Helen’s apprehensiveness before composing her autobiography
Helen felt a sort of vacillation before she set on the undertaking of writing down her autobiography and. therefore. uncover the narrative of her life. In add-on. the undertaking itself was a hard one for Helen: looking back. she could barely separate between the facts and the illusions across the old ages. Furthermore. in the procedure of larning new things. she had forgotten many of import incidents and experiences of her childhood.

Birth of Helen

Helen Adams Keller was born on a plantation called Ivy Green in Tuscumbia. Alabama. on June 27. 1880. She was the eldest girl of Captain Arthur H. Keller. a former officer of the Confederate Army. and Kate Adams. Helen was named after her grandma. Helen Everett. Even as an baby. she showed marks of avidity and independency. By the age of six months. Helen attracted everyone’s attending shrieking out words like “How d’ye” and “tea” . Helen suffers an unwellness that leaves her deaf and blind

In February. 1882. at the age of 19 months. Helen fell badly with “an acute congestion of the tummy and brain” . which could perchance hold been scarlet fever or meningitis. This unwellness left her deaf and blind. Subsequently on. her spirit was liberated from the “world of silence and darkness” by her instructor. Anne Sullivan.

Chapter 2

Helen’s initial efforts to pass on
After her illness. Helen started utilizing “crude signs” to pass on with others. A shingle of the caput meant “No” and a nod “Yes” . a pull meant “Come” and a push. “Go” . If she wanted anything. she would copy the relevant action. Her female parent encouraged her by affecting her in the family activities. This made Helen more observant of the actions performed by the people around her.

Detecting herself as different from others

Helen started to detect that unlike her. other people did non utilize marks for communicating but talked with their oral cavities. She realized that she was different from others. She attempted to copy them but in vain. At times. she released her defeat on her nurse. Elisa. by kicking and shouting at her until she felt exhausted. She regretted her misbehaviour but did non seek to alter it.

Company with Martha Washington and Bell

Martha Washington was a small colored miss who understood Helen’s marks. She was the cook’s girl. Martha deferentially obeyed Helen. who in bend enjoyed domineering over her. Both the misss spent a batch of clip in the kitchen. working dough balls. crunching java. disputing over the bar bowl. Helen enjoyed feeding the biddies and Meleagris gallopavos. and experiencing them as they ate from her custodies. She besides loved to run for guinea-fowl eggs in the long grass. Even though Helen could non understand Christmas per Se. she enjoyed the readyings taking to that juncture.

One July afternoon. when Helen and Martha were bored of cutting paper dolls. they came up with the thought of cutting each other’s hair. Helen cut Martha’s hair and Martha cut off a coil of Helen’s. Martha would hold cut them all if it weren’t for Helen’s mother’s timely intercession. Belle was a lazy old Canis familiaris and a comrade of Helen. Despite of her efforts. it was inattentive to her marks and gestures. As a consequence. Helen would acquire defeated and travel looking for Martha.

Helen is saved by the nurse from acquiring burnt

Once. while drying her moisture apron in forepart of the fireplace. Helen ended up traveling excessively near to the fire. Her apparels caught fire. Fortunately. she was saved by the nurse. Viny. who threw a cover around her to snuff out the fire. Except for her custodies and hair. she was non severely burned. Detecting the usage of a key: used as a tool for mischievousness

About that clip. Helen found out the usage of a key. The arch Helen played a buffoonery on her female parent by locking her in the larder. After Miss Sullivan arrived to learn her. she played the same buffoonery on her. Helen locked her instructor in her room and refused to uncover the concealed key. Finally. her male parent had to step in and take Miss Sullivan out of the room through the window. When Helen was around five old ages old. the Keller household moved from the ‘little vine-covered house’ to a big new one.

