Author: Helen Keller

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company;Centennial edition

Pub. in: May, 2003

ISBN: 0393057445

Pages: 352

Measurements: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.4 inches

Origin of product: USA

Order code: BA00596

Other information:  

The Story of My Life, an autobiography of Helen Keller, is a motivating story of perseverance and struggle. On July 27th 1880, Helen Keller began her extraordinary life in Tuscumbia, Alabama. As a perky, young child, Helen was quick to learn. On the day of her first birthday, she began to walk, and she had been imitating speech since the age of six months. But tragedy struck, and Helen became severely ill. The doctor pronounced that she had "acute congestion of the stomach and brain," and that Helen would not survive (19). Then, one morning, the fever was gone, but it had left its mark upon Helen. From that day on, she could no longer see or hear and lived in a world of silence. As the months after her illness passed, Helen was shut out from the world she had only shortly known. On March 3, 1887, a teacher came and unlocked the door that held Helen away from the world. Helen's tale inspires the reader to persist and never give up because, by overcoming her challenges, Helen became her own hero.

Throughout the book, Helen's eagerness to learn is clearly depicted. She writes, "The desire to express myself grew. The few signs I used became less and less adequate, and my failures to make myself understood were invariably followed by outbursts of passion" (18). Without this yearning, Helen would have become quiet and naive, floating through life, unaffected. But, this was not Helen. Desire was the spark that kept Helen's mind alive, longing for a way of expression. "When her fingers were too tired to spell another word, I had for the first time a keen sense of my deprivations. I took the book in my hands and tried to feel the letters with an intensity of longing that I can never forget," Helen remembers, about a book that her teacher had been reading to her (64). Helen's strong need for knowledge and her difficulty in receiving it is passed to the reader who finds a sudden gratefulness for all that he knows.

Helen was faced with the many challenges that her physical disabilities brought to her. One of her earliest obstacles was overcoming her strong dislike for mathematics. "Arithmetic seems to have been the only study I did not like. From the first I was not interested in the science of numbers," Helen remembers (27). At first glance Helen's hatred of math appears to be simply a dislike common to many young children. On closer examination it is found that this is not the case, and Helen's hatred may stem from her difficulty in comprehending mathematical concepts. "I could not follow with my eyes the geometrical figures drawn on the blackboard, and my only means of getting a clear idea of them was to make them on a cushion with straight and curved wires, which had bent and straight ends," Helen recollects (55). With much determination, Helen looked beyond her hatred of math and worked harder, to overcome her obstacles and eventually graduate from Radcliffe College. By doing this Helen accomplished something that individuals often struggle with, and she taught others not to hide from their problems, but to analyze them, and try harder only then will they go away.

With increasing knowledge in Helen's life, her thoughts were open to greater parts of the world, such as feelings. "Knowledge is love and light and vision," Helen stated (19). On April 5, 1887, Helen became frustrated and tore through the house. In doing so, she shattered her new doll, a present from her teacher. She had no feelings of regret because she did not know the feeling of love. Later that day her life changed and her mind was opened to love and knowledge. She recalls, "On entering the door I remembered the doll I had broken. I felt my way to the hearth and picked up the pieces. I tried vainly to put them together. Then my eyes filled with tears; for I realized what I had done, and for the first time I felt repentance and sorrow," (21). With Helen's realization of grief she also discovered love because in life one new idea often sparks another.

Through hard work and perseverance Helen's strong desire for knowledge helped her to overcome all her problems. Contradictory to ancient heroes, pride was not a part of Helen's personality. She dedicated the entire closing of her own book to the people who paved a way for her and taught her to how to make life wonderful. As Helen ends her story, "Thus it is that my friends have made the story of my life. In a thousand ways they have turned my limitations into beautiful privileges, and enabled me to walk serene and happy in the shadow cast by my deprivation," (81). In her modesty Helen neglects to mention herself when stating the heroes of her story. This story by Helen Keller is motivating and inspiring, a wonderful tale of success.

This is an excellent work for children in the teen years and beyond. It is written well and the grammatical style is appropriate for the subject matter of the story. The author relates her life experiences going back to an early age. Ultimately, perseverance saved her from a life of darkness and complete solitude. The work is written in a superior writing style with sentence structures similar to the outstanding writers of her time. This book is a worthy purchase for a large constituency of readers. (From quoting Rachel and Joseph Maresca, USA)

Target readers: General readers

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