chapter 2 summary the story of my life
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Hello! You asked for a summary of Chapter 2 in Helen Keller's Story Of My Life.
Helen Keller starts out by telling us how she learns to communicate with others in the first few months after her illness. She credits her mother with smoothing her transition into a world made difficult by her disabilities. Helen learns how to make simple signs to make herself understood and she also learns how to distinguish between people leaving or coming into the house. One day, she is prompted to dress for company when she feels the front door shut and sees other signs that a gentleman is visiting her mother.
Helen notices that other people do not use signs when they communicate. Although she tries to move her lips, no sounds come out of her mouth. In frustration, she often throws tantrums; her nurse, Ella, is often on the receiving end of her violent tantrums, but Helen's sense of regret does not last long. She is only interested in getting what she wants.
Helen's constant companions are Martha Washington, the cook's daughter, and Belle, an old dog. She orders Martha around mercilessly and has no trouble getting Martha to do what she wants. Helen is strong, stubborn and indifferent to consequences. She and Martha spend time helping in the kitchen, getting into mischief, and going egg-hunting. When Belle does not do what Helen wants, the poor dog has to endure violent retribution from Helen.
Helen tells us that she almost gets herself badly burned one day when she ventures too close to the fire in an effort to dry her wet apron. It is about this time that she also learns the use of a key. Due to her mischievous and contrary nature, she locks her mother in the pantry and Miss Sullivan (her teacher) in her room. Helen displays no regret for her actions.
Helen had a warm relationship with her father; he was a fantastic story-teller, a great hunter and a generous host. She remembers the wonderful fruits her father grew in his big garden. She finds it difficult to speak of her mother, but Helen tells us that her mother is always near her. While she had a wonderful relationship with both her parents, Helen was initially jealous of her younger sister, Mildred, who claimed much of their mother's attention after she was born. Helen relates to us that she overturns her baby sister's cradle one day. It is only by the fortuitous intervention of their mother that Helen's sister is not killed. Helen tells us that those who endure 'twofold solitude' know 'little of the tender affections that grow out of endearing words and actions and companionship.' The chapter ends with Helen telling us that she and Mildred eventually became happy companions, 'content to go hand-in-hand wherever caprice led' them.
Thanks for the question. I encourage you to read the chapter to appreciate the full scope of Helen's experience. If you have already read the chapter, well done!
In the initial months after her illness, Helen either sat in her mother’s lap or clung to her dress when she went about doing her household chores. She touched every object and observed every motion thus, enabling her to understand the outer world.
She started communicating using sign language. A shake of her head meant ‘No’ and a nod ‘Yes’, a pull meant ‘Come’ and a push ‘Go’. Her mother was of great help to her and she turned her long dark nights into bright and good ones with her wisdom.
She was always sent for when they had guests and she waved her hand to them when they took their leave. But after sometime, Helen started realising that she was different from others. She noticed that sign language was not used by other people, that they used their lips to talk. She used to touch their lips and then hers.
She could feel the difference and sometimes she used to get so angry that she kicked and screamed till she became exhausted. Helen was a naughty girl. She used to kick her nurse Ella and dominated her cook’s daughter Martha Washington.
Her sources of interest were the sheds where the corn was stored, the stable where the horses were kept and the yards where the cows were milked. Once she was saved from a fire by her old nurse, Viny. In this way her mischiefs kept on increasing.
By this time, she had found out the use of a key and locked her mother in the pantry for three hours. Her mother kept on pounding on the door, while she sat outside on the steps and laughed. This was the naughtiest prank ever done by Helen and when Miss Sullivan was appointed as her teacher, Helen locked even her and hid the key under the wardrobe in the hall. Miss Sullivan was taken out through the window.
Helen’s father was most loving and devoted to his home. Apart from this he was a great hunter. He loved being hospitable and seldom came home without bringing a guest.
He raised watermelons and strawberries in his special big garden. Her father was a story-teller as well and used to spell clumsily into Helen’s hands some of his cleverest anecdotes. But unfortunately after a short illness, he died in 1896.
Helen’s mother was equally close to Helen’s heart. So much so that she regarded her little sister as an intruder out of jealousy. Once she overturned the cradle in which her little sister was sleeping just because it belonged to Nancy, Helen’s doll. She was saved from falling by her mother. Later on, both of them became good friends