The Story of My Life
Helen Keller
Summary and Analysis of “The Story of My Life”
Introduction: “The Story of My Life” is Helen Keller’s autobiographical
story. This was written by Keller when she was only twenty two years
old. In this play Keller reminds her childhood. She depicts her
struggle with life in this play. She suffers with visual, speech and hearing
mutilations. She also depicts her relation with her teacher Anne Sullivan. This
book was dedicated to Alexander Gram Bell. In 1959 this was modified in to a
Broadway ‘The Miracle Worker. In 1962, on this play was made a film of the same
name. In 1959 the Indian Hindi Film Black was also partially based on Keller’s
life. In our syllabus are four chapters (III, IV, V, & VI) from
“The Story of My Life”.
Extracts of Our
Syllabus: The extracts from
the book “The Story of My Life” depicts the early years of Helen Keller. Keller
became blind and deaf when she was only nineteen months old. These extracts of
the book depicts the challenges which Keller faced in her life. She also
credits all those who have helped her in her life as a child with disabilities.
She also writes about her triumph over her disabilities. This shows us the
sufferings of a person who has been denied with sound and sight that also in childhood.
This also teaches us lesson that how normal people can help the disabled
people.
Chapter-III: This chapter depicts the challenges and struggles of Helen’s
family particularly of parents. This chapter narrates her travel in train with
her parents. She enjoyed the journey because she was played well by the
conductor. In this is also depiction of a doll gifted to her by her aunt. Also
their acquaintance with Dr. Alexander Bell and Mr. Anagnos is described.
Chapter-IV: This chapter revolves around the Miss Sullivan who was the
teacher of Helen. She taught Helen to speak with her fingers.
Chapter-V: This chapter represents how Miss Sullivan makes Helen aware about
the world around her. She makes her to find beauty in the nature.
Chapter-VI: The chapter shows the determination of Sullivan make Helen
familiar even with abstract things. This chapter depicts the role of Sullivan
as a wise and patient teacher.
Glossary
Oculist: /ɒkjʊlɪst/ An ophthalmologist or optician
Egypt… Sini: About Prophet Moses story
about Ten Commandments recived on Mt. Sinai
Honeysuckle: (Lonicera caprifolia) is a group of flowering shrubs or vines
Languor: /ˈlaŋɡə/
Tiredness or inactivity, especially when pleasurable
Plummet:
/ˈplʌmɪt/ fall or drop straight down at high speed
Hearth:
/hɑːθ/ the floor of a fireplace
Spout:
/spaʊt/ a tube or lip projecting from a container, through which liquid can be
poured
Verbatim:
/vəːˈbeɪtɪm/ in exactly the same words as were used originally
Aaron’s
rod, with flowers: Biblical story of Moses brother Aaron
Textual Questions of “The Story of My
Life”
Q1. How does
Helen Keller struggle with her physical impairments in her early childhood?
Ans: “The Story of My Life” in an autobiographical
story of Helen Keller’s struggle with her physical impairments. Keller suffers
with her physical impairments when she was only two years old. In this play Keller reminds her struggle in
her early childhood due to physical impairments. She depicts her struggle due
to her physical impairments. She suffers in her early childhood with visual,
speech and hearing mutilations. She also depicts her relation with her teacher
Anne Sullivan who helps her to survive.
Keller became blind and deaf in her early childhood
at the age of nineteen months. The story depicts the challenges which Keller
faced with her physical impairments in her life. She also credits all those who
have helped her in her life as a child with disabilities. She also writes about
her triumph over her disabilities. This shows us the sufferings of a person who
has been denied with sound and sight that also in childhood. This also teaches
us lesson that how normal people can help the disabled people.
Keller is a source of inspiration for all who
struggle with her physical impairments.
Q2. How does
Helen describe the day Miss Sullivan came to the family home?
Ans. Ms. Anne
Sullivan is best known as Helen Keller’s teacher and companion who connected
her with the outside world. Miss Sullivan was not only successful in bringing
Helen out of darkness and uncertainty but also was instrumental in making her
think and thereby helping her make a connection between the abstract and the
physical world. Miss Sullivan and Helen Keller were together for forty-nine
years.
Helen
describes the day Miss Sullivan came to the family home as: “THE
most important day I remember in all my life is the one on which my teacher,
Anne Mansfield Sullivan, came to me. I am filled with wonder when I consider
the immeasurable contrasts between the two lives which it connects. It was the
third of March, 1887, three months before I was seven years old.”
On the afternoon of that exciting day Keller stood on the
veranda and waiting for her teacher to come.
