The Story of My Life
1. What has the narrator said about her father?
The narrator said that her father was a captain in the Confederate Army.
Her father’s family had descended from Caspar Keller, a native of
Switzerland, who settled in Maryland. When the narrator, being the first
child in the family was to be named, her father suggested that she ought to
be named Mildred Campbell, an ancestor whom he highly esteemed. The
narrator’s mother insisted that the child should be called after her mother,
whose maiden name was Helen Everett. But in the excitement of carrying
her to the church, he father forgot the name on the way. When the minister
asked for the name he remembered that it had been decided to call the
narrator after her grandmother, and he gave her name as Helen Adams
2. What incident in Helen’s first year of life seems to be very strongly
impressionable?
The narrator said that when she was one-year old child, she began to
walk. It happened when her mother had just taken her out of the bathtub
and was holding her in her lap. Helen was suddenly attracted by the
flickering shadows of leaves that danced in the sunlight on the smooth
floor. She slipped from her mother’s lap and almost ran towards them. She
fell down thereafter and cried for her mother to take her up in her arms.
3. What happened in the month of February?
In the month of February the narrator had an illness which closed her eyes
and ears and plunged them into the unconsciousness of a newborn baby.
Her doctor called it congestion of the stomach and brain. The doctor
thought she would not live. Then early one morning the fever left her as
suddenly and mysteriously as it had come. There was great rejoicing in the
family that morning, but no one not even the doctor knew that she would
never see or hear again.
4. What did the narrator tell us about her childhood’s illness and how she felt then?
The narrator said that she had confused recollections of her illness; she
remembered the tenderness with which her mother tried to soothe her in
her crying hours of fret and pain, and the agony and bewilderment with
which she woke up after a tossing half sleep and turned her eyes so dry
and hot to the wall away from the once-loved light, which came to her
dim and yet more dim each day. It all seemed very unreal like a
nightmare; she gradually got used to the silence and darkness that
surrounded her and forgot that it had very been different, until her teacher
entered her life. During the first nineteen months of her life, she had caught
glimpses of broad green fields, a luminous sky, trees and flowers which the
darkness that followed could not wholly blot out.
1. How was Christmas time a delight to the narrator?
Christmas time was a delight to the narrator. She did not know what it was
all about, but she enjoyed the pleasant odours that filled the house and
the tit bits that were given to her and Martha to keep them quiet. They
were sadly in the way but that did not interfere with their pleasure in the
least. The family members allowed the narrator and Martha to grind the
spices, pick over the raisins and lick the stirring spoons. She hung her
stocking because the others did so she did not remember, however that
this ceremony interested her especially nor did her curiosity cause her to
wake before daylight to look for her gifts.
2. Describe the incident in which the narrator nearly got burnt.
One day, the narrator happened to spill water on her apron and she
spread it out to dry before the fire which was flickering on the sitting-room
hearth. The apron did not dry quickly as quickly as she wanted it to so she
drew nearer and threw it over the hot ashes. The fire leapt into life; and
soon her clothes were blazing. She made a terrified noise that brought Viny
her old nurse to the rescue. Throwing a blanket over the narrator, she
almost suffocated her but she put out the fire. Except for her hands and
hair the narrator was not badly burned.
3. Why was Miss Sullivan taken out through the window one day? Explain
what had happened to her?
One day, after Miss Sullivan came, the narrator sought an early opportunity
to lock her up in her room. She went upstairs with something which her
mother made her understand she had to give to Miss Sullivan; but no
sooner had she given it to Miss Sullivan that she slammed the door shut
locked it and hid the key under the wardrobe in the hall. When she refuse
to tell where the key was her father was obliged to get a ladder and take
Miss Sullivan out through the window. It was months later that the narrator
produced the key.
4. Describe the qualities of the narrator’s father, as mentioned by the narrator.
The narrator mentions that her father was most loving and indulgent and
devoted to his home, seldom leaving her side and his family, except in the
hunting season. He was a great hunter and a celebrated shot as she had
been told. Next to his family, he loved his dogs and gun; his hospitality was
great, almost to a fault and he seldom came home without bringing a
guest. His special pride was the big garden, where he raised his
watermelons and strawberries in the country. He brought to her the first ripe
grapes and choicest berries. She remembered his caressing touch as he
led her from tree to tree from vine to vine, and his eager delight in
whatever pleased her.
5. What opinion do you form of the narrator’s character from the way she
got upset over the use of the cradle by her sister Mildred?
The narrator loved Nancy, a much abused, much petted doll. This doll was
the helpless victim of the narrator’s outbursts of temper and affection. This
was the doll she loved the most as she was very much attached to it. Often
she spent an hour rocking Nancy in the cradle guarding both Nancy and
the cradle with the most jealousy. She hated Mildred because she had
taken her place in her mother’s lap. Therefore she got upset when Mildred
slept in Nancy’s cradle. This showed that there was yet no tie of love
between them; she was simply jealous of her sister who she felt had
usurped her position in the house
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