Helen Keller

“What was everyone doing? What was going on? Helen became more and more angry. Sometimes the feeling of anger was more than she could stand. Then she kicked and screamed and tried to smash everything she touched. But this didn’t help either.”

Because others cannot communicate with Helen, she is frequently left bewildered and confused. Her temper tantrums develop as a partial response to her inability to express herself.

“Helen couldn’t hear the loudest noise in the world. But sometimes she could feel things slam or shake around her. She could feel their vibrations coming through the air and through the ground.”

Without sight or hearing, Helen’s life is both in darkness and silence. She learns to rely on other senses, especially her sense of touch. It is through this sense that she processes much of her world.

“‘You must not get your hopes up so soon,’ Anne said quickly. ‘Helen has learned how to make the shapes of her first word. And very fast too. But she does not know that these shapes stand for all the dolls in the world. She does not know they have meaning.’”

Helen proves that she has the intellectual capacity to learn sign language, but it is unclear at this point in the story whether she will be able to use it to communicate as it is intended. Teaching this process to Helen proves to be an arduous task for Anne.

“‘Helen must learn self-control.’

‘But Helen doesn’t know what self-control is,’ Mrs. Keller answered. ‘She doesn’t know how to keep her temper.’

‘Then that is the first lesson I must teach her,’ Annie Sullivan said.”

Anne quickly recognizes that Helen’s temper tantrums impede and slow the learning process, giving Helen an easy out when she feels frustrated or annoyed. Though her parents are certain that she cannot be un-taught such behavior, Anne is adamant that Helen must overcome this to grow.

“Helen didn’t know that Annie had come to help her. All she knew was that a stranger was trying to make her do things she did not understand, things she did not want to do.”

Because the Kellers cannot communicate with Helen, they cannot explain to her that Anne should be trusted. It is only with time and great effort on Anne’s part that she is able to obtain Helen’s trust.

“‘Oh, let her have it just this once,’ Mr. Keller said. ‘She doesn’t know any better.’

Annie shook her head. ‘She must learn that other people have rights too,’ she answered.”

The Kellers pity Helen because of her inability to communicate and therefore have made it their practice to give in to Helen’s frequent temper tantrums. Anne, however, insists that Helen will not be able to learn to communicate via language until she has learned discipline and self-control.

“Anne leaned forward. ‘I know it is a gamble,’ she said softly. ‘It is also our last chance.’

Last chance. Mrs. Keller sat very still for a moment. Then she nodded yes.”

The willingness of the Kellers to do whatever is in their ability to help Helen is evident in the early chapters. Anne has doggedly tried to break Helen from her temper tantrums and believes that if Helen is removed from her parents’ care, she may be forced to trust Anne. She asks the Kellers, too, to trust that she is acting in Helen’s best interest. Ultimately, their gamble pays off.

“Suddenly she knew! The shapes that the stranger was making with her fingers did have a meaning! Everything had a name. Everything in the whole world has a name! And she could learn them all!”

Helen finally has a breakthrough, the impact of which cannot be overstated. She understands how language operates and demonstrates her capacity for mastering more complex aspects of language in the future. She immediately wishes to learn as much as she possibly can from Anne.

“Then suddenly Helen stopped. She thumped herself across the head. Annie burst out laughing. ‘Yes, dear,’ she said. ‘There’s a word for you too.’ And she bent down and spelled H-E-L-E-N into the little girl’s hand. Helen had a name at last!”

Helen’s embracing of an identity is an important step in her development as an adolescent. While her parents once feared that she would be forcefully committed to a hospital with no real meaning in her life, Helen defies this preconception and her limitations.

“From early morning until late at night Helen spelled the words she knew. She spelled until her eyelids dropped and her fingers could hardly make the shapes.”

Once Helen grasps the concept of language, she learns voraciously, never tiring of it. This is evidence not only of her keen intellect but also of her Dedication and Perseverance, which will serve her well as her education unfolds. Because she is so eager to learn, she will be willing to endure many obstacles and challenges.

“Helen’s mother and father had heard the noise [of Helen’s laughter] coming from her room. They had come to the door to watch. Mrs. Keller leaned her head against her husband’s shoulder. ‘Oh Arthur,’ she whispered. ‘Helen’s laughing. I never thought I’d hear that sound again.’”

As Helen acquires the ability to fully communicate, she establishes her personhood. Her parents are hopeful that she may indeed be able to live a full and meaningful life; her laughter is evidence that supports this hope.

“Before the day was over Helen learned all the letters of the alphabet. She was ready to move on to words. That night a tired but happy Annie Sullivan sat down and wrote a letter. ‘Something tells me,’ she wrote, ‘that I am going to succeed beyond my wildest dreams.’”

By hiring Anne, the Kellers took a risk. There was no way to predict whether or not Helen would ever successfully learn to communicate. Here, Anne expresses her joy at Helen’s acquisition of language.

