Helen Keller's Essay On Optimism

“Once I knew the depth where no hope was, and darkness lay on the face of all things.… But a little word from the fingers of another fell into my hand that clutched at emptiness, and my heart leaped to the rapture of living….Can any one who has escaped such captivity, who has felt the thrill and glory of freedom, be a pessimist?” This is a quote by Helen Keller from her essay on optimism. Helen contracted an unknown illness at 19 months that robbed her of both hearing and sight. For years, she could only communicate through a few gestures; no one cared to try to teach or discipline her. Then a woman named Annie Sullivan heard about Helen. She tried tirelessly to teach the child the names of different things, but Helen could not grasp the concept of names. Finally, when Annie ran water over one of Helen’s hands and wrote “water” with her finger into Helen’s other hand, as Annie put it, “the light of understanding has shone upon my little pupil’s mind, and behold, all things are changed.” This began …show more content…
First, optimism will decrease one’s stress level. Stress is injurious to one’s health; for example, recent studies have shown that those with high stress levels are much more likely to have a stroke than those with lower stress levels. On the flip side, optimism decreases stress and benefits one’s health. It helps one have a healthier heart and sounder sleep, and it increases motivation for one to take care of one’s self – exercising, eating right, sleeping long enough, and more. Helen Keller originally lived as a pessimist, hating life and not knowing how she was different from anyone else, and she did not get anywhere in life. Then, Annie Sullivan stepped into Helen’s life and tried to teach her things no one else had cared to do. Because of Annie, Helen learned how to have optimism, and that allowed her overcome her blindness and deafness so that she could learn as much as normal people