HELEN KELLER Ch 4-7
1. In ‘The Story of My Life’ by Helen Keller, what kind of "peculiar sympathy" did Miss
Sullivan have with Helen's ‘pleasures and desires’?
In The Story of My Life, Helen Keller's autobiography of the first twenty-two years of
her life, Helen reveals the special relationship she has with Annie Sullivan. Helen
remembers the day she met Annie as ‘the most important day in all my life’ and she is
well aware of Annie's contribution to her own development. Annie is only partially
sighted herself and has had her own difficult childhood which allows her to
understand Helen's many frustrations. Annie could relate to Helen like no-one else
can.
It is this unsaid understanding or "peculiar sympathy" which Helen refers to that
allows Annie to help Helen achieve what she couldn’t otherwise. Helen admits that,
because of Annie, she learns ‘from life itself’. She cannot explain it herself but does
acknowledge Annie's long association with the blind. She also recognizes Annie's
wonderful faculty for description and the fact that she does not deliberate on previous
day's lessons. Helen appreciates her style and the way Annie introduced dry
technicalities of science little by little, all of which ensure that Helen cannot help
remembering what she taught.
2. How can you say that Helen read and studied out of doors.
Usually students read and study in their classrooms, but for Helen Keller whole
nature was her classroom. Most of her learning took place out of doors. This way she
learnt more about the world around her. She was close to the nature. Generally
students read with books but Helen Keller read by using her sense of smell and
touch. In a way, nature became her teacher, guide and philosopher. She learnt from
nature that everything has beauty of its own. Miss Sullivan provided her practical
knowledge of everything. Helen read Geography by raised maps in clay. She touched
and felt the opening up of a plant. The study of tadpole made her understand that for
creatures their natural habitats are indispensable. So Helen learnt from life itself and
in this learning her teacher played an exemplary role. It was she who made her
education appear like a game. Helen learnt more out of doors and nature herself
unfolded the book of life for her.
3. Helen learnt a new lesson that “Nature wages open war against her children and
under softest touch hides treacherous claws”. How did Helen learn that lesson?
The benevolent aspect of nature thrilled Helen, but soon she learnt that nature could
be ferocious also. Once Helen along with Miss Sullivan, were returning from a walk.
The weather grew warm and humid. They stood under the cool shade of a tree. With
her teacher’s help Helen sat amidst the branches. Miss Sullivan went to fetch lunch
leaving Helen all alone. Suddenly, the weather changed and a thunderstorm was
imminent. Helen felt paralysed and frightened and she wanted to climb down from the
tree. She clung to the branch with all her might as the tree swayed and strained. The
branches lashed about her. She felt as if she would fall and at that very moment Miss
Sullivan came and helped her down. Helen had learnt a new lesson that “Nature
wages open war against her children and under softest touch hides treacherous
claws”. She learnt a great lesson that life is not always pleasant and one should be
prepared for the risks and stakes also.
4. How did Helen learn to read? Describe Helen’s long process of learning?
Learning to read was an important step in Helen’s education. Miss Sullivan gave her
slips of cardboard on which raised letters were printed words. Helen learnt that each
printed word stood for an object, an act or a quality. She learnt to use these words in
making short sentences. One day she pinned the word ‘girl’ on her pinafore and stood
in the wardrobe. On it, she arranged the words ‘is in wardrobe’. Miss Sullivan and
Helen played this game for hours together. From the printed slips Helen moved to the
printed book “Reader for Beginners” and hunted for the words she knew. Gradually, she began to read. Once she brought some flowers for her teacher. Miss Sullivan
spelled into her hand, “I love Helen.” Helen asked “what is love?” Initially, she failed
to understand. One day as she was trying to string beads of different sizes in
symmetrical groups, she made many mistakes. Unknowingly she tried to think how
she could arrange them. Miss Sullivan touched her forehead and spelled, “Think”. In a
flash she learnt that the word was the name of the feeling that was going on in her
head. Thus, she learnt about an abstract idea.
5. How did Helen learn subjects like Geography, History and Science?
Helen had a different way of learning subjects like Geography, History, Science. She
walked down with Miss Sullivan to an old tumble-down lumber wharf on the
Tennessee River which was used during the Civil War to land soldiers. She built dams
of pebbles, made islands and lakes, dug river-beds, never realising that she was
learning a lesson. She listened to Miss Sullivan’s descriptions of burning mountains,
buried cities, moving rivers of ice, etc. She made raised maps on clay so that she
could feel the mountain ridges and valley and follow the course of river with her
fingers. She learnt Arithmetic by stringing beads in groups and by arranging
kindergarten straws she learned to add and subtract. She studied Zoology and Botany
also in a leisurely manner. She listened carefully to the description of terrible beasts
which tramped the forests and died in the swamps of an unknown age. She learnt
about the growth of a plant by planting a lily in her balcony.
6. How did Anne Sullivan make Helen understand the meaning of word ‘Love’?
Miss Sullivan was a great teacher for Helen. One day, when Helen brought violets for
her teacher. She gently put her arm around Helen and spelled on her hand that she
loved Helen. When Helen asked what love is, Miss Sullivan drew her closer and
pointed towards her heart and told her that love is here. Helen felt the beat of heart
but couldn’t understand the meaning of love. She was disappointed that her teacher
couldn’t show her the love.
Once, Helen was arranging beads in symmetrical pattern but found it difficult. Miss
Sullivan touched her forehead and spelled ‘think’. Helen quickly understood that the
word was the name of process that was going on in her head.
This was her first conscious perception of an abstract idea.
Miss Sullivan explained her that love is like the clouds that we cannot touch. But
when it rains, flowers and the thirsty earth feel glad to have it. We cannot touch love
but can feel the sweetness that it pours into everything. Without love no one can be
happy. This made Helen understood the meaning of love.
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