The Story of My Life: Main Characters Analysis
The Story of My Life is an autobiographical novel by Helen Keller. The novel deals with the story of a young girl, Helen Keller who was deaf and blind at a young age. The story of the novel is inspiring as it tells how the young girl overcame the disabilities and achieved success in life.
The Story of My Life Characters:
1. Character of Helen Keller:
Helen Keller is the main character of the novel “The Story of My Life”. Despite being blind and deaf, she shows hardly any repugnance for her state. She is a sensitive girl who is extremely close to her family, specially her mother.
She is always relating what she does with them and all the things that they do for her. Helen Keller’s remarkable trait is that she is always trying to improve herself and she likes to find new ways to express herself and communicate with others.
Helen is a determined and strong girl who through her life demonstrates that obstacles, whether they are physical or social can be overcome. She is a heroic figure who overcomes extreme hardships to accomplish the most impressive goals.
2. Character of Arthur H. Keller:
Helen’s father, Arthur H. Keller was a captain in the Confederate Army. According to Helen her father was most loving and indulgent, devoted to his home and seldom left them except during the hunting season. She had been told that he was a celebrated shot.
Next to his family he loved his dogs and gun. His hospitality was great, almost faultless and he seldom came home without bringing a guest along with him. He took special pride in his big garden, where he raised the finest watermelons and strawberries in the country.
Helen remembers his caressing touch as he would lead her from one tree to another eagerly delighted by whatever pleased her. He was also a famous storyteller and after Helen had acquired language he would spell clumsily into her hand his cleverest anecdotes.
3. Character of Martha Washington:
Martha Washington was the child of the cook of the Keller household. During Anne’s childhood she was one of Helen’s constant companions. Martha understood Helen’s signs and she (Helen) seldom had any difficulty in making her do just as she wished. It pleased Helen to dominate over her and Martha mostly submitted to her unfair domination.
This clearly reveals that Martha was rather meek and docile and she avoided risking a first hand encounter with a strong and hyperactive girl like Helen. Like Helen, Martha too had a great love for mischief. They spent a great deal of time with each other in the kitchen also where they kneaded dough balls, grinded coffee, quarreled over the cake bowl etc.
4. Character of Anne Sullivan:
Anne Sullivan was a life long teacher and companion to Helen Keller. Her arrival brought about a miraculous change in Helen’s life and the world became more meaningful and full of things quivering with life of Helen. Miss Sullivan was extremely sensitive and so she had an inexplicable sympathy with Helen’s pleasures and desires. She came up with the most interesting and novel ways to tutor Helen.
Miss Sullivan’s sympathy, genius and loving nature made the first few years of Helen’s education most joyous and beautiful. Time and again she provided Helen with the much needed courage and hope and it was due to her consistent patience and perseverance that Helen came out of her dark and sordid world.
5. Character of Kate Adams:
Helen was extremely close to her mother Kate Adams. During the first months after her illness, Helen only sat in her mother’s lap or clung to her dress as she went around doing her household duties. Kate Adams was extremely sensitive to Helen’s needs and was also of the firm opinion that Helen should be tutored.
In the first five years of her life Helen developed a limited sign language which only Kate Adams understood. Kate Adams got some hope for Helen after reading about a blind and deaf girl Laura Bridgman. It was because of her and her husband’s determination and sincere efforts that Helen was able to overcome the strong barriers of her dark world.Â
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