The story of my life
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Helen Keller graduated cum laude from Radcliffe College in 1904, and the present book was written and published in her sophomore year with the aid and encouragement of Charles Townsend Copeland, her English teacher, and the literary critic, John Albert Macy. It contains her own account of the opening chapters of her life, a selection from her letters, and a description of her education and early development drawn mainly from the records of Annie Sullivan, the beloved "Teacher," through whose guidance and companionship Miss Keller emerged from darkness, silence, and isolation into the great world. - Introduction.
The Story of My Life is Helen Keller's own account of how she miraculously triumphed over blindness and deafness-and became one of the most inspiring and intriguing figures of our time.
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It seems to me that Keller's autobiography is written as if I'm deaf-blind too. It focuses on her education and what books she likes reading and the people she meets, but not what life is like to be deaf-blind. Another reviewer mentions this and I concur, this book is about how normal Keller is and how she does all these normal people things, but as a reader we are interested in how Keller is different! I really wanted to know about her memories of things before language and the difficulties she faces in everyday life. Also it would've been nice if there was an explanation of manual alphabet and why the ideas of death and religion were kept from her?
Also I would've liked more of the personal opinions and thoughts that we get in the last few pages of Part III. It was really interesting hearing her talk about how people only like to make small talk and her dreams. Besides from her achievements I hardly know much about her!
Because of this the book is much more interesting from Sullivan's (her mentor) perspective. She sheds light on her personality, beliefs, education and her teaching style, which is very commendable. She downplays that she really has no clue and she's not that special but her approach to language is radical and very very effective.
It would've liked more psychological speculation about how the “frost king” story could've happened. That seemed extraordinarily interesting and it was explained in full but it would be interesting to know how she could store the whole story with imagery. It's a shame she wasn't studied more because she's so “normal”. She may fit into society but that doesn't make her uniform.
Keller's language is overly flowery for the context of an autobiography, it fits in the last few passages where she's talking about her thoughts and other prose - but is impressive her mastery of it. I was going to complain about the confusing sensory writing but it's explained later in the book that it is more convinient to say saw than perceived etc.
Overall the autobiography is an amazing feat and overcame extraordinary amount of difficulty, but in terms of enjoyment, there's a lot to be asked of.
