The Story of My Life II Chapter 6 Simplified Summary # Chapter 6

 

The Story of My Life: Chapter 6 (Simplified Summary)

Helen Traversed a Long Distance Since She Stammered Her First Word

Helen Keller describes that she had got the key to all languages and she was very much eager to use it. She further tells us that normal children don’t have to make much effort to understand the words that they listen to from others’ mouths. But for deaf and blind children, it is a very painful process. But despite the difficulties, it leads to wonderful results. Thus Helen traversed a long distance since she stammered her first word.

Helen Became Inquisitive

In the beginning, when her teacher told her about a thing, she would ask her several questions as her ideas were vague and her vocabulary was insufficient. But as her knowledge about things grew and her vocabulary increased, she became more and more inquisitive. She would spend more time now asking about the same topic to get more information about it. Sometimes she was able to correlate a new word with her previous experience.

What is Love?

She remembers the morning when she first asked her teacher about the word ‘love’. At that time, she didn’t know more words. She picked up some early violet flowers in the garden and brought them to her teacher, who tried to kiss her. But, Helen did not like anyone to kiss except her mother at that time. Then Miss Sullivan put her arm gently around her and spelled the words ‘I love Helen.’ Into her hand. “What is love?” she asked.

Miss Sullivan drew her closer and said, “It is here.”, pointing at Helen’s heart. She felt the beats of her heart for the first time. Miss Sullivan’s words puzzled her very much because she did not understand anything until she touched it.

After that, she smelt the sweet violets and asked Miss Sullivan half in words and a half in signs if the sweetness of the flowers was love.

Her teacher replied in negative.

Again she asked her teacher if it was the sun from which the heat was coming.

The Process of Thinking

In the next passage, Helen explains to us how she understood the process of ‘thinking’. After a day or so, she was making a string of beads in a system: two large beads, three small ones, and so on. She had made several attempts and every time made a mistake to follow the arrangement.

She at once understood that the word ‘think’ stood for a name of the process she had undergone to correct her mistake. Thus it was her first experience to understand an abstract idea.

After that, she did not think about the beads but tried to find out the meaning of the word ‘love’ in the light of the new idea.

That day, there had been brief showers all day, so the sun was under the clouds. Then suddenly, it broke off the clouds and spread its warmth everywhere. Helen at once asked her teacher, “Is this not love?”

At this Miss Sullivan replied, “Love is something like the clouds that were in the sky before the sun came out.”

Then she used the simpler words to make Helen understand it she was not able to understand at that time.

She told Helen that she could not touch the clouds, but she could feel the rain. She further said that love also cannot be touched as she was unable to touch the clouds. Helen says that Miss Sullivan used to speak to her as she would speak to a hearing child from the very beginning of her education.

The only difference was that she would spell the sentences into her hand steadily by speaking. In this process, she also supplied to her the necessary words and idioms for Helen to express her thoughts.

That process continued for several years because a lot of time is needed to make a deaf and blind child understand things.

A hearing child can understand the words, idioms, and several expressions early at home by means of repetition and imitation. The child listens to the conversation at home and it stimulates his mind to use those words and expressions.

But this natural process is denied to the deaf child. But Helen’s teacher found such stimulus by means of her innovative mind. She did it for Helen by making several repetitions of the word she heard. She also inspired her to take part in conversation but it took a long time.

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