Home > The Story of My Life Summary & Study Guide

The Story of My Life | Introduction

Helen Keller overcame the seemingly insurmountable obstacles of deafness and blindness to become an influential lecturer and social activist. Keller has become, in American culture, an icon of perseverance, respected and honored by readers, historians, and activists. When she was a child, Keller received a letter from a writer that she quoted in her autobiography: ‘‘Some day you will write a great story out of your own head, that will be a comfort and help to many.’’ This statement proved prophetic, as her autobiography The Story of My Life, published in the United States in 1903, is still read today for its ability to motivate and reassure readers. In her time, Keller was a celebrity and the publication of her autobiography was met with enthusiasm. The book was generally well received, and Keller later wrote a follow-up called Midstream, My Later Life in which she tells what happened in the twenty-five years after the publication of The Story of My Life.

Keller began working on The Story of My Life while she was a student at Radcliffe College, and it was first published in installments in Ladies’ Home Journal. Helping her was an editor and Harvard professor named John Albert Macy, who later married Keller’s first teacher and lifelong companion, Anne Sullivan. In the book Keller recounts the first twenty-two years of her life, from the events of the illness in her early childhood that left her blind and deaf through her second year at Radcliffe College. Prominent historical figures wander among the pages of The Story of My Life: She meets Alexander Graham Bell when she is only six and remains friends with him for years; she visits the acclaimed American poet John Greenleaf Whittier; and she exchanges correspondence with people like Oliver Wendell Holmes and Mrs. Grover Cleveland.

The Story of My Life Summary

Chapters 1–5
After providing brief descriptions of her home in Alabama and her family members, Keller explains how she became disabled—a fever she had when she was nineteen months old left her blind and deaf—and her first memories of being disabled, recounting her early attempts to communicate. Keller reviews her parents’ efforts to find her medical treatment and educational assistance, as well as her early experiences with her first teacher, Anne Sullivan.

Following the illness that left her blind and deaf, Keller got accustomed to the darkness and the silence but retained the memories of the sights and sounds she had enjoyed before her illness. Keller devised a simple system of gestures and tried very hard to make herself understood by her family. She knew when she was being difficult, but she felt she had to resort to fits of temper and frustration because the few signs she used to express herself were inadequate.

Keller’s parents were hopeful when they read about Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, who had taught a deaf-blind girl named Laura Bridgman. They were also hopeful about a possible eye surgery, but the eye doctor could only refer them to Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, who knew about schools and teachers for children like Keller. Dr. Bell advised the Kellers to contact the Perkins Institution in Boston. Shortly before Keller’s seventh birthday, Anne Sullivan arrived to educate Keller. Sullivan began teaching Keller the manual alphabet, and Keller learned it very quickly. Keller was thrilled to realize that there was a word to describe every object and idea.

Chapters 6–10
Keller chronicles her first several years of educational development, speaking of Sullivan’s instructional methods, as well as her responses to Sullivan’s demeanor and evolving techniques.

Keller progressed from learning the alphabet to learning words, and then to learning texts by authors such as William Shakespeare. Keller notes that the more she learned, the more questions she had. She began to learn to read when Sullivan placed pieces of paper with raised letters on objects to name them. For example, Sullivan would spell out ‘‘dress’’ in raised letters and pin the word to a dress.

Keller loved learning because Sullivan often took her outdoors. The subject Keller disliked was arithmetic, so she finished her lessons and immediately went to play rather than staying and asking questions as she normally did. Still, Keller did her best to grasp the ideas Sullivan struggled to teach. Keller comments in chapter seven, ‘‘It was my teacher’s genius, her quick sympathy, her loving tact which made the first years of my education so... » Complete The Story of My Life Summary