The loving relationship between Helen and her male parent

Helen’s male parent was loving and indulgent. Helen was fond of the narratives her male parent narrated to her by organizing spellings on her manus. Her male parent in bend enjoyed Helen’s reduplication of these narratives. Her father’s decease in the summer of 1896 was Helen’s “first great sorrow– [ her ] first personal experience with decease. ”

Helen’s relationship with her babe sister

Initially. Helen viewed her younger sister. Mildred. as an interloper. She felt that her sister got all the attending from her female parent. Helen vented her defeat and showed her fondness on her doll. Nancy. Once Helen overturned Nancy’s cradle in which her sister was kiping. Fortunately. their mother’s seasonably arrival saved Mildred. Later. nevertheless. the love between the Black Marias of the two sisters prospered despite the fact that neither of them understood the linguistic communication of the other.

Chapter 3

The demand for a better agencies of communicating

Gradually. the few marks that were used by Helen to pass on became unequal. Failure to acquire across her ideas led to tantrums of choler and defeat in Helen. She felt suffering. As a consequence. it became imperative for her parents to happen a instructor or a school for Helen so that she could larn a better agencies of communicating. Helen’s mother’s hope was aroused by an history she read in Dickens’s “American Notes” about the instruction of Laura Bridgeman. a deaf and blind pupil. by Dr. Howe. Unfortunately. his methods had perchance died with him. Besides. it would non be easy to happen a instructor who would come to their distant town in Alabama to learn Helen.

The train journey to Baltimore

Helen was six when her male parent decided to confer with an optometrist in Baltimore for the intervention of Helen’s sight. Helen enjoyed the new experiences during her trip. She was happy to have a box of shells from a lady and a doll made out of towels from her aunt during the journey. She besides played with the “punching machine” of the music director. In fact. she did non see any tantrums of pique during her journey as there were so many things to maintain her head and custodies busy. Researching the possibilities of Helen’s instruction at Baltimore At Baltimore. Dr. Chisholm said that there was nil he could make about Helen’s sight.

However. he advised Helen’s male parent to confer with Dr. Alexander Graham Bell of Washington. who would be able to steer them in respects to the instruction of Helen. Meeting Dr. Bell was a great experience for Helen. He understood Helen’s marks. which made her happy. This meeting was the beginning of a long friendly relationship between Dr. Bell and Helen. Helen subsequently recalled this interview as the foundation of her journey from darkness to visible radiation. “from isolation to friendship. company. cognition and love. ” Dr. Bell advised Mr. Keller to compose to Dr. Anagnos. the manager of the Perkins Institute in Boston. Her father wrote to him without any hold and got a answer in positive.

Finally. in the March of 1887. Miss Sullivan arrived at the Keller house.

Chapter 4
The most of import twenty-four hours of Helen’s life

Miss Anne Mansfield Sullivan arrived at the house of the Keller household on the tierce of March. 1887. This was the twenty-four hours from which Helen’s life started to transform ; the ailing spirit of Helen could merely happen consolation by the cognition delivered by Miss Sullivan. Beginning of the journey of cognition with Miss Ann Sullivan Miss Sullivan gave Helen a doll. which was a present from the small unsighted pupils of the Perkins Institute and was dressed by Laura Bridgeman. Miss Sullivan spelled the word ‘D-O-L-L’ on Helen’s custodies. Helen managed to copy the motions of her fingers even though she was non cognizant of the fact that Miss Sullivan was seeking to learn her the name of the thing. It took several hebdomads for Helen to recognize that everything has a name.

Miss Sullivan tried to learn the names of several other objects to Helen. such as “M-U-G” and “W-A-T-E-R” . but Helen was annoyed at the perennial efforts of her instructor and she broke her doll on the floor. One twenty-four hours. when they were walking in the garden. Miss Sullivan put Helen’s manus under a spout of H2O. As the cool watercourse gushed over Helen’s manus. Miss Sullivan spelled the word “water” on the other. Then Helen realized that ‘water’ meant that “cool something that was fluxing over [ her ] hand” . She experienced the joy of deriving cognition. When she returned to the house. she was eager to larn since “every name gave birth to a new thought” . That twenty-four hours Helen learnt several new words. including “father” . “mother” and “teacher” . This eventful twenty-four hours left her very happy and aroused. She waited thirstily for the approaching new twenty-four hours.

