Helen Keller: writer's biography, book review

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Helen Keller is an American writer who is also known as a political activist and lecturer. When she was not yet two years old, Helen suffered a serious illness, presumably scarlet fever, due to which she completely lost her sight and hearing. At that time, they did not yet know how to work with such children, the first methods were just beginning to be developed. The girl still managed to get an education and lived until her death with her companion Ann Sullivan, who worked with her from the age of seven.

It is also known that Helen supported socialism, even became a member of the American Socialist Party. She has written more than ten books about her experience. She became a prominent social activist and philanthropist, supporting funds for the socialization of the disabled, opposed racism, discrimination against women, and militarism. Since 1980, Helen Keller Day has been celebrated in the United States by order of President James Carter. Biography of the heroine of our articleformed the basis of the famous play by William Gibson "The Miracle Worker".

Origin

Ellen Keller was born in 1880. She was born in the small town of Tuscumbia, Alabama. In these places, her parents owned a plantation. At the same time, his father was engaged in publishing, he owned one of the local newspapers. The family lived prosperously, but after the defeat in the Confederate Civil War, suffered heavy losses.

Her father came from a family of Swiss who moved to America and bought large estates in Alabama. Interestingly, one of Helen Keller's Swiss ancestors was the first deaf teacher in Zurich, who published a detailed manual.

Arthur Keller has been married twice. His first wife died in 1877, leaving him with two sons. The mother of the heroine of our article - Kate - was 20 years younger than him. They married in 1878. Helen was their first child, in 1886 they had a daughter, Mildred, and in 1891, a son, Philip. Helen's father died five years later, and his wife in 1921.

Early years

At the beginning of Helen Keller's biography there are no negative moments, she was born a he althy child and started walking at the age of one. In addition, she had excellent hearing and vision, her mother recalled that at the age of 6 months she could already pronounce a few words.

At 19 months old, she suffered a serious illness, which doctors diagnosed as inflammation of the brain. Doctors now believe it was rubella, scarlet fever, or meningitis. PediatricianHe was afraid that the child might die, but the girl recovered, however, the disease completely deprived her of sight and hearing. A black streak has come in the biography of Helen Keller.

Before she had a personal teacher, she could not communicate with her family, only expressed her desires with gestures. Even without sight and hearing, she was distinguished by a very cheerful character, she liked to play pranks with a neighbor's friend, and she was always angry when she began to understand that she was different from others, she could not, like everyone else, use speech. In addition, she was jealous of her parents for Mildred.

Over the years, the father and mother began to seriously doubt whether it would be possible to socialize the girl, leaning towards sending her to a shelter for the disabled. At that time, such a fate awaited all deaf-blind-mute children. Parents still constantly searched for information about doctors who could educate such patients. They read about Laura Bridgeman in Charles Dickens' American Notes. But the best doctors of that time could not help.

Anne Sullivan Appears

Finally, parents were advised to contact the Perkins School, which could find an experienced teacher for the girl. In March 1887, Ann Sullivan came to visit them. She was only 20 years old and suffered from low vision herself.

First of all, she asked for a separate room for them to instill in the girl an understanding of the rules of behavior. They were given an extension to the house. Sullivan immediately began to talk to Helen in full sentences, without making allowances for the age of the child. It happened like this: Sullivan depicted the words on Keller's palm with her fingers. Each letter of the English language had its own equivalent in their communication. As a result, she used the usual alphabet in communication with the pupil. Doll was the first word Keller mastered.

On the very first day, the girl managed to establish a connection between the signal from the mentor and the receipt of the item. But abstract concepts were not given to her for a long time. After the first successes, further training began to move rapidly. After 19 days, she was already making proposals. Three months later - wrote a letter to a friend using Braille, then became interested in reading, learned to write with a pencil to start communicating with people who do not know the language of the blind.

Getting an education

With the advent of Sullivan, their joint work began, which stretched for as many as 49 years. The mentor taught Helen foreign languages, history, and mathematics. And in 1888 they arrived at the Perkins School for the Blind, where the heroine of our article first met her own kind.

At the age of 10, she learned about a deaf-blind Norwegian woman who learned to talk. Sullivan took the girl to a school for the deaf with Sarah Fuller, who promoted the teaching of normal speech to the deaf. She put her hands to the student's throat, while making a sound. Perceiving articulation, the pupil tried to repeat sounds and words. After 11 lessons from Fuller, the heroine of our article continued her studies with Sullivan. As a result, she began to succeed in articulate sounds, but until the end of her life her voiceremained incomprehensible to unfamiliar people.

