The Story of My Life: Chapter 4
About this Chapter
In this chapter, we come to know the importance
of a sensitive and honest teacher in a
student’s life. Miss Sullivan plays a very important role in Helen’s life. Helen also describes at the beginning of this
chapter as to how her life was full of darkness and then her teacher brought hope
and light in her life.
Helen Keller’s Most Important Day
This begins with Helen Keller’s assertion (claim) that the most important day of her
life was the one on which her teacher Miss
Sullivan came to teach her. She was full of wonder to think about the broad
and immeasurable gap that existed between Miss Sullivan and her and in a way
that connected both of them. The day on which her teacher arrived was March 3, 1887, when she was going to
become of 7 years after three months.
Here, we come to know as to how she was hopeful of someone’s arrival in the
house.
In the next passage, Helen Keller writes as to how she was hopeful of somebody’s arrival in the house. She had felt some special kind of
movements there. She had also felt as to how her mother was moving to and fro
in the house. So she went to the door and waited on
the steps. On that eventful (important) day, she stood on the porch, quiet and
expectant (eager, hopeful). Now she describes how the sunrays were penetrating (entering) through the branches of the honeysuckle that covered the whole
porch and also falling on her upturned face.
She was also touching unconsciously (without
any intention) the leaves and flowers of the vine with a continuous soft touch
and it seemed to her that those flowers had blossomed to welcome the sweet
southern spring. The leaves and flowers
were familiar to her because she used to come there and touched them softly.
She was not clear or certain about her future at that time, whether it would be
surprising for her or not.
Uncertain About Her Future
She was, perhaps, uncertain about her future
because she had been a prey (victim) to anger and bitterness so far
continually for weeks. As a result of that, a languor (a pleasant state of
being lazy and without energy) followed that intense struggle.
In the next passage, Helen uses a simile to prove how she felt miserable in the world
of darkness, where there was no hope of coming into the world of knowledge and
brightness. She compares herself to a ship that is
surrounded by dense white fog and has lost its way to reach the shore. It
follows a sound line that comes from a
distance (It may be the sound of a foghorn set up at some lighthouse at the
sea-shore), moves to plummet (to fall suddenly from high position) without
having knowledge of the hidden dangers on the way and waiting for something
unfortunate to happen.
The same situation was faced by Helen in her
life. Her condition was like that of the ship described above before her
education began. The difference was that she was without any compass and
sounding-line and she had no means to know how near she was from her harbor (Here
it means destination). Her soul’s cry was
to provide her with the light of love and knowledge and the light of love was shown
on her that very hour.
Miss Sullivan’s Arrival
After some time, she felt someone’s
approaching footsteps. She stretched her
arm as she had thought it to be her mother. Her arm was taken by
someone who made her stand and then held
in her arms. It was Miss Sullivan,
who had come to reveal all the things and above them all to love her.
That very morning her teacher led her
to her room and gave a doll. It was
a gift sent to her by the little blind children who studied at Perkins and Laura Bridgman and had
dressed it. But it was later on when she came to much about the doll.
Education Begins
She played for some time with the
doll and the teacher spelled the letters ‘d-o-l-l” on her palm of her hand. She
thought it a finger play and took an interest at once in it.
She imitated the activity and when she was successful
in imitating the letters, she was full of excitement and felt childish pleasure
and pride in it. After that, she ran down quickly to her mother and spelled the
letters for the doll on her own hand.
At that time, she did not know that
the word ‘doll’ existed. She was just
imitating the word in a playful way. In the following days, she learned to spell
in this way that she could not understand at that time several words.
These were: pin, hat, cup, and some
verbs like sit stand, and walk. She had understood before the arrival of her
teacher that everything had a name.
One day when she was busy playing with her new doll, her teacher Miss Sullivan
put in her lap the old big rag doll. She also spelled “d-o-l-l” and tried to
make her understand that the word ‘doll’ applied to both of them.
Earlier, in the, they had a tussle
over the words ‘water’ and ‘mug’. Miss Sullivan was trying hard to make her
understand that those were two separate words, but Helen was bent on (determined)
confusing both the words standing for the same meaning.
Her
teacher had dropped the topic at that time for the time being. Now, when she
picked up the same topic of making her understand the difference between the
two words, Helen became impatient (easily annoyed).
Helen’s Rage
She seized (to take something quickly) the
new doll and dashed (hit with force) it on the floor. She enjoyed a strange
type of delight when she felt at her feet the broken pieces of the doll lying
scattered on the floor.
She felt neither sorrow nor regret at
the violent acts done by her. She did not love the doll. She says that she
lived in a dark world that was disappointing
and hopeless for her and there was no place for soft feelings like
tenderness in that world.
She felt that her teacher was sweeping the fragments (small
pieces) of the doll to one side of the hearth. In a way she had some satisfaction
at that act as the cause of her discomfort had been removed.
After that, her teacher brought a hat
for her and she at once understood that was being taken outside in the warm
sunshine. It made her hop (jump) and skip with pleasure.
They walked towards the well-house that was
covered with the honeysuckle spreading the sweet and attractive fragrance. Someone
was drawing water and her teacher placed
her hand under the pipe from which the cold water was coming out. As the cool
water fell over her hand, Miss Sullivan spelled the word ‘water’, first in a
slow manner and then fast.
She stood motionless and her whole attention was on the motions of her
teacher’s fingers. After that, she had some gradual understanding that ‘w-a-t-e-r’
meant wonderfully cool, something that was flowing over her hand.
She learned many new words that day.
She remembered some of them that were: mother, father, sister, teacher, etc.
These were the words that were going to fill her life with happiness. She was a
happier child when she lay in her small cot and for the first time she longed
for the new day to arrive. She understood that the word ‘w-a-t-e-r’ was
a reality. It awakened her soul and gave it some light, hope, joy and in a way
set it free from the barriers of the darkness that still prevailed in her mind.
Her Eagerness to Learn More
She was full of eagerness to learn
more when they left the well. She had come to know that everything had a name
and each name gave birth to a new thought in her mind. While coming back home,
every object that she touched seemed filled with life to her. She also
remembered the doll she had broken as she entered the door.
She picked up the broken pieces and tried in
vain to rejoin them. Then her eyes were filled with tears and for the first
time she felt repentance and sorrow for the wrong she had committed.
Chapter 4 Ends up!
