her Sympathy. By Catharine Maria Sedgwick. Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1993.
“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched-they must be felt with the heart,” claims Helen Keller, a blind and deaf woman since the age of 19 months when she contracted what the doctors of her era called “brain fever”, now known as scarlet fever (www.nndb.com). Throughout her life, she began as a scared child and transformed into a bold, “miracle worker”. Helen Keller transformed the lives of others with her dedication and work, involved herself in political causes and even inspired other deaf-blind children, before she went on to win numerous awards.