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The Story of My Life Summary Chapter 23

In this chapter, Helen writes about her feelings of gratitude to the people who had touched her life in different ways, sometimes positively, sometimes otherwise. She acknowledges the immense contribution of her friends in her life.

In this chapter, Helen expresses her gratitude to a number of people, some famous and some unknown, who enriched her life over the years. The hands of people whom she met were ‘dumbly eloquent’ to her, she could understand their moods and emotions just by the feel of their hands as they clasped hers. Some people with their ‘frosty finger tips’ were empty of joys while some hands had ‘sunbeams in them’ which warmed her heart.

She expresses her love and gratitude to Bishop Brooks, who helped her to connect with the spiritual side of life and to understand that behind all religions runs the same message of brotherhood of man and fatherhood of God. He also taught her that the greatest of all is love. She mentions friends from far and near, who showered her with love and warmth. She shares that she would distinguish between a warm, caring person and an indifferent one by the way they would clasp her hand.

She also reveals her irritation at people who tried to patronise her by doubting her intelligence and trying to talk down to her. She then makes a list of all the great literary figures she met and the impact they had on her life. She mentions Dr Alexander Graham Bell and the time spent with him. She mentions her appreciation of his work to improve the lives of deaf children. She makes a special mention of Mr Lawrence Hutton, and literary greats Dean Howells, Mark Twain, Richard Watson Gilder etc.

She reveals her struggle to keep up with their conversations and the delightful experience of reading the lips of Mark Twain as he read out his stories to her. Helen ends her autobiography by acknowledging the fact that it is her friends who have made the story of her life remarkable and turned her limitations into beautiful privileges.

The Story of My Life Summary Chapter 23 Questions and Answers

Question 1.
How was Helen impacted by people who were warm and sympathetic towards her?
Answer:
The warmth and sympathetic nature of some of the people in Helen’s life made her feel restful and helped dissolve her confusion, irritation and worries. It gave her the feeling that everything was fine.

Question 2.
Who were the people Helen tried to avoid?
Answer:
Helen tried to avoid people who asked her silly questions, like news reporters, and people who looked down on her, talking to her in a patronising and condescending manner.

Question 3.
What did Helen mean by calling the hands of people “dumbly eloquent”?
Answer:
Helen tried to make her readers aware that though hands cannot talk, they can still say a lot about the personality of a person. On shaking hands with people, Helen could differentiate between a warm, loving person and a cold, aloof person.

Question 4.
Why did Helen apologise to her “far-off friends”?
Answer:
Helen apologised to her “far-off friends” because she had never met them, yet they wrote to her from far-off places. She was grateful to them for reaching out to her. However, she was apologetic because she was not able to write back and thank them.

Question 5.
What did she learn from Bishop Brooks?
Answer:
Helen leamt a lot about the spiritual side of life from Bishop Brooks. The most important thing she learnt was that the underlying message of all religions was the same: the brotherhood of man and the importance of love.

Question 6.
Why did Dr Oliver Wendell Holmes cry during his meeting with Helen?
Answer:
When Helen recited a few lines from Tennyson’s poem, Dr Oliver Wendell Holmes was so moved that tears streamed down his cheeks and fell on Helen’s hand.

Question 7.
Why did Whittier call Miss Sullivan Helen’s “spiritual liberator”?
Answer:
Whittier recognised the great work done by Miss Sullivan in exposing Helen to the world of literature, and helping her to develop the passion to understand and appreciate it. Therefore, though she was blind she had a deep understanding of the classics, which enriched her soul.

Question 8.
Why did Helen feel indebted to Dr Edward Everett Hale?
Answer:
Helen was grateful to Dr Edward Everett Hale for his support and sympathy to her own self and Miss Sullivan, when they were disheartened and upset during their great struggle.

Question 9.
Why did Helen think that Dr Bell was not only a great scientist but an even greater human being?
Answer:
Dr Bell had many revolutionary inventions to his credit, but Helen felt, that his scientific ability was dwarfed by his human goodness, as he spent a lot of time with deaf children and made great contributions towards making their life easier.

Question 10.
What did Helen enjoy about her meetings with the literary giants of her time?
Answer:
Helen loved being part of the literary discussions with the great literary minds of her time, even though she was not able to understand everything they said. However, it was extremely enlightening for her to spend time listening to such conversations.

Question 11.
How did Helen describe Mark Twain?
Answer:
Helen found Mark Twain to be extremely positive and bright and imagined him to have a twinkle in his eye. He had the compassion and patience to read out his stories to Helen, who lip-read them. She felt that behind his cynical, droll sense of humour, lay a tender-hearted and sympathetic man.