Her mother shows her with the help of signs about the coming of the Miss
Sullivan. She did not guess what to happen but guessed ‘that something unusual
was about to happen’.
Q3. Describe how
Helen Keller was initiated, language.
Ans. Helen Keller
was initiated to language with the help of her teacher Miss Sullivan. Her
experiences with Anne Sullivan helped her to learn sign language, rules,
writings, and behaviors. Anne Sullivan
taught her the letters of alphabets. Anne Sullivan makes Helen Keller able to
learn words and communication.
The
two incidents narrated by Keller how she initiated language by Miss Sullivan
are:
“The
morning after my teacher came she led me into her room and gave me a doll. The
little blind children at the Perkins Institution had sent it and Laura Bridgman
had dressed it; but I did not know this until afterward. When I had played with
it a little while, Miss Sullivan slowly spelled into my hand the word
"d-o-l-l." I was at once interested in this finger play and tried to
imitate it. When I finally succeeded in making the letters correctly I was
flushed with childish pleasure and pride.”
“One day,
while I was playing with my new doll, Miss Sullivan put my big rag doll into my
lap also, spelled "d-o-l-l" and tried to make me understand that
"d-o-l-l" applied to both. Earlier in the day we had had a tussle
over the words "m-u-g" and "w-a-t-e-r." Miss Sullivan had
tried to impress it upon me that "m-u-g" is mug and that "w-a-t-e-r" is water…”
Q4. Describe the
two lessons in nature that Helen learns after ‘souls awakening’.
Ans. Helen enjoyed the nature in the
company of her teacher Miss Sullivan. She leans both the magnificent as well as
ferocious aspects of the nature. The Munificent aspect of nature delights her. But she learnt that nature could be also is
ferocious which terrifies her.
Keller recalls
about the natures beneficing and magnificent aspect as: “I RECALL many incidents of the summer of 1887 that followed
my soul's sudden awakening. I did nothing but explore with my hands and learn
the name of every object that I touched; and the more I handled things and
learned their names and uses, the more joyous and confident grew my sense of
kinship with the rest of the world.”
Keller says about
the furious aspect of nature when one day she was with her teacher on walk.
She writes as “But about this time I had an
experience which taught me that nature is not always kind.” The weather grew warm and humid. They stood
under the cool shad of a tree. With her teacher’s help Helen sat amidst the
branches. Miss Sullivan went to fetch lunch and Helen was all alone. Helen felt paralyzed and frightened until
Miss Sullivan came and helped her. Helen had learnt a new lesson that “Nature wages
open war against her children and under softest touch hides treacherous”.
Note: Please for full explanation of
Grammar Portion watch live classes on you tube channel ‘Dear Students
(Salim Sir)
Exercise 2
Identify
whether the following statements are true or false.
1. Helen
undergoes a period of emotional agitation due to her physical impairments. (T)
2. In her childhood, Helen does not want to communicate with others. (F) 3. The parents are indifferent to the child.
(F) 4. The journey to the oculist is a difficult one for the child. (F) 5. The
absence of eyes in the doll is not noted by the child. (F) 6. Miss Sullivan comes to the Keller home when
Helen is ten years old. (F) 7. The narrator uses the word 'light for the
eventful day of Miss Sullivan arrival. (T) 8. The first word that her teacher
teaches Helen is water. (T) 9. Miss
Sullivan points to Helen's heart in response to the question 'what is love'?
(T) 10. Helen learns to recognise words
because Miss Sullivan speaks to her loudly. (F)
Exercise 3
Here
are the names of some more disabilities that people struggle with daily. Match
them their meanings.
1. Dyslexia: (a)
attention deficit hyperactive disorders
2. Autism:(b) a
genetic disorder associated with physical growth delays, intellectual
disability and characteristic facial features
3: Down's
syndrome: (c) difficulty in learning to read or interpret words, letters and
other symbols
4. ADHD(Attention
deficit hyperactivity disorder) (d)colour blindness or the inability to see
colour or colour differences.
5.Achromatopsia(e)
a developmental disorder of variable severity characterised by difficulty in
social interaction and communication
Answers: 1-C, 2-E, 3-B,
4-A, 5-D
Exercise 4
Fill
in the blanks with the help of clues given, to find words related to different
styles of walking.
