Answer the following question in 200 - 250 words.
(1) From ‘The Story of My Life’, describe the relation between Helen Keller and Martha
Washington.
In the book - The Story of My Life Helen provides insight into her struggles to
communicate. Before the arrival of her teacher, Annie Sullivan, Helen Keller
sought out the companionship of Martha Washington, the African American
child of the family cook.
Helen and Martha developed a system of signs to communicate during play
and Martha appeared to tolerate Helen’s eccentric behaviour.
Martha understood Helen and needed little explanation of what Helen may
want even recognizing when and where Helen wanted to go. She indulges
her, understands her signs, and allows her to dominate their games. The two
shared a great love for mischief which is probably one of the reasons why
Helen related so well to her.
They spent a great deal of time in the kitchen and the stables, doing a variety
of tasks. Hunting for the eggs of the guinea fowl in the long grass was one of
their greatest delights.
Martha’s relation with Helen indicates that she was intuitive, even at such a
young age, patient and understanding.
Martha lived with the Keller family until Helen moved to a larger house before
the birth of her sister, Mildred and the death of her father.
(2) Discuss the role of nature in Helen’s childhood. Why does Helen find the garden to
be a source of comfort?
Helen lived with her family in a house that was completely covered with vines,
climbing roses and honey suckles. It was the favourite haunt of the humming
birds. A few steps away from the homestead was a garden. It was the paradise
of Helen’s childhood.
In the days before Anne Sullivan came into her life, and Helen realized that
she was different from others .When she was neither able to understand what
two people were conversing nor communicate to others what she wanted due
to her handicap, it vexed her and at times she kicked and screamed until she
was exhausted.
She sought refuge in the garden. Helen used to occupy herself feeling along
the stiff boxwood hedges. She followed smell to find the violets and lilies. She
went to find comfort and hide her hot face in the cool leaves and grass. It gave
her joy to lose herself in the garden of flowers and wander happily from spot
to spot. When she came upon a beautiful vine, she recognized it by feeling its
leaves and blossoms.
(3) In what ways do Helen's intelligence and talent cause her frustration and rage?
Helen Keller was an active child full of curiosity about her surroundings. In the
first few months after her illness Helen Keller learned some kind of
communication with her mother. By the time she was five, she knew what was
going on about her.
She soon realized that that she was different from other people. They did not
use signs when they communicated, so when she tried communicating the
way they did without success, it frustrated and angered her.
She took refuge in the garden because she could not express herself.
Helen also tried mimicking her father’s actions as he read a newspaper, even
wearing his spectacles, thinking they might help solve the mystery but it only
added to her confusion.
Helen's intelligence and talent to learn by feeling allowed her to gain an
understanding of her surroundings. It also meant that she was more easily
frustrated.
The awareness that she was ‘different’ and that she could not communicate
effectively caused bouts of rage. Her intelligence did not seem to make any
difference in her attempts to communicate.
This led to frequent temper tantrums, sometimes hourly.
This was one of the motivations that drove her parents to seek help.
(4) ‘During the whole trip I did not have one fit of temper.’ Explain with reference to the
novel - ‘The Story of my Life’.
When Helen was about six years old, her father heard of an eminent oculist in
Baltimore who had been successful in many cases that had seemed hopeless.
They travelled by train and Helen describes the journey as pleasant. She made
friends with many people on the train. A lady gave her a box of shells, her
father made holes in them and stringing them kept her busy and contented.
She went round with the conductor, clinging to his coat tails. He let her play
with his ticket punch and she amused herself for hours making funny holes in
bits of cardboard.
Her aunt made her a doll out of towels with no nose, mouth ears or eyes. The
absence of eyes struck her as being the most conspicuous defect with the
doll. Others were unable to provide the solution until Helen herself thought of
the beads on her aunt’s cape as eyes for the doll.
She had so many things to do during the journey to keep her mind and fingers
busy hence she did not lose her temper even once.
(5)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 Anne as ‘the most important day in all my life’
and she is well aware of Anne's contribution to her own development. Anne is only
partially sighted herself and has had her own difficult childhood which allows her
to understand Helen's many frustrations. Anne could relate to Helen like no-one
else could.
It is this unsaid understanding or ‘peculiar sympathy’ which Helen refers to that
allows Anne to help Helen achieve what she couldn’t otherwise. Helen admits that,
because of Anne, she learns ‘from life itself’. She cannot explain it herself but
does acknowledge Anne's long association with the blind. She also recognizes
Anne'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 Anne
introduced dry technicalities of science little by little, all of which ensure that
Helen cannot help remembering what she taught.
(6) 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 and taught her all
the subjects . Helen learnt geography, arithmetic, zoology and botany-all in a
leisurely manner. Arithmetic seemed a disinteresting subject to Helen. In science,
she was taught the growth of a plant in its actual form. She enjoyed her lessons as
she learnt them from life itself. But it was all because of her teacher who taught
her in a manner that everything around her breathed of love, joy and was full of
meaning. 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.
(7)Helen learnt a new lesson that “Nature wages open war against her children and under
softest touch hides treacherous claws”. How?
The benevolent aspect of nature thrilled Helen. The whole nature was her
classroom. Most of her learning took place out of doors. This way she learnt more
about the world around her.
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 proposed that they have their lunch there.
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.
(8) 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.
(9) 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.
