Review of a story book
Activity: Review of a story book
Name of the book: The Story of My Life
Published: 1903
Author: Helen Keller
Language: English
Genres:
Biography, Autobiography
Miss Keller busy in her study
The Story of My Life is Helen Keller’s
account of her triumph over deafness and blindness. Popularized by the stage
play and movie The Miracle Worker, Keller’s story has become a symbol of hope
for people all over the world.
This book–published when Keller was only
twenty-two–portrays the wild child who is locked in the dark and silent prison
of her own body. With an extraordinary immediacy, Keller reveals her
frustrations and rage, and takes the reader on the unforgettable journey of her
education and breakthroughs into the world of communication. From the moment
Keller recognizes the word “water” when her teacher finger-spells the letters,
we share her triumph as “that living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope,
joy, set it free!” An unparalleled chronicle of courage, The Story of My Life
remains startlingly fresh and vital more than a century after its first
publication, a timeless testament to an indomitable will.
Helen Keller was the first
Deaf-Blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. She would not be bound by
conditions. Rendered deaf and blind at 19 months by scarlet fever, she learned
to read (in several languages) and even speak, eventually graduating with honours
from Radcliffe College in 1904, where as a student she wrote The Story of My
Life. That she accomplished all of this in an age when few women attended
college and the disabled were often relegated to the background, spoken of only
in hushed tones, is remarkable. But Keller's many other achievements are
impressive by any standard: she authored 13 books, wrote countless articles,
and devoted her life to social reform. An active and effective suffragist,
pacifist, and socialist (the latter association earned her an FBI file), she
lectured on behalf of disabled people everywhere. She also helped start several
foundations that continue to improve the lives of the deaf and blind around the
world.
The
Story of My Life by Helen Keller is a beautiful memoir about the power of love,
language, and learning. It was sad and humbling to hear Helen describe how
desperate she was to communicate with people. Since Helen was deaf and
blind, she would go into a rage after being so frustrated that no one could
understand her. That really struck home with me. In college, I
babysat a 5 year old boy who couldn’t talk because he had cerebral palsy.
He could answer yes or no to my questions by shaking or nodding his head.
There were times when I asked every question I could think of and he would
break down in tears of frustration – just like Helen Keller described. It
was heart breaking to see. When the boy I babysat went to school and
learned more complex sign language, he lit up. I still remember the first
time he was able to tell me a story. He was absolutely glowing with
joy. Helen Keller’s story of learning was very touching to me since it
similar to the experience that the boy I knew had.
How she was able to learn
language was very interesting to read about since she was old to enough to
remember the experience of understanding words for the first time. Her teacher, Annie Sullivan, used a method of
teaching with Helen that had never been done before. The pedagogy behind how Annie taught
language to someone who couldn’t hear or see was fascinating. She had to break down and really think about
how kids normally learn language and translate it into the senses that Helen
had access to. She realized that kids
acquire language through imitation and through hearing it all day long every
day. So Annie would spell words into
Helen’s hand all day long about everything they were doing even though Helen
didn’t know what the words meant yet.
Helen learned that words represented the things that she could
touch. It was a bittersweet moment when
Annie tries to teach Helen what love is and Helen can’t understand why her
teacher won’t show it to her.
Before
reading this, I had never realized how important books would be to Helen
Keller. They were a huge part of how she
experienced a world that she couldn’t see or hear. She talked about books as if they were her
friends.
She had a
huge number of book collections and she used to read those. Because reading had such an
influence on her, she often described things the way that someone could see
would. She would describe trees as green
even though she had never seen the colour green because that’s what books
described them as. That being said, I
noticed that a lot of her descriptions – especially of nature – centered on
their scent and feel.
Helen desperately wanted to go to college but
practical things made it extremely difficult.
She struggled with being able to even take tests since they had to be
dictated to her. Books weren’t available
in braille quickly enough and she would fall behind in classes. Lectures had to
be written down in advance for her to follow along. It makes me appreciate not only my education
but the technology today that allows equal access to books for people with
disabilities. I just wanted to travel
back in time and make her books because they were so hard to get in
braille! As much as Helen loved books,
she hated tests. Like really, really
hated them. She describes the feeling of
forgetting an answer on a test perfectly.
She
talks about the administration of the school and how they sometimes
unintentionally made things even more difficult for her. But instead of letting it frustrate her, she
felt accomplished that not only had she gotten an education but she had
overcome the challenges in getting one as well.
Some quotes from this book
1. “One painful
duty fulfilled makes the next plainer and easier.”
2. “The bible
gives me a deep comforting sense that (things seen are temporal, and things
unseen are eternal.”
3.
“Knowledge is love and light and vision.”
4.
“Do not think of todays failures, but of the success that may
come tomorrow.”
5.
“It is wonderful how
much time good people spend fighting the devil. If they would only expend the
same amount of energy loving their fellow men, the devil would die in his own
tracks of ennui.”
6.
“It is so pleasant to
learn about new things. Every day I find how little I know, but I do not feel
discouraged since God has given me an eternity in which to learn more.”
Summary at a glance
The
Story of My Life by Helen Keller portrays
- how
difficult it was growing both deaf and blind
- how
Keller’s life and development can be credited to one teacher
- Keller’s
favourite book
The Story of My Life Part 1: Helen Keller was both
blind and deaf since she was very young.
The Story of My Life Pt 2: The teacher that changed
Helen Keller’s life was called Miss Sullivan.
The Story of My Life Pt 3: Even though times
weren’t always easy, Keller still lived a joyful and wondrous life.
The Story of My Life Pt 4: Keller had long dreamed
of studying at a university, and she finally got the chance to.
Overall, it is a
great book. I liked it very much. The story of Helen Keller or I would say the
journey of her life is really amazing, inspirational and motivating. And I
think, everyone should read this book. It’s an amazing story of overcoming
difficult trials and making the best of what is given to us. It is a beautiful
biography and after reading this, I now want to read more and more
autobiographies.
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