She continued her studies on her own, this was facilitated by the state of the Kellers, who had the opportunity to spend money on this, hire tutors. Until 1896, she studied at a specialized school for the deaf, and then entered the educational institution for girls at Harvard University. Sullivan accompanied her everywhere.

University studies

In 1899, the heroine of our article received the right to enter a university. Helen Keller continued her education at Radcliffs College. By that time, she was already familiar with the writer Mark Twain, as many celebrities were interested in the fate of a unique child. Her education was paid for by Twain's acquaintance, businessman Henry Huttleston.

Keller had a lot of problems in college. The textbooks weren't printed in Braille, and there were a lot of students in the classes, so the teachers couldn't pay enough attention to her. It was at the university that Helen Keller's beliefs began to take shape. There she began to think about the rights of workers, having learned that the blind, most often, become the poor because of the difficult conditions in factories and plants. Over time, feminism was added to her socialism, and she also supported suffragettes.

Helen graduated from college in 1904, becoming the first deaf-blind person to graduate.

Literary experience

While still in college, the heroine of our article wrote her first book, it was called "The Story of My Life". Helen Keller published it as a separate edition in 1903year. It was the autobiography of a unique girl. Critics have responded positively to the novel "The Story of My Life" by Helen Keller. As a result, it has been translated into more than 50 languages.

Helen Keller's book "The Story of My Life" was also published in Russia. Until now, it remains one of the most inspiring and motivating works ever published in Russian, because it was written on the basis of personal experience.

"The Story of My Life" by Helen Keller consists of 21 chapters and a preface. In them, the author talks about her loved ones, how she was aware of abstract concepts, such as love, about the touch of history and other objects, the scandalous case with the fairy tale about Tsar Frost, because of which she had to return from school to homeschooling, her first examinations, the emerging love for the exact sciences and the most faithful and devoted friends - books.

The full title of this book by Helen Keller is "The Story of My Life or What Love Is". In the preface, translators often recall the words of Mark Twain, who considered Napoleon Bonaparte and the heroine of our article to be the most amazing personalities of the 19th century. There is also a connection between Helen Keller and Bella. In the dedication, the writer thanks the inventor of the telephone for teaching the deaf to speak and making it possible to hear a word spoken by another person thousands of miles away.

Bell meant a lot to Helen Keller. After all, it was he who was the founder in America of schools for people with hearing and vision impairments.

Beliefs

B1904 is an important event in the life of mentor Helen Ann Sullivan. She marries socialist John Macy. Together they get acquainted with the philosophical treatise of H. G. Wells called "A New World for the Old", after which they become even stronger in their convictions.

In parallel, Keller reads the works of Marx. In 1905, the heroine of our article becomes a member of the US Socialist Party. Interestingly, immediately after this, the attitude towards her changes dramatically. If earlier the girl was admired by the public, now she has become the object of criticism and ridicule.

After graduating from college, Keller moves to the countryside with Sullivan and her husband, where she writes a few more books. These are "Song of the Stone Wall", "The World I Live in", "Out of the Darkness". He publishes a large number of articles on socialist topics, supports fighters against racism.

Meanwhile, the relationship between Ann and her husband becomes strained over time, in 1914 they part. Helen herself never married, but in 1916, secretly from her mother and her mentor, she became engaged to the journalist and socialist Peter Fagan, who for some time worked as her secretary. Their relationship ended as soon as the newspapers found out about them, the society at that time was not ready to approve marriage with such a woman.

During the First World War, Keller participates in anti-war campaigns. In 1917, he supported the October Revolution in Russia and Lenin.

Sullivan's death

In the 20s, Keller begins to ridearound the country and give lectures. She is accompanied by her mother and Sullivan. Need forced her to go on such a tour, since not one of the women received pleasure from moving. Keller's books sold poorly, but her public appearances were a great success. With 20-minute performances, she toured from 1920 to 1924.

In 1924, she supported Senator La Follette in the election, and then finally withdrew from politics, concentrating on working with blind people. An important part of her work has been providing jobs for the blind.

In 1927 a new book by Helen Keller was published. In "My Religion" she talks about her relationship to God. The heroine of our article considers herself a Christian.

In 1936, Sullivan falls into a coma and dies soon after. Helen holds her hand until the very last minute. After that, she moves to Connecticut, where she remains until her death. The loss of a mentor was a serious loss for her. New assistant Keller Thompson tried to replace her, but she didn't have the same knack for communicating in manual alphabet.

In 1937, Keller traveled to Japan, where she was struck by the history of the dog Hachiko. She wanted her own dog, she was given an Akita Inu dog, but he died of distemper a year later. Then the Japanese government sent her another dog of the same breed as a gift.