Question 12.
Was Helen able to mention the names of all her friends? Why?
Answer:
Helen expressed her inability to mention all her friends because firstly, there were too many people she felt indebted to and there were many others who did not want their contributions to be made public.

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The Story of My Life Summary Chapter 22

Helen writes about her love for the outdoors, the countryside. She mentions her experience of being caught in a gale on a sailboat. She was disturbed to look at the huge gap that existed between the rich and the poor. She also enjoyed indoor activities like knitting, crocheting, etc.

In this chapter, Helen mentions her other interests, apart from books. She talks about her great love of the outdoors, and especially of water, whether swimming, boating, canoeing or sailing. She enjoyed taking her friends out for rowing when they visited her. Someone was made to sit in the stem and manage the rudder while she rowed. She mentions an experience when she was caught in a gale on a sailboat and talks about the excitement and fearlessness she felt as the crew struggled to keep the boat afloat.

She talks about the time spent in the countryside, especially at Wrentham, and contrasts the peaceful, simple life of the village with the glamour, hectic pace and discontent of the city. It was Mr Chamberlain from one of the charming little villages in New England who initiated her into the mysteries of trees and wildflowers. She expresses her shock at the difference in the lives of the rich and the poor in cities, as well as at the squalor and filth in which the poor live.

She wishes they would return to the simplicity and honesty of the countryside and live more noble and content lives. She also describes her enjoyment at riding a tandem bicycle and her walks in the woods with her dogs. On days when she was forced to stay indoors, she describes her enjoyment of knitting, crocheting, reading or playing games like specially designed chess or Chinese checkers.

She always enjoyed company, especially of young children, who she says were unselfconscious and had no difficulty interacting with her. She enjoyed visiting museums and stores with her mother, and found that she coufd understand the emotions and feelings of the sculptor by touching the carvings and statues. Apart from this, Helen enjoyed visiting the theatre and meeting the great actors and actresses after their performances. In the end, she mentioned that though she was forced to live in a dark, silent world, she did not let it depress her, as she had learnt to be content.

The Story of My Life Summary Chapter 22 Questions and Answers

Question 1.
How did Helen row boats even though she could not see?
Answer:
Whenever Helen rowed boats, someone was made to sit at the stem and manage the rudder, while she rowed. Sometimes, she would row without the rudder and would try to steer by the scent of the water grasses, lilies and bushes growing along the shore. The oars had leather bands which kept them in position in the oarlocks. The resistance of the water also let her know when the oars were evenly poised and when she was pulling against the current.

Question 2.
How did Helein enjoy the moonlit canoe rides?
Answer:
Even though Helen could not see the moon, she enjoyed lying back among the pillows, in the canoe, with her hand trailing in the water. She would feel the air around her and the warmth that suddenly enfolded her, though she could not be sure if it came from the trees or from the water.

Question 3.
What does the incident of the sailboat in the gale reveal about Helen’s character?
Answer:
The incident of the sailboat reveals Helen’s love for adventure and her fearlessness. She felt excited when the people around her tried to keep the boat afloat in the gale and had no fear of drowning.

Question 4.
Why does Helen enjoy spending time in the countryside?
Answer:
Helen enjoyed the countryside because there, one did not become saddened by the cruel struggle for existence that one saw in the cities. Not only was the atmosphere purer, with clean air, green earth and murmuring rivers, life itself was simple and honest.

Question 5.
Why did Helen wish that the poor would leave the city and return to the village?
Answer:
Helen failed to understand why the poor lived in hideous, sunless tenements in the city, growing into ugly, withered people with children who are half-clad and under-fed. She felt that these people lived such a tough life for very poor returns, and that they should return to the countryside where life was simpler and their children could grow into noble individuals.

Question 6.
Why did Helen enjoy interacting with little children?
Answer:
Helen liked interacting with little children because they usually liked her and took her around, showed her things. She interacted with very small children who could not write on her hand, by reading their lips or by resorting to miming actions. She also enjoyed telling them stories and teaching them games.

Question 7.
Why did Helen enjoy watching plays even more than reading about them?
Answer:
Helen enjoyed having the play described to her while it was being enacted, because she felt as if she was living in the middle of those events. Moreover, it gave her the opportunity to meet the actors and actresses and by touching their costumes, she was able to understand the characters even better.

