The Story of My Life

“But, except for these fleeting memories, if, indeed, they be memories, it all seems very unreal, like a nightmare” 

The permanent price that her illness costs is remembered by Keller as akin to an unreal night terror. Here we see the natural denial that occurs in the mind of a young child whose life has been forever changed by what has happened to her, in ways she cannot possibly yet comprehend.

“But during the first nineteen months of my life I had caught glimpses of broad, green fields, a luminous sky, trees and flowers which the darkness that followed could not wholly blot out” 

For Keller, the difficulty was not just being blind and deaf, but remembering what it was like to be able to see, even for a short while as a baby. The tantalizing, brief remembrances of what she used to have haunt her early on in the period after her illness.

“Sometimes I stood between two persons who were conversing and touched their lips. I could not understand, and was vexed. I moved my lips and gesticulated frantically without result. This made me so angry at times that I kicked and screamed until I was exhausted” 

In this quote, Keller’s frustration and isolation are clearly stated. Her keen awareness that she is not only different from other people, but unable to communicate naturally in the manner in which they did, causes her to take out her frustrations in fits of temper. 

“After awhile the need of some means of communication became so urgent that these outbursts occurred daily, sometimes hourly” 

Keller’s parents recognize that their daughter is getting out of control, and with no real recourse by which to converse with her, they are at their wits end in dealing with a child who is deep in mourning for what she has lost. 

“Curiously enough, the absence of eyes struck me more than all the other defects put together. I pointed this out to everybody with provoking persistency, but no one seemed equal to the task of providing the doll with eyes” 

On her train trip to Baltimore, Keller is given a ragdoll by her aunt to keep her entertained. When Keller discovers that the doll has no eyes, she is alarmed. The doll represents Keller’s self, a child without the ability to see.

“Child as I was, I at once felt the tenderness and sympathy which endeared Dr. Bell to so many hearts, as his wonderful achievements enlist their admiration. He held me on his knee while I examined his watch, and he made it strike for me. He understood my signs, and I knew it and loved him at once” 

This quote lovingly describes Dr. Bell, one of Keller’s most ardent supporters and benefactors. Without his gentle, generous spirit, Keller might have had a more difficult struggle to achieve her goals.

“I felt approaching footsteps, I stretched out my hand as I supposed to my mother. Some one took it, and I was caught up and held close in the arms of her who had come to reveal all things to me, and, more than all things else, to love me” 

Keller describes the moment she first met her teacher, Miss Sullivan, the woman who would be an unfailing supporter for Keller’s entire life. This moment is a memorable one for Keller because of how much Miss Sullivan meant to her as a teacher, confidante, and friend. Her entire life changed when Miss Sullivan entered it. 

“On entering the door I remembered the doll I had broken. I felt my way to the hearth and picked up the pieces. I tried vainly to put them together. Then my eyes filled with tears; for I realized what I had done, and for the first time I felt repentance and sorrow” 

This quote captures the first time that Keller felt remorse for one of her fits of anger. She recognizes both the damage her attitude has wrought and the physical damage she has done to the doll.

“Long before I learned to do a sum in arithmetic or describe the shape of the earth, Miss Sullivan had taught me to find beauty in the fragrant woods, in every blade of grass, and in the curves and dimples of my baby sister’s hand. She linked my earliest thoughts with nature, and made me feel that ‘birds and flowers and I were happy peers’” 

It is through Miss Sullivan’s style of teaching that Keller learns to love nature wholeheartedly. This affinity for the natural world has a life-long impact on Keller, and is a source of great comfort for her in trying times.

“The beautiful truth burst upon my mind — I felt that there were invisible lines stretched between my spirit and the spirits of others” 

This is Keller’s reaction to finally grasping the idea of abstract concepts like “love.” With Miss Sullivan’s help, Keller is able to begin to apply her own meaning to concepts like “beauty” and “truth.” For Keller, this knowledge opens up a whole other world for her.

“They cannot distinguish the tone of the voice or, without assistance, go up and down the gamut of tones that give significance to words; nor can they watch the expression of the speaker’s face, and a look is often the very soul of what one says” 

As Keller’s education continues and as she grows up, she makes some important realizations, including the understanding that her blindness and deafness will always separate her from people who retain those abilities. 

As Keller’s education continues and as she grows up, she makes some important realizations, including the understanding that her blindness and deafness will always separate her from people who retain those abilities. 

