Helen was a symbol of resilience and persistence. Explain
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There are some lives whose stories cannot be repeated often enough; the tale of Helen Keller, who was born on June 27, 1880, in Tuscumbia, Alabama, is one of those.
On June 1, 1968, the New York Times wrote, “Helen Keller, who overcame blindness and deafness to become a symbol of the indomitable human spirit, died this afternoon in her home … She was 87 years old.”
When Keller was 19 months old she got sick, and when she recovered, as she recalled years later, “the illness [had] closed my eyes and ears and plunged me into the unconsciousness of a newborn baby."
Her father was a long-time newspaper editor; her mother, Kate Adams Keller, became her champion.
A happy, bubbling child, after her illness Keller’s isolation and frustration made her difficult, acting out her anger, and she struggled to communicate with anyone except for the child of the family’s maid. By the time she was seven, Keller and her family had built a “vocabulary” of about 60 signs they used to communicate.
It was about this time that her mother read “American Notes,” by Charles Dickens, which related the story of Laura Bridgman, who was born 50 years before Keller, and was the first deaf-blind American to be educated in the English language. Inspired by the story, Kate Keller sent Helen and her father to Baltimore to meet with a specialist, J. Julian Chisholm. Chisholm recommended Alexander Graham Bell, who was working with the Boston School for Deaf Mutes. Bell spent some time with Keller and then recommended her family to the Perkins Institute for the Blind, the same school that worked with Bridgman, in Boston.
At Perkins, Keller met Anne Sullivan, a 20-year-old former student. In March 1887, Sullivan became her instructor, and the relationship between them lasted for 49 years, as Sullivan, who was also visually impaired, became her governess and then her companion, even after she married John Macy, helping with Keller’s growing demands until she died in 1936.
Sullivan began by teaching Keller words by drawing the letters on her palm, and relating them to an object such as her doll or water.
In 1894, the two moved to New York and Keller studied at successful schools for the deaf. In 1900, Keller earned admission to Radcliffe College. Mark Twain, who had become an admirer of her perseverance, arranged for her tuition, and in 1904, she became the first deaf-blind person to receive a college degree.
She was determined to live as conventionally as possible, and learned to speak and to understand others by reading their lips with her hands.
Keller’s struggles and her success in overcoming them reflected her optimism. One of her many quotable sayings was, “Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.”
“My life has been happy because I have had wonderful friends and plenty of interesting work to do,” she once said. “I seldom think about my limitations, and they never make me sad. Perhaps there is just a touch of yearning at times, but it is vague, like a breeze among flowers. The wind passes, and the flowers are content.”
She became a noted speaker and author of a dozen books, as well as an activist for women and people with disabilities, and against war. She founded Helen Keller International in 1915 to promote research in vision and health. She was a co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in 1920.
She also wrote, “Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.”
hope it helps u
On June 1, 1968, the New York Times wrote, “Helen Keller, who overcame blindness and deafness to become a symbol of the indomitable human spirit, died this afternoon in her home … She was 87 years old.”
When Keller was 19 months old she got sick, and when she recovered, as she recalled years later, “the illness [had] closed my eyes and ears and plunged me into the unconsciousness of a newborn baby."
Her father was a long-time newspaper editor; her mother, Kate Adams Keller, became her champion.
A happy, bubbling child, after her illness Keller’s isolation and frustration made her difficult, acting out her anger, and she struggled to communicate with anyone except for the child of the family’s maid. By the time she was seven, Keller and her family had built a “vocabulary” of about 60 signs they used to communicate.
It was about this time that her mother read “American Notes,” by Charles Dickens, which related the story of Laura Bridgman, who was born 50 years before Keller, and was the first deaf-blind American to be educated in the English language. Inspired by the story, Kate Keller sent Helen and her father to Baltimore to meet with a specialist, J. Julian Chisholm. Chisholm recommended Alexander Graham Bell, who was working with the Boston School for Deaf Mutes. Bell spent some time with Keller and then recommended her family to the Perkins Institute for the Blind, the same school that worked with Bridgman, in Boston.
At Perkins, Keller met Anne Sullivan, a 20-year-old former student. In March 1887, Sullivan became her instructor, and the relationship between them lasted for 49 years, as Sullivan, who was also visually impaired, became her governess and then her companion, even after she married John Macy, helping with Keller’s growing demands until she died in 1936.
Sullivan began by teaching Keller words by drawing the letters on her palm, and relating them to an object such as her doll or water.
In 1894, the two moved to New York and Keller studied at successful schools for the deaf. In 1900, Keller earned admission to Radcliffe College. Mark Twain, who had become an admirer of her perseverance, arranged for her tuition, and in 1904, she became the first deaf-blind person to receive a college degree.
She was determined to live as conventionally as possible, and learned to speak and to understand others by reading their lips with her hands.
Keller’s struggles and her success in overcoming them reflected her optimism. One of her many quotable sayings was, “Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.”
“My life has been happy because I have had wonderful friends and plenty of interesting work to do,” she once said. “I seldom think about my limitations, and they never make me sad. Perhaps there is just a touch of yearning at times, but it is vague, like a breeze among flowers. The wind passes, and the flowers are content.”
She became a noted speaker and author of a dozen books, as well as an activist for women and people with disabilities, and against war. She founded Helen Keller International in 1915 to promote research in vision and health. She was a co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in 1920.
She also wrote, “Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.”
hope it helps u
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