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Hey everyone, this is Sugarz. As some of you may have heard, my very young cousin
will be going blind. In honor of her, I decided to write about the most honorable woman I have ever heard of. Helen Keller.
Helen Keller became blind
AND deaf before she reached the age of two. She had caught scarlet fever, and though her family thought she was getting better from the illness, they noticed her response to sound and her eyesight were deteriorating. From the time this had happened to her, Helen's family members
noticed that she was very angry and would have tantrums for not being
able to speak, and they knew they had to help her out some way.
She could recognize people by feeling of their faces or their clothes.
Her family found a teacher named Anne Sullivan. Anne Sullivan was also
blind, although she had had an operation which gave her back her sight for a
short while.
Anne Sullivan taught Helen the signs for the letters of the alphabet.
Then she would "spell" the words in Helen's hand to communicate
with her. For many years Helen did not understand any of this!
Author's Note: Remember everyone, imagine being blind and deaf from a young
age, you wouldn't know what letters or many things in the world are, she was
barely beginning to speak when she went blind/deaf/and mute. She was not
able to speak either.
One day Anne Sullivan took Helen to the water pump and pumped water
on her hand, then she began to spell the word "w-a-t-e-r" in Helen's
hand, she did this over and over again! Then all of a sudden after many
years of Helen not cooperating, it suddenly hit her that w-a-t-e-r, which
was being spelled into her hand, meant the water that was pouring over her hand.
Since that day it opened up a whole new world for Helen Keller.
Anne Sullivan also taught her to use "braille". Braille is a form of writing
used
for blind people: the words are dots on the page that are pushed up so that
blind people can slide their hands
across
it to read the "dots".
Helen had an amazing skill that very few people have ever been able to develop.
She could put her fingers to a person's lips and understand the words that were
being spoken.
Despite the fact that she could not hear or see, Helen Keller went to college.
While she was in college she wrote a book! This book is called "The Story of my
Life" (I advise you all to read it). She sold the book and earned enough money to buy a house. Helen
also graduated with
honors from Radcliffe College in 1904.
Helen Keller toured all over, meeting people and standing up for human rights
across the globe.
Helen Keller died on June 1, 1968.
Helen Keller's Publications:
The Story of My Life, 1902.
Optimism, 1903.
The World I Live In, 1908.
The Song of the Stone Wall,1910.
Out of the Dark, 1913.
My Religion, 1927.
Peace at Eventide, 1932.
Helen Keller in Scotland, 1933.
Helen Keller's Journal, 1938.
Let us Have Faith, 1941.
Teacher: Anne Sullivan Macy, 1955.
The Open Door, 1957.
Helen Keller: Her Socialist Years, 1967.
Midstream: My Later Life, 1968.
There was also a few movies made about her:
Deliverance, a 1919 documentary
The Unconquered, a documentary made in 1953
The Miracle Worker, an award-winning play and movie
Here are a FEW of the quotes made by Helen Keller:
"I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything,
but still I can do something; And because I cannot do
everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do."
"We can do anything we want to do if we stick to it long
enough."
"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much."
"Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true
happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification, but
through fidelity to a worthy purpose."
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