Student Question
Why does Helen Keller say her happy days didn't last long?
Quick answer:
Helen Keller's happy days were short-lived due to an illness in February that left her blind and deaf. As a toddler, she enjoyed a joyful childhood with her family, but the illness, described as acute congestion of the stomach and brain, brought darkness and isolation. The sudden loss of sight and hearing was terrifying for young Helen, as she could no longer communicate effectively or enjoy the world around her, marking a profound change in her life.
Helen says that the happy days did not last because she became very ill and almost died, and was left blind and deaf.
The happy days that Keller speaks of are the early days of her childhood. She lived with her mother and father in a little house on her family land. As a toddler, little Helen was thrilled by the simplest things. Life was great. Then she became very ill.
Then, in the dreary month of February, came the illness which closed my eyes and ears and plunged me into the unconsciousness of a new-born baby. They called it acute congestion of the stomach and brain. The doctor thought I could not live. (Ch. 1)
The doctors did not know exactly what she had, so they did not know if she would survive it or what it would do to her. She ended up both blind and deaf. This...
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was a big blow at such a young age. Because she was barely walking or talking, she did not really have much communication and was plunged into a scary world of darkness.
I especially remember the tenderness with which my mother tried to soothe me in my waking hours of fret and pain, and the agony and bewilderment with which I awoke after a tossing half sleep, and turned my eyes, so dry and hot, to the wall, away from the once-loved light, which came to me dim and yet more dim each day. (Ch. 1)
Since she was so young, losing her sight and hearing was very frightening. There was little her mother could do to help make her feel better or explain what was happening, because she was so sick. Poor Helen was in a great deal of pain in addition to losing more and more of her sight and hearing each day.
In The Story of My Life, why does Helen Keller say her happiness was brief?
The Story of My Life is Helen Keller's autobiographical account of the first years of her life. Her life begins, she has been told, like any other new born as "I came, I saw, I conquered." It is apparent to her family that Helen is a bright child and even at the age of six months she can say "How d'ye," and repeat the word "tea." Helen also recalls the word "wah-wah" for water that will become so significant and later represent a turning point for her in what will otherwise become her "dayless life."
Helen also relates the story of her learning to walk and that she walks for the first time on the day of her first birthday. "The flickering shadows of leaves that danced in the sunlight " catch her attention, her being such an inquisitive child and she simply chases them before realizing that this whole walking phenomenon is new to her and she falls down and cries to be picked up.
These seemingly "happy" childhood events however "did not last long." The Spring, Summer and Autumn all leave "their gifts at the feet of an eager, delighted child" but then, during a "dreary" February, Helen is struck down by an illness so severe that it leaves her deaf and blind and "plunged me into (the) unconsciousness."