Chapter 5

Helen could see new joy as she learned the names of the objects and their utilizations. This made her more confident and familiar with the outside universe. Learning lessons in the lap of nature Helen had many new experiences during her summer trip to the Bankss of the Tennessee River with Miss Sullivan. There. sitting on the warm grass. Helen learned lessons from her instructor. She got to cognize how birds make their nests ; how trees grow with the aid of the Sun and the rain ; how animate beings find nutrient for themselves. etc. She became more sensitive to nature and joy the company of the universe about which she was now more informed.

Helen learns that nature is non ever sort

One twenty-four hours Miss Sullivan helped Helen to mount up a tree. It was a pleasant cheery afternoon and they decided to hold their tiffin at that place. Miss Sullivan left to bring the nutrient. with Helen sitting on a tree alone. Suddenly the conditions became dark and stormy. Helen was terrified and felt alienated from the universe. Helen longed for the return of her instructor and above all to acquire down from the tree. Excessively frightened to leap. she “crouched down in the fork of the tree” . Merely as she thought she would fall along with the tree. her instructor rescued her. Helen felt relieved to make the land safely. This experience taught her that nature is non ever sort. that nature “wages unfastened war against her children…”

Rejoicing independency and a new bond with nature

Helen continued to be terrified of mounting a tree for a long clip. One twenty-four hours. nevertheless. she was lured to mount a ‘Mimosa tree’ by its beautiful aroma. She did see some trouble in keeping on to the big subdivisions but the pleasance of trying something new and fantastic kept her traveling. Finally. she sat down on a “little seat” and felt like a “fairy sitting on a rose cloud” .

Chapter 6

With the acquisition of words. Helen turns more speculative
Gradually. Helen’s cognition grew in footings of vocabulary and later. her country of enquiry broadened. She returned to the same capable repeatedly. tidal bore for more and more information. Challenges in understanding abstract thoughts

One twenty-four hours Helen brought a clump of violets for her instructor. Miss Sullivan put her arm around Helen to demo her fondness and spelled into her manus. “I love Helen” . But Helen failed to understand the significance as she tried tie ining it with a thing and non with an emotion or an abstract thought. She was disappointed by the fact that her instructor could non “show” her what love meant.

The first construct of an abstract thought

A twosome of yearss subsequently. when Helen was threading beads of different sizes. her instructor kept on indicating out errors to her. Helen was seeking to believe about the correct agreement when Miss Sullivan touched her brow and spelled the word “think” on her manus. Helen all of a sudden realized that the word is the name of the procedure traveling on in her head. This was Helen’s foremost witting consciousness of an abstract thought. Finally. her instructor explained to her that. “you can non touch love either ; but you feel the sugariness that love pours into everything. ” The boring procedure of larning for a deaf and blind kid like Helen Miss Sullivan encouraged Helen to speak to her. She supplied her with several words and parlances by spelling them on her manus. It was a long and boring procedure that continued for several old ages. This was because Helen could neither separate between the different keies of the talker nor expression at his looks.

Chapter 7

Learning to read

The following of import lesson for Helen was larning how to read. Once Helen had managed to spell a few words. her instructor gave her faux pass of composition board with raised letters printed on them. Helen quickly learned that each printed word stood for an object. an act. or a quality. She was given the faux pass of paper. which represented. for illustration. “doll” . “is” . “on” . “bed” . and each name was placed on the relevant object. Her doll was put on the bed with words is. on. bed arranged beside the doll. therefore doing a sentence out of it. From the printed faux pass Helen moved on to read printed books. Helen enjoyed runing for the words she knew in her book “Reading for Beginners” .

Learning lessons out of doors and through illustrations

Miss Sullivan taught Helen with the aid of illustrations through beautiful narrative or a verse form. In this manner. she made each hard lesson easy to larn. The early lessons were carried out in the sunlit forests. Among other topographic points that Helen frequently visited were the garden and the grove. Helen’s favorite walk was to the Keller’s Landing. an old pier on the Tennessee River. There she was besides given geographics lessons in a playful mode without any exhaustion or feeling of being taught lessons. Helen built dikes with pebbles. made islands and lakes. and dug river-beds. Miss Sullivan built “raised maps in clay” on a sheet so that Helen could experience the mountains. ridges and vales by following her fingers. She illustrated the division of Earth into different zones with the aid of exemplifying strings and “orange stick” representations.

