The Story of My Life (Chapter: 8 – 10)



I. Answer the following questions in 200 -250 words.

1. Why did Helen call Boston ‘the city of kind hearts’?
Helen's experiences with kind people in Boston greatly influenced her
thoughts about the city. Because of the people, Helen will forever equate
Boston with kindness, welcome and compassion. The main example of
someone who embodies the spirit of such welcoming hospitality would be
Mr William Endicott. Helen tells us that she was thinking of Mr Endicott when
she called Boston, ‘The City Of Kind Hearts’. Mr Endicott opens up his house
to Helen and talks to her as if they are great friends who have always enjoyed
each other's company.
Another example is that of Mr Anagnos (director of the Perkins Institution
For The Blind in Boston). When Helen's father writes to request a teacher for
Helen, we are told that Mr. Anagnos answers with a 'kind letter' filled with
'the comforting assurance that a teacher had been found.'
In May 1888, Helen gets a chance to visit the Perkins Institution For The
Blind. Her joy is complete when the children greet her with eagerness and
enthusiasm. She feels so thoroughly at home in Boston that she begins to
regard Boston ‘as the beginning and the end of creation’.

2. What caused Helen to take dive in the cold water? What happened after she
plunged into cold water?
Helen was delighted to know that she and her teacher would spend their
vacation at Brewster, on Cape God. Her mind was full of prospective joys and
the wonderful stories she had heard about the sea. She had always lived far
inland. She also read a big book called ‘Our World’ a description of the ocean
which filled her with wonder and intense desire to touch the mighty sea. All
of these caused Helen to plunge into the sea water without any fear. She was
enjoying it until her foot struck against a rock and the water rushed over her
head. She found nothing to hold on to as there was nothing except water and sea weeds. However, she was fortunate that waves threw her back on the
shore, where her teacher picked her up in her arms.

3. Describe Helen’s First Christmas after Miss Sullivan’s arrival.
The first Christmas after Miss Sullivan’s arrival was great for Helen. Everyone
in her family planned surprises for Helen. She was also preparing her
surprises with her teacher. They kept up a guessing game which taught Helen
more about the use of language. They played the guessing game every
evening which grew more and more exciting as Christmas approached. Helen
was invited by the Tuscumbia school children to their decorated Christmas
tree. She danced and jumped around the tree in excitement. She gave gifts to
other children. She also wanted to know what she was to receive on that
occasion. In the morning, when she got up she found a lot of gifts for her.
She was most delighted by her teacher’s gift which was a canary. She enjoyed
Christmas a lot.

4. Describe Helen Keller’s stay at the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston.
It was Alexander Graham Bell who advised Helen’s parents to contact the
Perkins Institute for Blind for her education. It was the institute where Laura
Bridgman, a deaf and blind child had been educated. It was located in South
Boston. Michael Anaganos, the director, asked Anne Sullivan to become
Keller’s instructor. Helen made friends with the little blind children. It was a
unique pleasure to talk with other blind children in her own language. Until
then she had been speaking through an interpreter like a foreigner. All the
eager and loving children gathered round her and joined heartily in her
frolics. They could read the books with their fingers. They were so happy and
contented that she lost all sense of pain in the pleasure of their
companionship. With the blind children she felt thoroughly at home in her
new environment.

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