1. To walk with
difficulty. H-B-I-(Hobble), 2. To walk on the tips of one's toes.-I-T-E
(Tiptoe), 3. To move without a fixed purpose or destination. W-N-E-(Wander)
4. To walk with
long steps. S-R-D- (Stride), 5.To walk
slowly and with effort because one is tired. T-U-G- (Trudge) 6.To walk very slowly and noisily without
lifting one's feet off the ground. S-U-F-E (Scuffle), 7. To go quietly or
secretly in order to avoid being seen or heard. –N-A- (Sneak), 8. To walk
slowly or quietly because you are involved in a criminal activity or you
looking for something. P-O-L (Prowl), 9. To move quickly and suddenly, rush.
D-S-(Dash), 10. To make a sudden movement towards somebody or something. –U-G-
(Lunge)
Exercise 5
Here
are some more expression which begin with the word 'out' use them in
appropriate places in the sentences given below: Out of the
blue, out of the question, out at the elbows, out of this world, out of the
bounds, out and about, out with it, out and out.
1. What was so
terrible that he couldn't come... in his usual candid manner? (out at the
elbows), 2. The village is ... to the
soldiers in the camps. (of bounds)
3. ...a deer
came in front of my car. (Out of the blue)
4. Scuba diving without an oxygen tank is ... (of the question) 5. What
a restaurant the food was ... (out of this world), 6. It's good to see old Mr
shah ... about again. (out and out) 7. The news report was ... fake, (out of
this world ) 8. I cannot help you because I am ... these days. (out with it)
Exercise 6
In the box is a
list of words you must have come across during the pandemic. Match words with
their meanings. Droplet transmission, Quarantine, Epidemic, Zoonotic disease, Outbreak, Herd
immunity, Asymptomatic
1. A disease
caused by an infectious agent that can pass between humans are other animals
(Zoonotic disease)
2. The rapid
spread of a disease to large number of people within a short period of time
(Outbreak)
3. The same as a
pandemic but occurring over a more limited geographical area (Epidemic)
4. The spread of
an infectious disease within a group of who have had no known contact with an
infected person or exposed to the disease (Community Spread)
5. A person who
does not show any of a disease despite being infected (Asymptomatic)
6. When bacteria
or viruses travel within small droplets of liquid from the respiratory tract
(Droplet transmission)
7. The
separation of people, animals or goods to prevent the possible spread of
infectious diseases (Quarantine)
16. When enough
people in a population are immune to a disease either through recovery or
vaccination (Herd immunity)
Grammar
Note: Please for full explanation of Grammar
Portion watch live classes on you tube channel ‘Dear Students
(Salim Sir)
Exercise 7
Change
the narration of the given sentences from direct to indirect speech.
1. Mira said, 'I
am going home.' Mira said that she was
going home. 2. Aisha said, 'I have been to London.' Aisha said that she had been to London.
3. Seerat said,
'My parents are going to Jammu.' Seerat
said that her parents are going to Jammu.4. She told me,'I can't swim.' She told me that she couldn't swim. 5. He said, 'I went on a picnic
yesterday.' He said that he had gone on
a picnic the previous day. 6. The mother said to the children, 'How brilliant
you are!' The mother told the children
that how brilliant they were. 7. The teacher said, 'the earth moves around the
sun.' The Teacher said that the earth revolves around the Sun. . I said to her,
'Honesty is the best policy.' I told her
that honesty is the best Policy. 9. Pinkly said, 'I didn't have any breakfast
this morning.' Pinky told that she
didn't' had any breakfast that morning. 10. Kamal said,' 'I will paint a
picture tomorrow.' Kamal said that he
would paint a picture the following day.
Exercise 8
Change
the narration of the given sentences from indirect to direct speech.
1. Mrs Shah said
that she had lost her bag. Mrs Shah said, 'I have lost my bag'. 2. The man said
that she was a college friend of my father's. The man said' 'She is your
father's college friends'. 3. Somu told the shopkeeper that he wanted to return
the clock as it was defective. Somu said to the shopkeeper, 'I want to return
this click, it has a defect'. 4. The
judge commanded them to call the accused into the courtroom. The Judge said to
them, 'Call the accused into the courtroom'. 5. Salman said that hi and his
sister were going to the circus. Salman said, 'I am going to Circus with
sister'. My 6. Monty said that he hoped pinkly was all right. Monty said, 'I
trust God that Pinky will be alright'. 7. The coach said that the players had
to come for practice every morning. The Coach said, 'listen players, you have
to come for practice every morning'. 8. She said she was seeing her brother the
following day. She said, 'I am going to see my brother tomorrow'. 9. She asked
me how they would get here. She said,
'How will we get there'. 10. The guest requested them to give him a cup of
coffee. The guest said, 'Please can I have a cup of coffee?