Miss Sullivan taught Helen arithmetic. vegetation and fauna with the same at leisure attack. Learning in the signifier of narratives that were based on the gifts received by Helen A aggregation of dodos was one time gifted to Helen by a gentleman. These served as a key to the “antediluvian world” on which Miss Sullivan narrated awful narratives about assorted animals and Satans with unpronounceable names. Another clip. a beautiful shell was gifted to Helen. and it helped her to larn about the home ground of the marine animate beings. She associated the shell constructing procedure with the working of the head. Merely as the Nautilus changes the stuff it absorbs from H2O and makes it a portion of itself. likewise. the head converts the “bits of knowledge” that one gathers into “pearls of thought” .

Lessons of scientific discipline from life itself

Miss Sullivan picked up illustrations for her lessons from life itself. She taught the growing of a works by doing observations on a turning lily works kept on the window. Helen learnt about the behavior of animate beings by experiencing the polliwogs in a “glass globe” and supervising their growing.

Teaching accomplishments of Miss Sullivan

Miss Sullivan was a instructor with great learning accomplishments: she was sympathetic and loving. She could prehend the right minute for presenting cognition to Helen. which made larning experience pleasant. Helen developed such intimacy with her instructor that she barely thought herself distant from her. She acknowledges her instructor for all the good in her and as a beginning of aspiration to derive cognition.

Chapter 8

Fixing for Christmas jubilation

Helen thirstily waited for the first Christmas after the reaching of Miss Sullivan. Everyone in the house was be aftering surprises for Helen and she. in bend. was fixing surprises for them with the aid of her instructor. Her friends incited her exhilaration by throwing intimations at her with “half spelled words” and “incomplete sentences” which were both amusements and linguistic communication lessons for her. Meanwhile. Miss Sullivan and Helen played the guessing game every eventide to assist her larn the usage of linguistic communication.

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve. Helen was invited to a school in Tuscumbia. She felt excited in the presence of a beautiful Christmas tree standing in the Centre of the room. She was delighted when asked to administer nowadayss among the school kids. She received her gifts every bit good. However. she was non satisfied with these and wanted those gifts that were being planned by her household and friends. Subsequently. she waited thirstily for the forenoon to detect her Christmas nowadayss from Santa Claus and others.

Helen’s new pet: Tim:

Helen woke up to a big figure of gifts. She was most pleased by her teacher’s gift: a canary bird. Helen named the small bird as ‘Tim’ and Miss Sullivan taught her to take proper attention of it. Tim was a friendly bird who clenched to Helen’s fingertip and loved to eat sugar-coated cherries out of her manus. Helen grew rather fond of Tim. until one fatal twenty-four hours when a cat Ate the bird. That twenty-four hours. she had forgotten to close the door of the coop and as she was returning with H2O for the bird’s bath. she felt a purulent cat base on balls by her. Soon she realized what happened: she would non be able to see it once more.

Chapter 9

The journey to Boston in May. 1888

In May. 1888. Helen travelled to Boston with Miss Sullivan and her female parent. This journey was different from the old journey to Baltimore as she was no longer a immature “restless” kid. Alternatively. she was now a composure kid sitting beside her instructor who was informing her about the positions outside the auto window: the Tennessee River. cotton Fieldss. hills. forests and so on.

Helen recalls the tragic terminal of Nancy. her doll

After their reaching at Boston. Helen’s doll Nancy underwent a sad experience. During the journey. the doll became soiled and hence. the washwoman at the Perkins Institution gave her a bath. Consequently. the doll turned into a “formless pile of cotton” and could merely be recognized by Helen by her “two bead eyes” . Helen’s friendly reaching at the Perkins Institution for the Blind Helen could befriend the unsighted kids at the Perkins Institute rather easy. She was delighted to be able to pass on with the unsighted kids in her ain linguistic communication. Besides. she was happy to be at the same institute where Laura Bridgeman had been taught. She envied the blind kids merely in one facet: their ability to hear. Finally. Helen felt contended and happy in their company and forgot all her hurting.