Question 8.
How did Helen play board games like chess and checkers?
Answer:
Helen played board games, specially designed for her. In the chess boards, the squares had been cut out so that the men stood firmly on them. The chessmen were of two different sizes, so that she could follow her opponent’s manoeuvres easily. In the game of checkers, the black checkers were flat, while the white ones were curved on top. Each checker had a hole in the middle, where a brass knob could be placed, to distinguish the king from the commoners.

Question 9.
How did Helen enjoy her visits to the museum?
Answer:
Helen enjoyed her museum visits as she was able to touch the objects, which helped her learn more about the world. Touching the sculptures also helped her identify the feelings and emotions of the sculptors who had carved them.

Question 10.
Though Helen described her happy times in this chapter, yet it ends on a solemn note. What does this reveal about Helen as a person?
Answer:
At the end of the chapter, Helen hints at the limitations of her world, which is dark and silent. She also speaks of her dependence on others to perceive the world and its beauty. It reveals the struggles that she had to face on a daily basis, and her determination to look at the brighter side of things and to make the most of the opportunities that came her way.

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The Story of My Life Summary Chapter 21

Helen writes about her love for reading books. She writes about her joy at reading classics like Iliad, Shakespeare’s plays. She also loved French and German literature. She found the stories in the Bible very uplifting.

In this chapter, Helen discusses her love for reading. She remembers reading a book at the age of seven years. She used her fingertips to read as many books as she could find. She started by reading the basic ’readers’ which she read so many times that the embossed words got worn out. Sometimes Miss Sullivan ‘read’ the stories by spelling onto her hand, but she preferred reading by herself. She started reading in earnest during her visit to Boston at the Perkins Institution.

She read the bopks from the library, bringing down all the books which caught her fancy. In the beginning, she read irrespective of whether she understood each word or not. As a result, she acquired a rich vocabulary, memorising words and sentences, many of which she did not really understand. When she was an eight year-old, she was found reading The Scarlet Letter by her teacher. The teacher had asked her if she liked little Pearl and then she told her that she had a beautiful story about a little boy which she was sure to like better than The Scarlet Letter.

The name of the story was Little Lord Fauntleroy and was the first book she understood and enjoyed. It was from this book that Helen dates the beginning of her true interest in books. Whenever Miss Sullivan stopped her ‘reading’ for a break, she would get upset because she was so absorbed in the story that even a short break made her feel deprived.

Later, Mr Anagnos got the story embossed and she read it till she learnt it by heart. She mentions a lot of books that helped her connect with the outside world. She did not enjoy the books which had morals, or where animals were given human traits. She did, however, enjoy reading the Greek classics. Her introduction to the Bible was not very memorable, but over time, she found the stories very absorbing and uplifting.

She enjoyed Shakespeare’s plays and also liked, books on history. She was fascinated by classic writers such as Homer and Virgil. She also talks of her appreciation for French and German literature. Literature thus became her Utopia.

The Story of My Life Summary Chapter 21 Questions and Answers

Question 1.
Why did Helen love books?
Answer:
Helen loved books, not only because they gave her pleasure, but also because through them, she received knowledge of the world around her.

Question 2.
Why was May 1887 an important month in Helen’s life?
Answer:
May 1887 was an important month for Helen because it was the month when she started reading her first connected story.

Question 3.
Why did she not read too many books in the beginning?
Answer:
Helen could not read too many books in the beginning because there were very few books in raised print for beginners.

Question 4.
Why did Helen like reading to herself more than when Miss Sullivan read to her?
Answer:
Helen liked reading herself because she could then read the stories she liked, over and over again. It offered her independence of choice.

Question 5.
How did her first visit to the Institution in Boston fuel her love for reading?
Answer:
At the Institution in Boston, Helen was allowed to spend a lot of time in the library, where she wandered from bookcase to bookcase, taking down whatever book her fingers lighted on. Thus, she was able to read whatever she wanted, which made her keen to read more.

Question 6.
Which book did Helen read while sitting on the hammock with Miss Sullivan?
Answer:
Helen read the book Little Lord Fauntleroy while sitting on the hammock with Miss Sullivan.

Question 7.
Why did Helen feel impatient when Miss Sullivan tried to explain any part of the story?
Answer:
Helen did not like the stories to be broken up with explanations because she thought they were unnecessary. She was content to hear the story without leaping into analysis or explanation of its events.

Question 8.
Why did Helen not enjoy fables?
Answer:
Helen did not like the fact that animals were made to talk and act like human beings. She also found it difficult to believe that animals like monkeys and foxes could teach humans the truths of life.

