The Story of My Life (Chapter: 4-7)

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

1. In ‘The Story of My Life’ by Helen Keller, what kind of ‘peculiar sympathy’ did Miss
Sullivan have with Helen's ‘pleasures and desires’?
In The Story of My Life, Helen Keller's autobiography of the first twenty-two years
of her life, Helen reveals the special relationship she has with Annie Sullivan.
Helen remembers the day she met Anne as ‘the most important day in all my life’
and she is well aware of Anne's contribution to her own development. Anne is only
partially sighted herself and has had her own difficult childhood which allows her
to understand Helen's many frustrations. Anne could relate to Helen like no-one
else could.
It is this unsaid understanding or ‘peculiar sympathy’ which Helen refers to that
allows Anne to help Helen achieve what she couldn’t otherwise. Helen admits that,
because of Anne, she learns ‘from life itself’. She cannot explain it herself but
does acknowledge Anne's long association with the blind. She also recognizes
Anne's wonderful faculty for description and the fact that she does not deliberate
on previous day's lessons. Helen appreciates her style and the way Anne
introduced dry technicalities of science little by little, all of which ensure that
Helen cannot help remembering what she taught.

2. How can you say that Helen read and studied out of doors?
Usually students read and study in their classrooms, but for Helen Keller whole
nature was her classroom. Most of her learning took place out of doors. This way
she learnt more about the world around her. She was close to the nature.
Generally, students read with books but Helen Keller read by using her sense of
smell and touch. In a way, nature became her teacher, guide and philosopher. She
learnt from nature that everything has beauty of its own.
Miss Sullivan provided her practical knowledge of everything and taught her all
the subjects . Helen learnt geography, arithmetic, zoology and botany-all in a
leisurely manner. Arithmetic seemed a disinteresting subject to Helen. In science,
she was taught the growth of a plant in its actual form. She enjoyed her lessons as
she learnt them from life itself. But it was all because of her teacher who taught
her in a manner that everything around her breathed of love, joy and was full of
meaning. Helen read Geography by raised maps in clay. She touched and felt the
opening up of a plant. The study of tadpole made her understand that for creatures
their natural habitats are indispensable. So Helen learnt from life itself and in this learning her teacher played an exemplary role. It was she who made her education
appear like a game. Helen learnt more out of doors and nature herself unfolded the
book of life for her.
3. Helen learnt a new lesson that “Nature wages open war against her children and under
softest touch hides treacherous claws”. How?
The benevolent aspect of nature thrilled Helen. The whole nature was her
classroom. Most of her learning took place out of doors. This way she learnt more
about the world around her.
But soon she learnt that nature could be ferocious also. Once Helen along with
Miss Sullivan, were returning from a walk. The weather grew warm and humid.
They stood under the cool shade of a tree. With her teacher’s help Helen sat
amidst the branches. Miss Sullivan proposed that they have their lunch there.
Miss Sullivan went to fetch lunch leaving Helen all alone. Suddenly, the weather
changed and a thunderstorm was imminent. Helen felt paralysed and frightened
and she wanted to climb down from the tree. She clung to the branch with all her
might as the tree swayed and strained. The branches lashed about her. She felt as
if she would fall and at that very moment Miss Sullivan came and helped her down.
Helen had learnt a new lesson that “Nature wages open war against her children
and under softest touch hides treacherous claws”. She learnt a great lesson that
life is not always pleasant and one should be prepared for the risks and stakes
also.

4. How did Helen learn to read? Describe Helen’s long process of learning?
Learning to read was an important step in Helen’s education. Miss Sullivan gave
her slips of cardboard on which raised letters were printed words. Helen learnt
that each printed word stood for an object, an act or a quality. She learnt to use
these words in making short sentences. One day she pinned the word ‘girl’ on her
pinafore and stood in the wardrobe. On it, she arranged the words ‘is in wardrobe’.
Miss Sullivan and Helen played this game for hours together. From the printed
slips Helen moved to the printed book ‘Reader for Beginners’ and hunted for the
words she knew. Gradually, she began to read. Once she brought some flowers for
her teacher. Miss Sullivan spelled into her hand, ‘I love Helen’. Helen asked “what
is love?” Initially, she failed to understand. One day as she was trying to string
beads of different sizes in symmetrical groups, she made many mistakes.
Unknowingly she tried to think how she could arrange them. Miss Sullivan
touched her forehead and spelled, ‘Think’. In a flash she learnt that the word was
the name of the feeling that was going on in her head. Thus, she learnt about an
abstract idea.

5. How did Helen learn subjects like Geography, History and Science?
Helen had a different way of learning subjects like Geography, History, Science.
She walked down with Miss Sullivan to an old tumble-down lumber wharf on the
Tennessee River which was used during the Civil War to land soldiers. She built
dams of pebbles, made islands and lakes, dug river-beds, never realising that she
was learning a lesson. She listened to Miss Sullivan’s descriptions of burning
mountains, buried cities, moving rivers of ice, etc. She made raised maps on clay
so that she could feel the mountain ridges and valley and follow the course of river
with her fingers. She learnt Arithmetic by stringing beads in groups and by
arranging kindergarten straws she learned to add and subtract. She studied
Zoology and Botany also in a leisurely manner. She listened carefully to the
description of terrible beasts which tramped the forests and died in the swamps of
an unknown age. She learnt about the growth of a plant by planting a lily in her
balcony.

6. How did Anne Sullivan make Helen understand the meaning of word ‘Love’?
Miss Sullivan was a great teacher for Helen. One day, when Helen brought violets
for her teacher. She gently put her arm around Helen and spelled on her hand that
she loved Helen. When Helen asked what love is, Miss Sullivan drew her closer
and pointed towards her heart and told her that love is here. Helen felt the beat of
heart but couldn’t understand the meaning of love. She was disappointed that her
teacher couldn’t show her the love.
Once, Helen was arranging beads in symmetrical pattern but found it difficult. Miss
Sullivan touched her forehead and spelled ‘think’. Helen quickly understood that
the word was the name of process that was going on in her head.
This was her first conscious perception of an abstract idea.
Miss Sullivan explained her that love is like the clouds that we cannot touch. But
when it rains, flowers and the thirsty earth feel glad to have it. We cannot touch
love but can feel the sweetness that it pours into everything. Without love no one

can be happy. This made Helen understand the meaning of love.