Cultural Conflicts In Will Gibson's The Miracle Worker

The Miracle Worker is a play during the 1960’s written by Will Gibson and revolves around Annie Sullivan and the struggles she must go through while having to teach Helen Keller the art of language. As the story progresses, several different types of conflicts are introduced to us through Annie. Examples of this would include man vs. man and man vs. himself. Helen Keller, as a growing six year old girl without the ability to see, her or talk is also having a difficult time with adjusting to discipline from Sullivan. There are several different major conflicts presented throughout the story. The cultural conflict between the Northern and Southern United States in The Miracle Worker impacts gender roles and etiquette, and this conflict is reflected …show more content…
Keller was etiquette as they often had disputes with each other because of this. The author had represented the South to be the more gentle side with different expectations compared to the North. The first interaction they had with each other was already shown to be like how the author wanted to display the two sides of the United States. This first can be seen when Sullivan loses some of her politeness during their first meet mainly so that she will be able to carry her own suitcase. Mr. Keller goes as far as saying, “She’s very rough Katie” (28) because of Sullivan wanting to carry her own weight. While this could arguably be on the gender role side, the men from the South treat women differently and the women from the North take it differently. Kate, as a woman from the South is accustomed to accepting help from men, but the same cannot be said the same for Annie who is from the North. To Mr. Keller and due to how he was raised as a child, women are treated as the “flowers of civilization” (27). In addition to etiquette, table manners seem to differ between the two sides as well. Between pages 44 and 45, Annie stubbornly repeats that she will not have a new one and that she is happy with her plate and receiving a new one would be unnecessary. When Mr. Keller explains how everyone is used to allowing Helen to simply take food of people’s plates, Annie says “Yes, but I’m not accustomed to it.” (44). This is shown when Annie looks to speak with Mr. Keller, she wears her smoked glasses and it bothers him as it seemed rude while he was speaking to her (59). Soon after, the issue was quickly fixed once Annie explained why she wore them even after the sun had already set. Mr. Keller and Annie Sullivan grew up with different etiquettes as they grew up on different sides of the