Question 9.
What was her view about other books featuring animals?
Answer:
Helen enjoyed reading books like The Jungle Book and Wild Animals I have Known, because the animals featured in these books were not caricatures of human beings. Moreover, the morals carried by these stories were subtle.

Question 10.
What did Helen enjoy about Greek literature and history?
Answer:
Helen had a special fascination for the Greek gods and goddesses. In fact, she loved them so much she almost worshipped them.

Question 11.
Why does Helen recommend The Iliad?
Answer:
Helen recommends The Iliad because of the enjoyment she got while reading it. She felt her soul being uplifted above the narrow circumstances of her life and it made her forget the physical limitations of her world.

Question 12.
What was Helen’s view about the Bible?
Answer:
At first, Helen did not find Bible interesting, but as she continued to read it, she found it very uplifting and inspiring. However, she found some parts in it objectionable.

Question 13.
What were Helen’s views on Shakespeare?
Answer:
Helen loved reading Shakespeare’s plays from childhood. Of all his plays, she was impressed by Macbeth the most. She was also deeply impacted by characters like King Lear and Shylock.

Question 14.
What did Helen think of anti-heroes like Shylock and Judas?
Answer:
Helen felt sorry for anti-heroes as she felt that they could not be good even if they wished to, because no one seemed willing to help them or to give them a fair chance.

Question 15.
Why did Helen call literature her “Utopia”?
Answer:
In the world of literature, Helen felt the happiest, as the books were her friends who spoke to her without any barriers or awkwardness. In spite of her blindness and deafness, she could interact with them through her fingers and they would reveal the world to her in a way that her senses could not

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The Story of My Life Summary Chapter 20

Helen writes about her entry to Radcliffe College and the challenges she faced while attending lectures and writing examinations.

Helen qualified to enter Radcliffe College. However, she took another year before she finally joined it. She began her studies with eagerness. But her romantic illusions about life in college slowly disappeared, as she realised its disadvantages. The biggest disadvantage was the lack of time to think and ruminate over all the facts and figures she was exposed to during lectures. Attending lectures became a challenge, and Miss Sullivan tried hard to pass on all the information to Helen.

The lectures were spelt into her hand as rapidly as possible, but the personal style of the lecturer was lost in the effort to keep up in the race. The words just rushed through her hand and there was no time for her to commune her thoughts. The chapter also expresses Helen’s growing despondency with the typewriter.

Very few books that were required for the various courses were printed for the blind and she had no other option but to have them spelt out in her hand. Helen fondly remembers her instructor in English composition who brought literature before her in all its originality and power.

She worked hard to overcome the frustrating obstacles in the path of her attaining knowledge, especially facing examinations which according to her were the chief bugbears of her college life.

The Story of My Life Summary Chapter 20 Questions and Answers

Question 1.
Why did Helen delay her admission to college?
Answer:
Helen delayed her admission because everyone advised her to study for another year with Mr Keith before joining college.

Question 2.
How did Helen feel on entering Radcliffe?
Answer:
At first, Helen was excited and happy to have realised her dream of studying at Radcliffe, but slowly she started feeling disillusioned and realised that there were many disadvantages of going to college.

Question 3.
What was the biggest disadvantage of college, according to Helen?
Answer:
Helen felt that the greatest disadvantage of college was the lack of time to think or reflect on what they were taught.

Question 4.
What does Helen mean when she says that she prefers “present day joy to hoarding riches against a rainy day”?
Answer:
Helen felt that college studies were so exhaustive that one hardly had enough time to understand and internalise all the available knowledge. Helen wished to leam at a slower pace and enjoy the present, than store all the knowledge to be understood sometime in the future.

Question 5.
How did Helen understand the lectures given by her professors? What were the disadvantages of this method?
Answer:
The lectures were spelled onto Helen’s hand as quickly as possible. The disadvantage of this method was that she had no time to pay any attention to the core of the subject or to understand the personality of the lecturers. She lost out on the flavour in a bid to know everything.

Question 6.
How did Helen write her answers?
Answer:
Helen wrote her answers on a typewriter. She used the Hammond typewriter, which had movable type . shuttle. It could be fitted with different shuttles, each with a different set of characters: Greek, French or mathematics, according to the subject she wanted to study.

Question 7.
What were the other challenges that Helen faced?
Answer:
Helen faced several problems. Very few of the books she needed were printed in Braille, which meant that all the information had to be spelt out on her hand. This made her learning quite time consuming.

