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Title: The Story of My Life: The Restored Classic, Complete and Unabridged, Centennial Edition by Helen Keller, Roger Shattuck, Dorothy Herrmann, Anne Sullivan, John Macy ISBN: 0-393-05744-5 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: 05 May, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.2 (44 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A STORY WORTH TELLING
Comment: I first read this book in 6th grade. I have read it several times in the intervening years, the most recent time being within the past one year.
Helen Keller, blind and deaf since the age of 1 1/2 has offered, in her own words an accounting of her life experience. It is incredible to imagine how this woman, unable to see or hear can give such a strong voice to descriptions of nature. The book is replete with beautiful, articulate metaphors that draw the reader into the world as Helen knew it. One wonders how a person with no language can "think," and Helen provides some clues. During these "dark days," prior to the arrival of her "Teacher," Annie Sullivan, Helen's life was a series of desires and impressions. She could commnicate by a series of crude signs she and her parents had created. She demonstrated early on that she could learn.
I like the way Helen herself takes her readers past that water pump when she learned that "all things have a name." Instead of getting stuck there, Helen takes her readers on the journey of her life to that point.
In addition to having a good linguistic base, Helen also demonstrates having a phenomenal memory. When she was twelve, she wrote a story she believed to be her own. Entitled "The Frost King," it bore a strong resemblance to one written by a Ms. Canby called "The Frost Fairies." Many of the sentences are identical and a good number of the descriptions are paraphrased. In relating this devasting incident, Helen and Annie recall that Annie had exposed Helen to the story some three years earlier and Helen had somehow retained that information. This plainly shows intelligence.
Both the "Frost" stories are reprinted in full, thus giving the reader a chance to see just how amazing being able to remember such a work really was.
Helen describes her work raising money for other deaf-blind children to attend the Perkins School for the Blind in Boston and in so doing, embarks upon her lifelong mission as a crusader for multiply challenged individuals.
Rating: 4
Summary: Helen Keller- The Story of My Life
Comment: Helen Keller- The Story of My Life
By: Helen Keller
Reveiwed by: J. Yang
Period: P.4
In the first nineteen months of Helen Keller's life, she is a normal child like us. Suddenly, a high fever gets on Helen Keller and makes her deaf and blind. Forever, she is in a dark, silent world. Anne Sullivan is Helen's teacher. She teaches Helen how to communicate with signs and gestures. Helen Keller also learns to read and write.
What I liked about this book is that it is very deltailed. The story gives details on Helen's feelings, the enviroment, and whatever Helen Keller feels. "On the afternoon of that eventful day, I stood on the porch, dumb, expectant." You can actually feel how Helen Keller feels. When I read this book, I always feel how Helen feels. I guess the book is very descriptive!
Another thing I liked in this book was when Helen Keller was learning. Anne Sullivan is a great, loving teacher. Anne loved Helen. "Miss Sullivan put her arm gently round me and spelled into my hand, "I love Helen."" Helen asks about what was love, and Anne Sullivan said to her that love is in your heart. Anne is a very passionate person.
My favorite part of the book was when Helen went to the sea. She went with Anne Sullivan. Helen went into the sea for her first swim. All the waves were splashing on her. Helen Keller drank some of the water up and then she said, "Who put salt in the water?" Finally, Anne Sullivan carried Helen out of the water for a little rest.
Rating: 5
Summary: Where Heart and Depth Transcend the Mind
Comment: .
A book to read that is of the warmness of soul, an account that conveys love and realness. The body and the mind are only the peripheries, for it is the soul or consciousness that is of the real person. So when the mind is expanded in knowledge and intellect, one can find erroneously enter in it's subjectivity defining such as the real self or one can use such intellectualism as an instrument of the consciousness and view objectively. This then allows the heart and feelings to penetrate, in turn the mind is transcended, one goes beyond the mind to the real inner self. And when this occurs the result culminates in the most beautiful and extraordinary person. Such is the case of Helen Keller.
Her fingers found expression, felt emotion and penetrated the surface into the feelings and depth in the person she encountered, in the words that she read and in the vibrations that she felt. I have read in the East, that consciousness does not come to us solely through the eyes and ears, but when such peripheries are down we can perceive in much more strength through other senses.
"I derive genuine pleasure from touching great works of art. As my finger tips trace line and curve, they discover the thought and emotion which the artist has portrayed. I can feel in the faces of gods and heroes hate, courage and love, just as I can detect them in living faces I am permitted to touch." P. 68
In a letter she received from Mr. Gilder, Helen wrote,
"In a letter he wrote me he made his mark under his signature deep in the paper so that I could feel it." . . . and " I feel the twinkle of his eye in the handshake." P. 75
Case in point is that of poetry. What the average school teacher and intellectual defines in art and poetry are the stanzas, the numerical structures and literary criticism. Now this actually destroys such forms of art. But what intellectual, a person that uses their head without the heart can fathom any understanding beyond such? Helen wrote:
"Great poetry, whether in English or Greek, needs no other interpreter than a responsive heart. Would that the host of those who make the great works of the poets odious by their analysis, impositions and laborious comments might learn this simple truth! It is not necessary that one should be able to define every word and give it its principal parts and its grammatical position in the sentence in order to understand and appreciate a fine poem." p. 59
Not only did she find the external world but went to the university and went further in learning and knowledge than most. But it is her understanding and diligence, her positivism and depth that this autobiography conveys.
After reading her account, I can say that if I could love another person, I have fallen in love with Helen.
"Is it not true, then, that my life with all its limitations touches at many points the lif of the World Beautiful? Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.
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Title: Light in My Darkness by Helen Keller, Ray Silverman, Dorothy Herrmann ISBN: 0877853983 Publisher: Swedenborg Foundation Pub. Date: 01 March, 2000 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title:The Miracle Worker ASIN: B000056HEB Publisher: MGM/UA Video Pub. Date: 06 March, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.95 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $12.26 |
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Title: Helen Keller's Teacher by Margaret Davidson ISBN: 0590446525 Publisher: Scholastic Pub. Date: December, 1996 List Price(USD): $4.50 |
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Title: To Love This Life: Quotations From Helen Keller by Helen Keller, Jimmy Carter, Keller Johnson-Thompson ISBN: 0439319137 Publisher: Scholastic Pub. Date: August, 2002 List Price(USD): $4.50 |
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Title: Helen Keller: A Life by Dorothy Herrmann ISBN: 0226327639 Publisher: University of Chicago Press (Trd) Pub. Date: November, 1999 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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