Helen Keller was a woman who was blind and deaf because of a disease that affected her at the age of two. She most likely got this disease when she was born, and it developed over time. Helen didn't know how to speak, or how to communicate, or even what objects were. She also didn't feel much emotions, such as sorrow or regret, because she didn't see what she regret doing, or what she was sad over; therefore being no reason for her being sad or regretful.. At least not until the age of six.
As a child, Keller was taught how to communicate, and how to speak. She was taught by her one and only teacher; Anne Sullivan. Sullivan was a determined and persistent teacher at Perkins School for the Blind. Sullivan did have vision problems, but was not fully blind. She taught Keller what things were, how to communicate, and how to read braile.
Because of Sullivan, Keller ended up graduating at Radcliffe College, earning her Bachelor's degree for the arts. Also because of Sullivan, Keller was able to write a whole autobiography about her life as a deaf-blind child.
In that autobiography, The Story of My Life, Keller speaks about her experiences learning how to speak, communicate, and understand things. According to the text, "Someone was drawing water and my teacher placed my hand under the spout. As the cool stream gushed over one hand she spelled into the other the word water, first slowly, then rapidly. I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motions of her fingers. Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten- a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me. I knew then that "w-a-t-e-r" meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand." This text shows Keller understanding what things were, and that these things had a name, which was exciting to her as a child. She had learned that things existed, had a name, and weren't all one thing, and she was eager to learn more.
The thing is about that, though, is that she learned to feel despair and sorrow of the things she had destroyed in her unawareness to the things around her. For example, a ragdoll she had destroyed in her annoyance with Sullivan trying to teach her the word "doll". Once she had realized she broke something, went over to the fragments of the doll and tried to piece them together. According to Keller, "On entering the door I remembered the doll I had broken. I felt my way to the hearth and picked up the pieces. I tried vainly to put them together. Then my eyes filled with tears; for I realized what I had done, and for the first time I felt repentance and sorrow" (5).