(10) 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 understand the meaning of love.
(1) From ‘The Story of My Life’, describe the relation between Helen Keller and Martha
Washington.
In the book - The Story of My Life Helen provides insight into her struggles to
communicate. Before the arrival of her teacher, Annie Sullivan, Helen Keller
sought out the companionship of Martha Washington, the African American
child of the family cook.
Helen and Martha developed a system of signs to communicate during play
and Martha appeared to tolerate Helen’s eccentric behaviour.
Martha understood Helen and needed little explanation of what Helen may
want even recognizing when and where Helen wanted to go. She indulges
her, understands her signs, and allows her to dominate their games. The two
shared a great love for mischief which is probably one of the reasons why
Helen related so well to her.
They spent a great deal of time in the kitchen and the stables, doing a variety
of tasks. Hunting for the eggs of the guinea fowl in the long grass was one of
their greatest delights.
Martha’s relation with Helen indicates that she was intuitive, even at such a
young age, patient and understanding.
Martha lived with the Keller family until Helen moved to a larger house before
the birth of her sister, Mildred and the death of her father.
(2) Discuss the role of nature in Helen’s childhood. Why does Helen find the garden to
be a source of comfort?
Helen lived with her family in a house that was completely covered with vines,
climbing roses and honey suckles. It was the favourite haunt of the humming
birds. A few steps away from the homestead was a garden. It was the paradise
of Helen’s childhood.
In the days before Anne Sullivan came into her life, and Helen realized that
she was different from others .When she was neither able to understand what
two people were conversing nor communicate to others what she wanted due
to her handicap, it vexed her and at times she kicked and screamed until she
was exhausted.
She sought refuge in the garden. Helen used to occupy herself feeling along
the stiff boxwood hedges. She followed smell to find the violets and lilies. She
went to find comfort and hide her hot face in the cool leaves and grass. It gave
her joy to lose herself in the garden of flowers and wander happily from spot
to spot. When she came upon a beautiful vine, she recognized it by feeling its
leaves and blossoms.
(3) In what ways do Helen's intelligence and talent cause her frustration and rage?
Helen Keller was an active child full of curiosity about her surroundings. In the
first few months after her illness Helen Keller learned some kind of
communication with her mother. By the time she was five, she knew what was
going on about her.
She soon realized that that she was different from other people. They did not
use signs when they communicated, so when she tried communicating the
way they did without success, it frustrated and angered her.
She took refuge in the garden because she could not express herself.
Helen also tried mimicking her father’s actions as he read a newspaper, even
wearing his spectacles, thinking they might help solve the mystery but it only
added to her confusion.
Helen's intelligence and talent to learn by feeling allowed her to gain an
understanding of her surroundings. It also meant that she was more easily
frustrated.
The awareness that she was ‘different’ and that she could not communicate
effectively caused bouts of rage. Her intelligence did not seem to make any
difference in her attempts to communicate.
This led to frequent temper tantrums, sometimes hourly.
This was one of the motivations that drove her parents to seek help.
(4) ‘During the whole trip I did not have one fit of temper.’ Explain with reference to the
novel - ‘The Story of my Life’.
When Helen was about six years old, her father heard of an eminent oculist in
Baltimore who had been successful in many cases that had seemed hopeless.
They travelled by train and Helen describes the journey as pleasant. She made
friends with many people on the train. A lady gave her a box of shells, her
father made holes in them and stringing them kept her busy and contented.
She went round with the conductor, clinging to his coat tails. He let her play
with his ticket punch and she amused herself for hours making funny holes in
bits of cardboard.
Her aunt made her a doll out of towels with no nose, mouth ears or eyes. The
absence of eyes struck her as being the most conspicuous defect with the
doll. Others were unable to provide the solution until Helen herself thought of
the beads on her aunt’s cape as eyes for the doll.
She had so many things to do during the journey to keep her mind and fingers
busy hence she did not lose her temper even once.
(5)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 Anne as ‘the most important day in all my life’
and she is well aware of Anne's contribution to her own development. Anne is only
partially sighted herself and has had her own difficult childhood which allows her
to understand Helen's many frustrations. Anne could relate to Helen like no-one
else could.
It is this unsaid understanding or ‘peculiar sympathy’ which Helen refers to that
allows Anne to help Helen achieve what she couldn’t otherwise. Helen admits that,
because of Anne, she learns ‘from life itself’. She cannot explain it herself but
does acknowledge Anne's long association with the blind. She also recognizes
Anne'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 Anne
introduced dry technicalities of science little by little, all of which ensure that
Helen cannot help remembering what she taught.
(6) 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 and taught her all
the subjects . Helen learnt geography, arithmetic, zoology and botany-all in a
leisurely manner. Arithmetic seemed a disinteresting subject to Helen. In science,
she was taught the growth of a plant in its actual form. She enjoyed her lessons as
she learnt them from life itself. But it was all because of her teacher who taught
her in a manner that everything around her breathed of love, joy and was full of
meaning. 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.
(7)Helen learnt a new lesson that “Nature wages open war against her children and under
softest touch hides treacherous claws”. How?
The benevolent aspect of nature thrilled Helen. The whole nature was her
classroom. Most of her learning took place out of doors. This way she learnt more
about the world around her.
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 proposed that they have their lunch there.
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.
(8) 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.
(9) 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.
(10) 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 understand the meaning of love.
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