The Story Of My Life Helen Keller Analysis

The theme of The Story of My Life by Helen Keller is the power of perseverance to overcome great obstacles. Keller is struck with an illness when she is a very young child, and that left her blind and deaf, so she exists in a world of confusion. She cannot communicate with others but wants desperately to make herself understood and understand others at the same time. She writes, ‘At times that I kicked and screamed until I was exhausted,” (Keller 14). Keller with the help of her teacher, Anne Sullivan, goes on from this state of frustration to learn to write and many other things. Through many hours of hard work, she attends Radcliffe college. In her studies she has to apply herself with more dedication that other students, but she does and so and she succeeds. The Story of My Life by Helen Keller

Helen uses direct characterization in her descriptions of her "loving and indulgent father" (10) and her mother 's "loving wisdom,” (10). Indirect characterization is also shown as Helen uses it to describe the effect that most of the people in her life have on her and others and also her feelings towards them. Anne Sullivan stays the one who "set my spirit free" (Ch 1) which tells the reader an enormous amount about Anne and Helen. It shows the close relationship they have which lasted until Anne 's death and, through various accounts of Helen 's activities, the reader is introduced to a patient, humble and self-sacrificing person who helped Helen communicate her message. Helen 's description of her visit to Dr Alexander Graham Bell also reveals his character. He is the one who provides the "door through which I should pass from darkness into light."(13). When describing her parents, Helen is loving and complimentary and acutely aware of the pain and confusion she causes when her tantrums are recurrent, "almost hourly." The descriptions provided by Helen are so brilliant as to provide the reader with an immediate affinity with her and those instrumental in