Helen’s first history lesson at Bunker Hill

While Helen was at Boston. she visited the Bunker Hill. There she had her first history lesson. She was thrilled to conceive of that she was standing at the high staircase which was one time used by the soldiers to hit their enemies.

Helen’s inaugural ocean ocean trip: trip to ‘Plymouth’ :

The following twenty-four hours. they went to Plymouth by H2O. It was Helen’s first trip on the ocean and first ocean trip on a steamboat. On making their finish. she felt the curves and cuts of the Plymouth Rock and the “1620” engraved on it. A gentleman at the Pilgrim Hall museum gave her a little theoretical account of the stone. She was familiar with the fantastic narratives about the Pilgrims that visited that stone. She could idealise them for their courage and ardor to get place in an unknown district. Subsequently on. she was disappointed to cognize about their black Acts of the Apostless of oppressing minority groups like the ‘Quakers’ .

Close company with Mr. William Endicott and his girl Among her close friends at Boston were Mr. William Endicott and his girl. She was delighted by their amble through their rose-garden of their house at Beverly Farms. Their Canis familiariss. Leo and Fritz. were rather friendly with Helen and the Equus caballus. Nimrod. poked his olfactory organ in her manus to acquire a rap. She besides enjoyed playing in the sand near the sea. Mr. Endicott told her about great Europe-bound ships that sailed by from Boston. Helen recounts her whole experience at Boston as full of pleasance and denotes the metropolis in one phrase as “The City of Kind Hearts” .

Chapter 10

The holiday at Brewster with Mrs. Hopkins

When the Perkins institute closed for the summer. Helen and her instructor went to Brewster. on Cape Cod. to pass the holiday with a beloved friend. Mrs. Hopkins. Helen had read about the sea in her book Our Worldand was excited to see it.

Helen’s foremost encounter with the sea

Once at the sea shore. she hastily plunged into the H2O. She was basking the H2O. when all of a sudden her pes struck a stone. Her “ecstasy” changed into fright as she started submerging. She struggled for a piece and eventually. the moving ridges threw her back on the shore and she was supported by the embracing of her instructor. After she recovered from the terror. she innocently asked her instructor. “Who put salt in H2O? ” After she had recovered from the incident. Helen enjoyed sitting on a large stone and experiencing the dashing of moving ridges against the stone. directing up a shower of spray. She noticed the motion of the moving ridges and their affect on the pebbles and the beach.

The horseshoe crab

Miss Sullivan drew Helen’s attending to a sea organism—the horseshoe crab. Helen was so fascinated by it that she carried the heavy crab all the manner to their house. On making their place. she carefully placed it in a trough of H2O. But to her surprise. it disappeared the following forenoon. Helen easy but certainly realized her error of dividing the crab from his home ground and felt happy thought that it had perchance safely travelled to its place.

Chapter 11

Spending a easy fall at the Fern Quarry

Helen returned to her Southern place in fall. She felt happy and content with her experiences in the North. She spent her autumn months with her household at their summer bungalow. Fern Quarry. The bungalow was like a “rough camp” situated on top of a mountain. near a limestone prey. Helen spent her clip in a easy mode at the bungalow. Many visitants came to Fern Quarry. In the eventide. work forces played cards and talked about their hunting experiences. She woke up in the forenoon with the sound of rattling guns and the odor of java. All the work forces went off to run after command each other good fortune for the season. Subsequently in the forenoon. barbeque was prepared.

The “savoury odour” of meat made her hungry even before the tabular arraies were set. Afterward. the runing party besides joined the banquet of veau and joint hog. following their treatment on their hunting events during the twenty-four hours. Helen had a pony and she named it Black Beauty. holding merely completed the book. Sometimes. accompanied by her instructor. she rode the pony. At times. Miss Sullivan would let go of the rein and the pony would halt at his will to eat foliages from trees. On other yearss. they would travel for walks in the forests and return place with armful of awards. ferns and other beautiful flowers. Sometimes. she would travel on similar trips with her sister and cousins.

