“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, they must be felt with the heart.” Helen keller had it a little rough in her early years. She became blind and deaf only at the age of 19 months. Even though she had this disability she found a way to communicate and live her life to the fullest.
Helen Keller was born June 27, 1880 (Advocate for the Deaf and Blind…). Her parents are Katherine Adams Keller and Arthur H. Keller (Advocate for the Deaf and Blind…). Helen Keller went through a big obstacle in her life. She became blind and deaf at the age of 19 months (Harvey). To get around, she would feel along the doors and walls (Keller 3). She would shake her head “yes” or “no,” and a simple push or pull meant
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he was very successful in hopeless cases (Keller 12). Unfortunately he was unsuccessful in Helen’s case (Keller 12). About a year later when Helen was seven, Anne Sullivan came to help Helen learn how to communicate (Advocate for the Deaf and Blind…). Sullivan was a 20 year old graduate of the Perkins School for the Blind. Sullivan gained her sight back through many operations (Advocate for the Deaf and Blind…). At first Sullivan used Helen’s doll, she would let her feel it and spell the word in the palm of her hand (Advocate for the Deaf and Blind…). Even though Helen was spelling everything correctly, she did not understand what she was doing (Advocate for the Deaf and Blind…). It was not until Sullivan took Helen out to the garden and poured water over her hand while spelling it out on her hand, when Helen finally understood what she was learning (Advocate for the Deaf and Blind…). By the end of that day she learned over thirty words (Advocate for the Deaf and Blind…). In 1890 when keller was just 10 years old, she demanded to learn how to speak and communicate with others (Advocate for the Deaf and Blind). Miss Sarah Fuller was her first speech teacher (Advocate for the Deaf and Blind).
In 1986 she attended Cambridge School. There she earned a Bachelor’s of Arts degree after four years of studying (Harvey). She was the first blind and deaf person to accomplish this(Harvey). While in school, she became an author and published The Story of my Life (Harvey). She wrote many more books and articles throughout her life (Harvey). She mostly wrote about deafness, blindness, and socialism (Advocate for the Deaf and
Everyone cried a little inside when Helen Keller, history's notorious deaf-blind-mute uttered that magic word 'wa' at the end of the scientifically baffling classic true story. Her ability to overcome the limitations caused by her sensory disabilities not only brought hope for many like cases, but also raised radical scientific questions as to the depth of the brain's ability.
“It would have been difficult to find a happier child than I was as I lay in my crib at the close of that eventful day and lived over the joys it had brought me, and for the first time longed for a new day to come. I had now the key to all language, and I was eager to learn to use it” (Keller 146). The ability to actually comprehend words and associate those words to thoughts and feelings rejuvenated her. Keller was reborn that day, with a new ‘vision’ and a new direction. What started that day, culminated into Keller becoming the first deaf person to earn a bachelors degree. 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 wrong.
Helen Keller has had an influence on society by becoming a role model for the deaf and blind. When she was 19 months she came down with an illness called “scarlet fever”. As a result of the illness, Helen Keller became blind and deaf, leaving her not able to see and hear. Many people didn’t believe in Helen Keller being able to learn, but she ended up proving everyone wrong. Later on in her life with the help of her teacher Anne Sullivan, Helen learned to read, write and speak. Helen Keller once said “While they were saying it couldn’t be done, it was done” (Keller). Helen was born June 27, 1880 from a family of southern landowners with two older sisters in Tuscumbia Alabama. Kate and Arthur Keller found a young woman at the Perkins Institution to teach Helen how to communicate. A month later after Anne Sullivan’s arrival, she had already taught Helen at the age of six the word water and that words have a meaning. Once Helen learned to communicate with others by using ...
Helen Keller was born on June 27th, 1880 in Tuscumbia, Alabama. She was a bright infant, interested in everything around her, and imitating adults at a very young age. In February of 1882, she was struck with an illness which left her deaf and blind. For several years, Helen had very little communication with the rest of the world, except for a few signs which she used with her family. When she was six, her parents wanted desperately to do something to help their strong-willed, half-wild, child. They were far from any deaf or blind schools, and doubted that anyone would come to the little town to educate their deaf and blind child. They heard of a doctor in Baltimore who had helped many seemingly hopeless cases of blindness, but when he examined Helen, there was nothing he could do for her. However, he referred them to Dr. Alexander Graham Bell who recommended Anne Sullivan to teach Helen.