“But what about things Helen could not hold in her hand? What about things that were too big? Or far away? Or that happened long ago? How could she learn about them? Helen had to trust other people to tell her about the colors she would never see and the sounds she would never hear.

And what about ideas—thoughts—with no shapes at all?”

Helen is able to comprehend the way that language is employed to correspond to physical objects. It remains to be seen, however, if Helen will be able to comprehend higher-level, abstract concepts. In time, she does, even going so far as to earn a college degree, highlighting The Power of Education to transform someone’s life.

“The animals seemed to sense that Helen Keller was different from other boys and girls. So they were especially gentle with her.”

One of Helen’s first outings with Anne is a trip to the circus. Helen is thrilled by what the circus has to offer and especially enjoys the animals. Here, the narrator notes that the animals, in turn, were kind to Helen, as if they intuited her disabilities.

“Finally Christmas Eve came. Helen was so excited she could not go to sleep. ‘You’ll have to,’ Teacher spelled. ‘Or Santa Claus won’t come.’

So Helen closed her eyes—and smiled. ‘Santa Claus will think girl is asleep,’ she spelled.”

In many ways, Helen is able to live as other children do. She anticipates Christmas as any young child would and even makes jokes that demonstrate her personality.

“[On Christmas Day] Mrs. Keller watched her daughter playing happily. There were tears in her eyes as she turned to Teacher.

‘Miss Annie,’ Helen’s mother said. I have thanked God every day for sending you to us. But I did not know until this morning what a blessing you have been.”

The Kellers have been dogged in their quest to help Helen, and it has paid off. Here, Helen’s mother makes clear that the ways in which Anne’s instruction and guidance have enhanced Helen’s life cannot be overstated.

“But was Helen ready to go out into the world? After all, only a year had gone by since Helen had learned there was a real world at all. Would people think she was still too different? Would they pity her too much?”

Anne is cautious when Helen is invited to attend the Perkins Institute. She is aware that because Helen has been confined to her home and has interacted with only family, exposing her to a larger world could be trauma inducing. Anne proceeds with caution at all times, keeping Helen’s best interest in mind when making decisions.

“Helen already knew how important books were going to be in her life. ‘They tell me so much that is interesting about things I cannot see,’ she said. ‘And they are never tired or troubled like people.’”

When Helen learns to read, she is immediately captivated. When a book is not available in braille, Anne “reads” it to Helen by spelling out the words into Helen’s hands. This dedication on the part of both women displays the importance of books and stories in finding oneself and growing one’s knowledge of the world.

“[Helen] had so many things to tell [her parents] about this first trip into the world. ‘It was a time when I lived myself into all things,’ Helen later wrote.”

When Helen ventures beyond her parents’ home for the first time in her life, she finds the experience exhilarating. Not only is she able to have experiences that are new, and therefore interesting and exciting, but she is also able to experience things that her parents presumed would never be available to her because of her disabilities.

“But Helen was growing more and more unhappy talking with her hands. Most people could not understand this way of talking. Besides, Helen’s mind had frown so much, her thoughts came so fast one after another, that her fingers could not keep up.”

Helen proves to be a highly intelligent person who craves stimulation. Because few people are knowledgeable of American Sign Language, she is not able to interact with the world as fully as she would like. This is what motivates her to learn to speak English aloud with the help of an instructor.

“But [Helen] refused to give up. And little by little she got better. Until one day Helen opened her mouth and said in a growly voice, ‘I a-amm n-o-ootttttT d-d-duuummm-bB n-noow.’

I am not dumb now. Five broken words. Two were spoken in a whisper. Three were spoken in a shout. She would have to practice all her life. She would never learn how to speak very clearly. But a miracle had happened all the same. Helen Keller had learned how to talk with her mouth.”

The ability to speak provides Helen with an additional tool by which to communicate. Importantly, the term “dumb” was used at this time to describe a person who could not speak. It was often believed, incorrectly, that those who could not speak were unintelligent, and here Helen challenges this notion.

“Helen also gave advice. ‘I who am blind can only give one hint to you who can see. Use your eyes as if tomorrow you will go blind. Do the same with all your other senses. Hear the song of a bird as if tomorrow you would go deaf.’”

Helen uses the disadvantages she bears to challenge others to live their lives to the fullest. In her lectures, she makes an impact on the world that would not have been possible had she not learned to communicate.

“Annie Sullivan died on October 19, 1936. Helen had faced other pain in her life, but nothing like this. Her thoughts flew back over fifty years to the day when a young Annie had come to turn a wild animal-child into a little girl.

‘That was the most important day of my life,’ Helen said many times. ‘It was my soul’s birthday—the day my teacher came to me.’ And now she was gone!

‘A big piece of my heart has just died too,’ Helen said.”

Anne’s importance in Helen’s life is remarkably significant. Anne is not only a teacher and mentor but also a parental figure and friend. She changed Helen’s life dramatically and for the better.