Adventure with the train at the rail route

At the pes of the mountain at that place was a railway and about a stat mi distant was a trestle crossing a deep gorge. Helen had ne’er really been there until one twenty-four hours when she. along with her sister and Miss Sullivan. got lost in the forests. They came across the trestle. which was a short cut to their place. Since they were lost. they decided to take this manner in malice of the dangers: the ties were broad apart and rather narrow. Feeling the tracks with the toes. Helen moved on the trestle carefully but without fright. Suddenly. train was heard coming in from the other side. They had to mount rapidly down upon the crossbraces while the train passed by. With some trouble. they regained the path. When. finally. they reached back place. it had grown rather dark and all the household members were out looking for them.

Chapter 12

Chilly winter at a New England Village

After her first visit to Boston. Helen continued to see the north every winter. Once Helen went on a visit to a New England small town. This small town had frozen lakes and huge snow Fieldss. It was here that Helen got to see the snow. She explored the snow-clad hills and Fieldss that were devoid of any life. the empty nests and the bare trees. One twenty-four hours. the coming of a blizzard made Helen first-come-first-serve outdoorss to bask the first few descending snowflakes. Gradually. the whole country was covered by snow and the forenoon became dark. In the eventide. there was a blizzard. Helen and her instructor spent their clip sitting around the fire and narrating narratives.

At dark. they could hear the terrorizing noise of the air current on the trees around the house and the creaking and interrupting sounds of the balks. On the 3rd twenty-four hours. the storm was over and sunlight peeped out from the clouds. It scattered to the different topographic points doing everything radiance and freshness. The trees were standing still as if statues of “white marble” . The roads and waies were all covered with snow. Helen could barely experience the Earth below her pess.

The favourite amusement during winters: tobogganing

Helen’s favourite interest during the winters was luging. Helen enjoyed immersing through the impetuss. jumping hollows. drifting and pouncing down upon the lake while siting on a toboggan.

Chapter 13

Helen’s impulse to talk

With the loss of the ability to hear. Helen’s address had died down. However. from a immature age. she had an impulse to talk. She tried to experience the noise that she made by maintaining one manus on her pharynx and the other on her lips. experiencing their motions. She produced sounds non to talk but for the exercising of her vocal chords. There was a feeling of deficiency in Helen which needed to be fulfilled. She was non satisfied with the agencies of communicating she used and urgently wanted to larn to talk. In 1890. Mrs. Lamson. one of the instructors at the Perkins Institutions. told Helen about a deaf and blind miss. Ragnhild Kaata who had been taught to talk. Helen resolved that she will besides larn to talk and Mrs. Lamson took her for advice and aid to Miss Sarah Fuller. the principal of Horace Mann School.

Talking lessons from Miss Sarah Fuller

Miss Sarah Fuller was a “sweet-natured lady” who started tutoring Helen on the 26th of March. 1890. Miss Fuller passed Helen’s manus lightly over her face to do her feel her lingua and lips when she made a sound. Within the first hr itself. Helen learnt six elements of address: M. P. A. S. T. I. “It is warm” is the first complete sentence that Helen managed to express. In entire. 11 lessons were given to her by Miss Fuller. The syllables were broken but. however. homo. She was eager to portion her felicity with her household and to see the joy on their faces. Miss Fuller taught her the elements of the address but she was to go on practising herself with Miss Sullivan’s aid.

Helen learns to talk with Miss Sullivan’s aid

Miss Sullivan dragged Helen’s attending to the “mispronounced words” . Helen had to depend on the quivers felt by her fingers. the motion of the oral cavity and looks of the face. Discouragement wearied her attempts ab initio but every bit shortly as she thought of the joy of her household. she felt optimistic. Helen gave up the manual alphabet method to develop her address even though Miss Sullivan and her friends continued to utilize it to pass on with her.

The concluding minute of joy: Helen’s address

Finally. the happiest minute arrived. Helen had developed address and was eager to return place. As she reached the station and her household heard her speak. they were overjoyed. Her female parent was dumb with delectation and hugged her tightly ; Mildred danced in joy clasped her manus and kissed her ; and her male parent expressed his pride and fondness by a “big silence” .