Helen Keller In Helen Keller’s speech addressing the fact that blind people should be properly educated and employed by their community, she uses various typ[es of evidence to support her argument. Keller uses evidence such as facts and paraphrases, but most of her evidence is based off of personal experience as a blind and deaf person. The main purpose of Keller’s speech is to convince communities to properly support and educate their blind population. Keller argues that despite the fact that blind people are often thought of as incapable, the blind can actually accomplish great things, if they are given the proper tools.…
Perspectives. Always shifting. Always changing. Our world is full of differing perspectives. Whether it be political, religious, ethical, economical, or, perhaps, perspectives of others and themselves.…
1. The narrator describes Helen’s behavior as being very ‘natural’ and her “heart is too full of selfishness and affection to allow a dream of fear or unkindness” (268). 2. Through her disability, Helen learned differently from other children. The narrator suggests “she has one advantage over ordinary children, that nothing from without distracts her attention from her studies” (274).…
By; Emercyn Winfindale Helen was born on June 27, 1880, in Tuscumbia, Alabama. She was 19 months old when she came down with Scarlett fever. She lost her sight, hearing, and would not be able to speak because of it. When Helen was 5 years old, he parents found a teacher who knew how to do sign language and could teach the blind.…
A community that is full of a certain type of something will create a life that will help only them become successful, they have no focus on helping out those that are hearing or seeing. The Kellerites have no reason to change their ways to help those that are unlike them be happy. The Keller community has “a way of living that was by and for the blind-deaf” (Varley 20). In this community they have created their own language that helps them communicate in…
Helen Keller was an extremely inspirational woman who had to overcome both deafness and blindness, and who found success and happiness in her life. Recalling her own personal experiences, she believed that anyone with determination and willpower could control their fate and succeed in life. But as she travelled and spoke with others throughout the country, she realized her view on achievement was severely limited. Keller realized that she had many opportunities in life that others did not, especially when it came to a quality education. Without proper education, a person faces a major setback and cannot achieve their goals, no matter how hard they work.…
For most students, Hellen Keller was known as the lady that fought through his disabilities and a human rights activists, but that was only parts of her life. The adult life of Hellen Keller was not as inspiring as her childhood, therefore it is often not mentioned in textbooks. James W. Loewen wrote, “A few know that Keller graduated from college. But about what happened next, about the whole of her adult life, they are ignorant. ……
“By idolizing those whom we honor, we do a disservice both to them and to ourselves… We fail to recognize that we could go and do likewise.” (Loewen, 11) This statement means that by ignoring the flaws of a historical figure, we are ignoring some of what we could learn from them, while simultaneously stunting possible improvement. American textbooks frequently lionize important people, possibly because showing any flaws or weaknesses of character they might have could stand to tarnish the public’s opinion of the person’s reputation. In this chapter, Loewen writes about the tendencies of textbooks to only focus on the positive things one did, as opposed to also making note of some of the more unsavory actions and ideals, in addition to their…
Helen was born physically normal, but became deaf, blind, and mute when she was struck with an illness thought to be Scarlet Fever at the age of nineteen months (Helen Keller). Helen now had to learn to communicate without two of five senses. She became extremely wild, uncooperative, and had a bad temper (Helen Keller Biography, bio.com). Her parents did not know how to raise her, but finally decided to apply to the Perkins Institute for the Blind to get a teacher for Helen after Alexander Graham Bell recommended it to them (Helen Keller). On March 3, 1887, Anne Sullivan became Helen’s teacher (Helen Keller Biography).…
Too often do we take for granted the basic ability to speak in fear of critical judgment from our peers. The pressures of fitting into society as normal citizens brutally crushes the confidence and dreams of a happy life for Helen Keller in “A Word for Everything,” and “Living with Dyslexia,” written by Gareth Cook. In her early childhood, Helen Keller recalls standing on her porch feeling dumb and uncertain of what the future held for her due to being deaf and blind (Keller 145). Gareth Cook expresses his fear and shame when coming out with his disability of being dyslexic for it would impact his reputation and the integrity of his work (Cook 158). Helen and Gareth were born into the world with disabilities in learning which forced them to…
Biography of Helen Keller By: Aiden Saldana Helen Adams Keller was an American author and a lecturer. She was the first deaf-blind person to earn a bachelor of arts degree. As an author, Keller was well-traveled and outspoken in her convictions.…
Helen Keller was born normal, but fell ill when she was nineteen months old which took away her hearing and sight. She was diagnosed with scarlet fever or meningitis, a bacterial infection caused by group A Streptococcus. The illness caused her throat and ear to go mute and deaf. She learned how to read and write through her hand, fingers and touch. Even with her disability, she became an activist for people with disabilities, lecturer, and an author.…
In mainstream society, we, as hearing people, tend to consider deafness as a defect. We tend to look at them with a feeling of pity. If they success in the hearing world, we will applaud them for overcoming a severe deficiency. We tend to consider signing as an inferior replacement for “real” language such as English or Spanish. We believe that all Deaf people will try to lip-read when communicating with hearing people as the only way to interact.…
but she overcame that disability and created a meaningful life for herself through language. Helen first learned what language was from her teacher Anne Sullivan, as she said, “Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness of something forgotten – a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me. I knew then that “w-a-t-e-r” meant the wonderful and cool something that was flowing over my hand” (74). Language gave her the framework to express herself. Helen Keller did not just empower herself, she now inspires us to do the exact same.…
The first of her hardships came in the form of an illness that robbed Helen of her sight, speech, and hearing. At only nineteen months old, Helen was forced to cope in a world of silence and darkness. Growing up as a handicapped child, Helen transformed into a stubborn child who was unwilling to listen. At seven-years-old, Helen met the educator “who had come to reveal all things to me, and, more than all things else, to love me.” (The Story Of My Life, p. 16)…