Question 8.
Why did Helen enjoy her composition classes?
Answer:
The teacher, Mr Charles Townsend Copeland was a witty and vivacious man, whose lessons were always interesting. This made Helen enjoy the composition classes.

Question 9.
What made Helen enjoy the second year of college?
Answer:
Helen enjoyed the second year in college more, because she studied subjects like economics, Elizabethan literature, Shakespeare and philosophy, which made her feel happy.

Question 10.
Why did Helen object to elaborate explanations of the lessons by her teachers?
Answer:
Helen felt that too many explanations acted as a barrier to one’s appreciation of the text. She felt that one should be allowed to enjoy the texts on one’s own rather than have them dissected and analysed.

Question 11.
What were Helen’s views on reading just to pass the examinations?
Answer:
Helen felt that if one studied only to pass the exams, then it was like taxing ones brains without really understanding anything. Hence, the mind was unable to enjoy’and appreciate the beauty of the texts one was reading.

Question 12.
Why did Helen call exams the “bugbear” of her college life?
Answer:
Helen called exams the “bugbear” of college life because the thought of appearing for examinations made her very nervous. The day before the exam was spent memorising formulae and facts, until she was completely overwhelmed by them. Finally, in the exam hall when she tried to recall the facts, she would feel like she had forgotten everything.

Question 13.
What did Helen say she had learnt from her time spent in college?
Answer:
Helen said that she had learnt the importance of patience and the fact that learning cannot be rushed. She also found that knowledge was power, because true knowledge equips one to differentiate true from false and lofty from mean. These thoughts helped her understand how man has progressed through the centuries, towards more and more elevated thought.

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The Story of My Life Summary Chapter 19

Helen writes about the problems faced in the second year at Cambridge School. Due to differences between Mr Gilman and Miss Sullivan, Helen and Mildred were removed from the school. She talks about the challenges she faced in geometry and algebra.

In this chapter, Helen talks about the problems that she faced in the second year at the Cambridge School. She terms these problems as ‘unforseen difficulties’. These included lack of embossed books, important apparatus etc. She also records the disadvantages of being taught in a large class. She felt sorry about the pressure on Miss Sullivan to act as a go-between and fill in the gaps in Helen’s studies. In the meantime, Mr Gilman suggested that Helen should complete the course over five years instead of the three years taken by other students. However, Helen did not want to do so.

This point led to differences between Mr Gilman and Miss Sullivan, as a result of which both Helen and Mildred were removed from school by their mother. Helen continued studies under Mr Keith, a mathematician at Wrentham. She received individual lessons and thrived on them. For the first time in her life, she understood mathematics. She appeared for her examinations, writing in Braille. Though Braille worked well enough in other branches of mathematics, but difficulties arose in geometry and algebra. She faced a great challenge while using symbols in geometry and algebra.

The Story of My Life Summary Chapter 19 Questions and Answers

Question 1.
What were the difficulties that Helen faced in the second year at the school?
Answer:
Firstly, the books Helen needed were not embossed in time before her classes started. Secondly, the number of students in the class was very large and the instructors were unable to give her individual attention. Moreover, she found algebra and geometry difficult to follow and problems in physics difficult to solve till they brought in a Braille writer.

Question 2.
How did Helen deal with these problems?
Answer:
Helen’s problems became easier when her embossed books arrived. In addition, she started putting in greater effort to overcome her problems.

Question 3.
“I was beginning to overcome these difficulties when an event occurred which changed everything.” What event is Helen referring to?
Answer:
Helen, here, is referring to Mr Gilman’s opinion that Helen was being forced to study too hard and that she should remain in his school for three more years. However, Helen, herself, was keen to pass with the other girls in her batch. The problem escalated into a major disagreement between Mr Gilmore and Miss Sullivan. Finally Helen and her sister Mildred left the school and started tuition under a private tutor, Mr Keith, from Cambridge.

Question 4.
How did Helen learn algebra and geometry?
Answer:
Mr Keith taught Helen algebra and geometry twice a week, along with Greek and Latin. He was very patient and took lot of pains to teach her. He repeated his lessons till Helen was able to understand the concepts.

Question 5.
Why were Helen and Mr Keith distressed before the algebra exam?
Answer:
Helen used Braille to write her exams; but there were different versions of Braille. She was comfortable with English Braille, whereas the papers that were sent to her for practice were in American Braille, which she realised two days before her exams. Even though she tried hard to understand the symbols used in the version, she found it very confusing. Moreover, she could not see what she was typing which made solving algebra sums very hard. She was used to solving the sums in her mind and she found it hard to write in the exam papers.