Helen Mirren

Johanna Mansfield Sullivan or better known as Anne Sullivan is a teacher and instructor famous for teaching Helen how to sign and communicate. Sullivan was born April 14, 1866 in Agawam Massachusetts. Her parents were poor immigrants that did not know how to read or write. When she was five, she contracted a disease called trachoma. This disease caused painful infections in her eyes and made her blind. Three years later, her mother died and her father left the children because he thought he…

impaired individual who society believed could not succeed in the world was Helen Keller. Helen Keller lost her ability to see, hear, and communicate at a very young age, until Annie Sullivan, her teacher who was partially blind, taught Helen how to converse through sign language and her sense of touch. In Arthur Penn’s movie portrayal of the famous play, The Miracle Worker, we see how the southern community treated both Helen and Annie as they tried to fit in society. Through the movie, we…

Ashley Connors was the average American teen girl until she became a national sensational for her miraculous recovery. Connors was 16 years old when tragedy struck as she was driving to a Friday night party with her girlfriends. Midst her drive she allegedly became distracted by a notification on her phone then was struck by a semi as she ran a red light. First responders rushed her to the hospital and rushed into an emergency surgery. It was at this moment that many would say a miracle happened…

This year, I participated in my theatre’s production of The Miracle Worker. I was privileged to receive the role in which I auditioned for. Acting in this play helped me understand character types and Gibson’s message of persistence. The role I auditioned for was James, as I wanted to play a dynamic character. Before, James was abrasive, passively expressing how he felt. In act 3, he dealt with his feelings. He accepted his stepmother, Kate, asking her to be his “friend,” (Gibson 86). Then,…

From life to Smith Alien Agent Smith has landed on planet earth in search of an explanation of an abstract human concept. In more alien terms a reason not to annihilate planet earth, he has landed in Merced, California and has come in contact with a human that goes by the name of Sandra. Sandra explains to Agent Smith that she will define the abstract concept, life. When people think of life they define it as all that is living, life has a heartbeat or it breathes like plants. Although they…

create name signs for one another. I recently just watched a film in one of my other classes, The Miracle Worker, that is a memoir of Helen Keller and is focused on her time with Anne Sullivan. When I watched the film, I thought of History Through Deaf Eyes and how much ASL has changed. American Sign Language is such a powerful tool. It is amazing at how far Helen Keller has come with the help of Anne Sullivan. Newspapers, a sign I learned watching the film, are created for deaf people. I think…

achieved their version of the American Dream. One of those people is a man by the name of Chris Gardner. Chris Gardner was someone who was a single father and lived a very impoverished life. Another person who achieved the American Dream was Helen Keller. Helen Keller is a girl who got a fever when she was young and went permanently deaf, and blind because of it. Finally, another person who successfully achieved the American Dream was Paige Rawl. Paige Rawl is someone who found out that she was…

The Unreachable Goal “As long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality persist in our world, none of us can truly rest.” -Nelson Mandela Middletown: A Study In American Culture, by Robert S. Lynd and Helen Merrell Lynd, dives into the their 18 month series of studies focusing on a conventional small american city, based on Muncie, Indiana. The studies focused on the social structure, norms, and economic inequality within the city’s working and business class. A common theme found within…

Helen Amelia Thomas (1920-2013), was a respected American reporter, political correspondent and author who broke professional and social gender barriers in the field of journalism. In particular she is known for her coverage of ten different Presidential administrations and her role as a premier member of the White House Press Corps for five decades. As a woman reporting at the White House Thomas earned the praise of her colleagues and soon became the first female member of the National Press…

Helen Keller is given barriers throughout her life due to her lack of sight and hearing, but in her autobiography, The Story of My Life, she tells the tale of a girl who refuses to bow down to any barrier. As a young child, Helen "overcomes suicidal urges and months of self-imposed silence" until she is ready to open herself up to the world again (Snodgrass). The many hardships she and her family go through together only result in making Helen, and her bond with her teacher Anne Sullivan,…