Question

Charactersketch of main characters of the story of my life

Answer 1

Helen Keller
Helen Adams Keller was an American girl born on June 27, 1880 in Tuscumbia, a town of Northern Alabama. She was the first child of Kate Adams and Arthur H. Keller. She started her life in a ‘joyful' atmosphere, her mother wanted to name her Helen Everett, but her father ‘lost' the name on the way to church and he gave her name Helen Adams. In dreary month of February 1882, she was attacked by a strange disease diagnosed as an acute congestion of the stomach and brain, and she lost her ability to see or hear anything. Helen struggled to express herself in the any possible way and grew a strong ability to feel things. She started loving nature and became very naughty but her inability to express herself clearly saddened her. When Miss Sullivan came in her life, Keller started learning things and gathered the knowledge about the world around her. She started expressing herself using manual alphabet and lip reading. She grew love for the language and the nature. Helen went to Cambridge school for young ladies to prepare for Radcliffe. She entered Radcliffe in the fall of 1990. At age of 22, Helen Keller published her autobiography ‘The Story of My Life' with the help of Miss Sullivan and John Macy and in it, she recorded her life long struggle to overcome her disabilities.
Anne Sullivan
Johanna Mansfield Sullivan Macy, known as Anne Sullivan, came in Helen’s life on third of March 1887. She was not only Helen’s teacher who came from Perkin’s Institute for the Blind, but also her eyes and a means of communication with the World. Helen said about the arrival of Miss Sullivan , “I felt approaching footsteps, I stretched out my hand as I supposed to my mother. Some one took it, and I was caught up and held close in the arms of her who had come to reveal all things to me, and, more than all things else, to love me.” She was a confident American lady who gave Helen the power to face her fears. She told her about the love and the nature and the world. Whenever Helen was in any kind of depression Miss Sullivan was always there to help and motivate her. Wherever Helen travelled, Miss Sullivan was almost every time with her to assure that she gets every a joy nature has to offer. When Helen became depressed because she was found guilty of ‘plagiarism’, Miss Sullivan helped her to come back to the normal life and persuaded her to write a brief sketch of her life for Youth's companion. She travelled to Niagara Falls, World’s fair, New York and Washington with Helen. She helped her study for the Radcliffe at Cambridge School for Young Ladies and even helped Helen to have a conversation with her friends at Cambridge School. Helen wrote about Miss Sullivan, “ But, though everybody was kind and ready to help us, there was only one hand that could turn drudgery into pleasure.” Miss Sullivan married to John Macy in 1905. Helen’s biography, The Story Of My Life, was published with the help of Miss Sullivan and John Macy. In 1936, Miss Sullivan died with Keller holding her hand.
Kate Adams
She was the mother of Helen Keller and Mildred Keller. She was a very caring lady who tried her best to understand Helen and taught her a lot of things. She read about Laura Bridgman in the Charles Dickens’ ‘American Notes'. She read that Laura was deaf and blind and yet had been educated. She wanted her daughter to learn in the same way as Laura Bridgman did. She brought Helen close to nature, she brought Miss Sullivan in the life of Helen. When Helen’s father died, Kate took care of all the dreams of Mildred and Helen. She immediately withdrew Helen from Cambridge School when Principal Gilman forced Helen to take three more years to prepare for Radcliffe. Throughout the journey of Helen, her mother was always with herArthur H. Keller
He was the Father of Helen and Mildred, and a captain in Confederate Army. His family descended from Casper Keller, a native of Switzerland, who settled in Maryland. Helen’s mother wanted to name her daughter Helen Everett, but, Arthur forgot the name while he was carrying Helen to the church, and hence she got the name Helen Keller. Arthur was most loving and indulgent, devoted to his home. Next to his family he loved his dogs and guns. He was a good hunter and a friendly person. He did everything he could to give Helen a normal life. Arthur was a very good storyteller who died in summer of 1896. Helen called her father’s death ‘ first great sorrow'.
Mildred Keller
She was the younger sister of Helen Keller. For a long time, Helen regarded her little sister as an ‘intruder’. Helen envied Mildred because she became darling of Kate Adams. One day, Helen overturned the cradle in which her sister was sleeping, but her mother caught the little girl. When Helen was restored to her human heritage, Mildred and she grew into each other’s hearts. Sometimes Helen would go with Mildred to gather persimmons.