Question

Book Review On The Novel 'THE STORY OF MY LIFE'.

Answer 1

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 heartbreaking 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 hadHow 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..

Answer 2

Answer:

The book is an autobiography of Helen Keller, who is one of the most respected and internationally recognised visually impaired and deaf ladies, who struggled against all odds to educate herself. Keller was born on June 27, 1880 in Tuscumbia, Alabama. She was rendered deaf and blind at 19 months of age, when she contracted an acute congestion of the stomach and the brain (perhaps Scarlet Fever or Meningitis). From then on, she struggled to communicate with others. As a child, she would often be frustrated and would go in a rage, as she failed to communicate with her family.Eventually, after a lot of struggle, her parents find a teacher for her, Anne Sullivan, who goes on to change Keller’s entire life and teaches her how to communicate with her family and the outside world, without depending on anyone.The Story of My Life is a heart rending story of the challenges Keller and her teacher Sullivan face to communicate with each other until Sullivan tries the method of finger-spelling the words on Keller’s hand. With this method, Keller gets a breakthrough into the world of communication. For the first time, Keller recognises the word ‘Water’ through this method, and as she goes on to describe it in her book, “that living word, awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy, set it free.” With the help of her teacher, Keller learns to read and write and speak in different languages, including learning braille.

Keller wrote this book as a student at the age of 22. The book is in the form of letters compiled from her early childhood to adulthood years, which she wrote to her family and friends, informing them about her struggles to educate herself as well as other events happening in her school and college. She engages the reader with her thoughts, emotions and opinions. Her determination, diligence and strength are displayed through her writing.An enriching book which gives the reader an even deeper insight into the world of the blind and deaf people. A must read for everyone, across all ages.