The Story of My Life

In this chapter, Keller discusses what her early life was like after her illness, and how the aftermath meant she had to find a way to communicate with the people around her. Keller credits her mother as being the primary source of this inspiration, saying, “I owe to her loving wisdom all that was bright and good in my long night” (13).

By age five, Keller had learned quite a bit about what was going on around her, and she was practiced enough to be able to complete basic chores like folding and putting away clothes. She also began to learn to trust her instincts according to what she physically felt. For example, she could tell when her mother was going out into town because of the kind of dress she wore. Keller knew when people visited the house because she could feel the door shut. She would interpret these signs to mean she should go upstairs and put on clothing acceptable for greeting visitors.

Keller also reminisces about the trouble she would get in with her two dearest friends at the time, Martha Washington, a young black girl whose mother was a cook for the Keller family, and Belle, the family’s dog. With Washington’s help, Keller began to use more hand signals to indicate what she was thinking. She remembers the time when she and Washington were cutting out paper dolls, but then decided that cutting real hair — namely Keller’s blonde curls — would be far more exciting.

There are frightening lessons that Keller learns in her early years as well, such as the time when she accidentally set herself on fire trying to dry her apron by the hearth.

Keller discusses two forces in her life: her father, a gentle man who loved to tell stories, and her little sister, Mildred, of whom she was jealous at first. Eventually, Keller says, she and her sister became fast friends despite the communication divide that existed between them. 

eller dwells on the difficulty she had as a child as she searched for a means to express herself in a way in which people could understand her. Her hand signals were insufficient, and she found herself so frustrated at the inability to communicate with others that she would have temper tantrums: “I felt as if invisible hands were holding me, and I made frantic efforts to free myself” (22). Over time, these fits of anger began to occur daily, and then at times, hourly.

Keller’s parents were overwhelmed with grief at their daughter’s state. There were no schools for the blind or deaf near their little Alabama town. Her mother’s only solace was Charles Dickens’ account of Laura Bridgman, a deaf and blind woman who had, despite her challenges, become educated. They decided to travel to Baltimore to consult a famous eye doctor who was renowned for having had much success treating the blind and deaf.

Keller recalls the journey as a pleasant one. She made friends with other travelers on the train, including the conductor. Her aunt made her a doll to amuse herself with, but Keller notes that the doll had no eyes, which “struck me more than all the other defects put together” (23). Symbolically, this lack of eyes disturbed Keller, and she took two beads from her aunt’s cape and indicated that she wanted them to be sewn on the doll to give it eyes.

After arriving in Baltimore, the Keller family met Dr. Chisholm, who informed them that there was nothing he could do to help Helen. He did, however, indicate that education was well within Keller’s grasp, and he advised that they consult with Dr. Alexander Graham Bell in Washington, D.C., who could give them information on schools for deaf and blind children.

Despite her youth, Keller says that she immediately could feel the “tenderness and sympathy” (24) that Dr. Bell had for children like her, and when he understood her rudimentary signs of communication, she was overwhelmed with love for him. At the time, Keller admits she did not understand the significance of this visit with Dr. Bell, and how much it would change her future and her life.

Dr. Bell encouraged Keller’s father to write to the director of the Perkins Institute in Boston to arrange for a teacher to travel to Alabama to educate the young girl. The teacher, Miss Sullivan, would not arrive until the following year, but her arrival would change Keller’s life forever.