In 1938, in her journalistic works, the writer criticized Hitler, as well as Mitchell's popular novel "Gone with the Wind" for the fact that the author kept silent about the cruel treatment of slaves.

During the SecondWorld War II, Keller visited hospitals for deaf and blind soldiers. From 1946 to 1957, she visited 35 countries, meeting with prominent political figures of that time, Nehru and Churchill. And in 1948, as part of her anti-war program, Helen came to Hiroshima, where she was delighted with the warm welcome. About two million Japanese people came to see her.

She really inspired people, Helen Keller's quotes were known all over the world, here are just a few of them.

Life is an exciting adventure, and the most wonderful life is the life lived for other people.

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen, they cannot even be touched. They must be felt with the heart.

Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of examples of overcoming suffering.

When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but we often do not notice it, staring at the closed door.

In 1954, she participated in the filming of a documentary film dedicated to her fate. The painting by Nancy Hamilton came out under the title "Undefeated". The film won an Oscar for Best Feature Documentary.

At the same time, in America, there was still an ambivalent attitude towards her because of her beliefs and political position. For example, during the Cold War, she wrote an open letter supporting Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, who was imprisoned for her views.

In 1960, her secretary Thompson dies, replaced by her new assistant, Winfred Corbally. At the same timeHelen has her first stroke. He severely crippled her he alth, she ceases to appear in public. In 1961, the heroine of our article appears publicly for the last time at the presentation of a humanitarian award.

In the summer of 1968, Keller dies at his home in Connecticut on the eve of his 88th birthday. She was cremated and her ashes were buried at the Washington Cathedral. Helen Keller's years of life - 1880 - 1968.

The meaning of the Keller phenomenon

The experience gained by the heroine of our article played a big role in special pedagogy. Her successful education was a real breakthrough, as Helen became the first deaf-blind person in history who was able to receive a full education, and not just socialize. There have been several other examples before this, but only the Keller experience has been officially documented.

Teaching people with such disabilities in many countries, including the Soviet Union, was based on her teaching methods.

Keller has become a true symbol of the struggle for a normal life for many disabled people. In America, she was perceived as a national icon. Born without arms or legs, Nick Vujicic wrote in his autobiography that Keller was a significant influence on his development.

Writer

Helen Keller's literary heritage is very rich and varied. True, it all started with a misunderstanding when she was still in high school. In 1891, she wrote a story called "The Frost King" which she sent to the director of the Perkins School, Michael Ananos. The work producedhe was so impressed that he published it in the school magazine.

Shortly after, it was revealed that Margaret Canby had actually written it. Keller was accused of plagiarism, she herself was justified by the fact that in her mind the line between ideas from outside and her own thoughts was erased. Such a phenomenon is indeed known in psychology and is called cryptomnesia. Ananos agreed that the girl was not to blame for anything, but the relationship between them was already completely ruined.

According to the recollections of the heroine of our article, Sullivan even managed to find out where she read the original story. A copy of Canby's book was at the home of her friend Sophia Hopkins, with whom she was visiting in 1888.

Writer Mark Twain, with whom Keller later talked a lot, called such accusations of plagiarism grotesque and idiotic.

After this story, she was left with a fear of involuntarily repeating other people's ideas in her own statements or works. Helen Keller published her first book in 1903. It was her autobiography, which we have already talked about in detail. The work received high marks from readers and critics. Today, this work is included in the required curriculum in American schools.

After this success, the heroine of our article realized her dream of becoming a writer. But when publishing her next works, she faced a serious problem. Readers were only interested in her stories about overcoming her illness and disability, and no one was interested in her reflections on workers' rights and socialism. Virtually unnoticedpassed her collection of essays "Out of the Darkness", the books "Song of the Stone Wall" and "The World I Live in". They sold poorly and received negative reviews from critics. For example, one of them noted that Keller expresses ideas that she herself learned from other books. It has also been suggested that these works were written solely under the influence of Sullivan, who adhered to socialist views.

Some critics cited the use of the words "heard" and "saw" by the writer to confirm this, Keller claimed that she uses them only in order not to complicate the construction of the text. For example, when she "writes" she heard, she really means that she felt the vibration. The famous blind psychologist Thomas Cusbort criticized her work, appreciating it with the biting and offensive word "verbiage".

As a result, literature did not bring her the fame and recognition she so dreamed of. In addition to books, Keller wrote 475 essays and articles on religion, socialism, workers' rights, prevention of blindness, atomic weapons, birth control, many of her works were devoted to anti-war topics. At the same time, the heroine of our article herself always emphasized that she considers herself first of all a writer, and only then a social activist. During the terrorist attack on Manhattan in New York on September 11, 2001, part of the Keller archive was irretrievably lost.