Marie Jean Philip was born on April 20, 1953, in Worchester, Massachusetts. She was the first-born child. Although she was born to deaf parents, Marie’s deafness came as a surprise for her parents. She had two sisters whom were also deaf. Deafness was hereditary in her family, however not everyone in her family was deaf. Marie’s father had one sister who was deaf and her mother had two siblings who were also deaf. When Marie was 11 months her parents noticed that she wasn’t responding to all noises. Her parents decided to test her hearing one day by creating noises behind Marie to see if she would respond. When Marie responded only to the loudest of noises, such as pots banging together, they found that at times she could hear with her right ear, but she could not hear anything out of her left.
Without doubt, Helen Keller is now a household name in nearly every part of the world (too bad she could never hear it.) Helen Keller faced many childhood and adulthood difficulties, and remains to be seen as an extremely positive influence for all women. From my perspective, she was a hardworking activist with her own personal views and opinions despite her ailments. Keller is a true role model for all women – especially those with their own diseases or disabilities. Feminists of all ages could look to the path Keller made for them in the world of women suffrage and equality.
Overall, Helen Keller’s speech displays an argument that blind people are just as great as normal people and that people should care about blind people too. This speech also provides our world today with an important message. Everyone should take part in helping out other people and therefore help make the world a better and delightful place for
Keller also states that “perhaps [she] beheld a brighter prospect than [her] companions with two good eyes” (Keller 739). With this statement she is saying even with a disability you are able to view things differently, she has a positive outlook on life. Even though her friends with two good eyes can physically see, they cannot imagine, or dream like she can. Helen Keller has vision but no sight.
Despite starting out with a low IQ of under 70 she went on to become a teacher and earn a college degree. She is now an internationally renowned public speaker (which is no small feat considering her former sensitivity to noise and bright lights) and is also a singer and songwriter. She has also since published many other books. Her first book was on the New York Times Bestseller List for 15
Helen Keller was a true American hero, in my eyes. She was born June, 27 1880 in Tuscumbia Alabama. Helens father was in the confederate army, and so was her grandfather on her mother’s side. Coincidentally one of Helen's ancestors was the first to teach to the deaf in Zurich; Helen did refer back to this in one of her autobiography. Helen was born able to see and hear, but by 19 months she became very ill. This disease was described by doctors as an acute congestion of her stomach and brain. Some doctors guessed that this might be Scarlett fever or meningitis, but never completely knew. Helen could communicate with the cooks daughter with a couple of made up hand signs, and by age seven she could communicate with her family using sixty different signs. Helen Keller’s mother eventually took her to different physicians, which in the end leaded her to Perkins Institute for the Blind. This is where she met her new teacher and 49 yearlong companion Anne Sullivan. Sullivan’s teaching method was to spell the out on Helen's hand, her first word given to her was doll. This was very frustrati...
When people hear the word “deaf” many times they think of their grandparents or other elders who have lost their ability to hear due to old age. However today for every 1,000 children, at least 1 is considered to be deaf or heard of hearing (Honig, 177.) Deafness is a disability that is easily overlooked and misunderstood because it is not a disability that is easily observed. Helen Keller once said that, “Blindness cuts people off from things. Deafness cuts people off from people.” When a person is blind or need glasses society easily recognizes that in some cases special accommodati...
“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.
Helen Keller, the first deaf blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. In all, she wrote 12 books and many articles, including but not limited to: The Story of my Life, Optimism, The World I Live In, The Song of the Stone Wall, Out of the Dark, My Religion, Midstream-My Late Life, Peace at Eventide, Helen Keller in Scotland, Helen Keller’s Journal, Let Us Have Faith, Teacher, Anne Sullivan Macy, and The Open Door.
Helen’s father, Captain Arthur Keller, was a newspaper editor and a cotton farmer. During the Civil War he served in the Confederate Army. Her mother, Kate Keller, was born in the south, and she was related to John Adams. Helen loved her parents and had a great relationship with both of them.
The next 6 years of Helen’s life were spend in tantrums, darkness and all around loneliness. “I got used to the silence and darkness that surrounded me and forgot it had ever been different, until she came- my teacher” (Keller 1902 Pg. 8). She had many fits, and refused any instruction. Her family was very poor, and could afford very little. The “teacher” as Helen called her; was Anne Sullivan who had contracted trachoma as a child and was as well legally blind. Annie was said to have saved Helen. Within 6 months of teaching from Sullivan Keller quickly advanced. She became well known to reading and writing in Braille, as well as writing in a manual alphabet.