Again, Keller lavishes praise upon Miss Sullivan, crediting her with assisting in Keller’s growth as a person. Miss Sullivan was the bridge between the isolation that Keller had felt trapped in to the wealth of possibilities that Keller could achieve.

Again, Keller lavishes praise upon Miss Sullivan, crediting her with assisting in Keller’s growth as a person. Miss Sullivan was the bridge between the isolation that Keller had felt trapped in to the wealth of possibilities that Keller could achieve.

The death of Keller’s canary, a Christmas gift from Miss Sullivan, reinforces and symbolizes the dangers in the world for those who step outside their gilded cages, their areas of security. 

“Although I had been told this before, and although I understood my own deprivations, yet I had thought vaguely that since they could hear, they must have a sort of ‘second sight,’ and I was not prepared to find one child and another and yet another deprived of the same precious gift. But they were so happy and contented that I lost all sense of pain in the pleasure of their companionship” 

On her trip to the Perkins Institute in Boston, Keller is shocked that there are so many other children who are deaf and blind like her. But her sadness at their shared conditions is erased at their happiness and desire to meet her.

“What exhilarating madness! For one wild, glad moment we snapped the chain that binds us to earth, and joining hands with the winds we felt ourselves divine!” 

Keller expresses her wild joy at tobogganing down a hill during the winter in New England. She compares this sense of freedom with a sense of divinity. 

“My thoughts would often rise and beat up like birds against the wind, and I persisted in using my lips and voice” 

Keller describes her initial efforts to speak, a process that she greatly desires to achieve but which takes her quite some time to accomplish. This simile describes how difficult it is for Keller to form her seemingly wild thoughts into speech.

“Discouragement and weariness cast me down frequently; but the next moment the thought that I should soon be at home and show my loved ones what I had accomplished, spurred me on, and I eagerly looked forward to their pleasure in my achievement”

Despite the setbacks that Keller sometimes experiences, she continues to persevere because of the thought of traveling home and sharing her experiences and accomplishments with her family.

“Indeed, I have ever since been tortured by the fear that what I write is not my own. For a long time, when I wrote a letter, even to my mother, I was seized with a sudden feeling of terror, and I would spell the sentences over and over, to make sure that I had not read them in a book. Had it not been for the persistent encouragement of Miss Sullivan, I think I should have given up trying to write altogether” 

Keller’s reaction to her accidental plagiarism in her short story “The Frost King” shows how afraid she was afterward to believe in her own writing abilities. The event caused her significant amounts of self-doubt and distress that took her some time to overcome.

“In the most evident sense they mean everything. I cannot fathom or define their meaning any more than I can fathom or define love or religion or goodness” 

Keller’s response to being asked what going to a place such as Niagara Falls means if she cannot see or hear this natural wonder. She explains that any opportunity she has to encounter the beauty of nature means everything, even if she cannot concretely define it.

Keller’s response to being asked what going to a place such as Niagara Falls means if she cannot see or hear this natural wonder. She explains that any opportunity she has to encounter the beauty of nature means everything, even if she cannot concretely define it.

Keller’s trip to the World’s Fair prompts further self-growth as she reflects on the magnificent works created by the hard work of human hands, and how that understanding goes beyond the fairy tales and childish whims that had dominated her thoughts as a young girl.

“In a word, every study had its obstacles. Sometimes I lost all courage and betrayed my feelings in a way I am ashamed to remember, especially as the signs of my trouble were afterward used against Miss Sullivan, the only person of all the kind friends I had there, who could make the crooked straight and the rough places smooth” 

Keller addresses the occasions where she still gives in to frustration and depression, especially in regards to her studies at preparatory school. It is Miss Sullivan who stands by her, confident in her, even when she doubts herself.

“But if they unintentionally placed obstacles in my way, I have the consolation of knowing that I overcame them all” 

Keller does not blame her teachers or the examination proctors for the additional challenges she must face while taking her final exams to be accepted into Radcliffe College. For Keller, these are simply more obstacles that she will overcome, as she has so many before.

“For, after all, every one who wishes to gain true knowledge must climb the Hill Difficulty alone, and since there is no royal road to the summit, I must zigzag it my own way” 

Keller shows that despite her differences from people who can hear and see, each of us must face our own difficulties in order to obtain the essential knowledge of life.