Important Questions for Novel Helen Keller’s The Story of My Life

Important Questions for Novel Helen Keller’s The Story of My Life

QUESTIONS ON THEME AND PLOT

Q1. Evaluate Helen Keller’s ‘The Story of My Life’ as an autobiography, describing the struggles and achievements of her life.

Ans. Helen Keller’s famous autobiography ‘The Story of My Life’ explores the challenges she faced as a deaf and dumb child and her struggles of communicating with the world. The autobiography was dedicated to Alexander Graham Bell. He had taken a personal interest in Helen’s blindness and deafness. Helen Keller also shows her gratitude to her wonderful teacher Miss Sullivan. Helen Keller was born on a plantation in Tuscumbia, Alabama, on June 27, 1880 to Captain Keller. She contracted an illness which left her deaf and blind. By the age of seven, Helen had over sixty home signs to communicate with her family. In 1886, Helen Keller’s mother sent her to Dr. Chisolm and Graham Bell. Bell advised her parents to contact Perkins Institute for the Blind. The advent of Miss Sullivan was the most important event in her life. Anne Sullivan arrived in Keller’s house in March, 1887. She immediately began to teach Helen to communicate by spelling words into her hand. Gradually, she learnt from Miss Sullivan the names of all the familiar objects in her world. The autobiography describes graphically Helen’s herculean efforts to get an education. She entered The Cambridge School for Young Ladies before gaining admittance to Radcliffe College in 1990. She graduated from Radcliffe at the age of 24, in 1904. She was the first person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. One of Keller’s earliest pieces of writing was ‘The Frost King’ (1891) at the age of eleven. There were allegations that the story had been plagiarised from Margaret Canby’s ‘The Frost Fairies’. At the age of 22, Keller published ‘The Story of My Life (1903), written during her time in college. Keller depended on books for pleasure and wisdom. She started with ‘Little Lord Fauntleroy’. She went on to read ‘‘Greek Heroes’’, La Fontaine’s ‘‘Fables’’, Howthorne’s ‘‘Wonder Book’’, ‘‘Bible Stories’’, Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare, ‘‘The Arabian Nights’’ and ‘‘Robinson Crusoe. In ‘The Story of My Life’ Helen also writes about her pleasures and amusements. Swimming, rowing, canoeing on moonlight nights and sailing were her favourite amusements. Helen Keller had a sixth sense – ‘a soul sense’ which could see, hear, feel all in one. She loved to visit museums and art stores. Music and theatre thrilled her. In the end, the autobiography describes the important persons whom she valued more than anything else in life. They were Bishop Brooks, Henry Drummond, Dr. Everett Hale, Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, Mrs. Hutton, Dean  Howell’s and of course, Mark Twain. These were the persons and friends who had made the story of her life. They turned her limitations into beautiful privileges and achievements.

Q2. Describe the theme of Helen Keller’s ‘The Story of My Life’.

Ans. ‘The Story of My Life’ is based on the value of perseverance. It also glorifies the tireless and undying spirit of overcoming insurmounting  hurdles and obstacles in life. Due to sheer perseverance, a deaf and dumb child Helen Keller learnt to communicate and interact with the outerward in a meaningful way. There is no doubt that at moments she felt helpless and frustrated but Helen was determined to succeed. She was a wonderful fighter. Helen Keller overcame the seemingly insurmountable obstacles and blindness. She became an icon of perseverance and untiring struggle throughout the world. The autobiography ‘The Story of My Life’ was written when she was only 22 years old. Her autobiography ‘The Story of My Life’ still motivates and guides thousands of those unfortunate blind and deaf children for whom there is only darkness and silence in the world. She lived in her isolated world until Miss Sullivan came to open up a world of communication to her. Anne taught her manual sign language, braille and lip-reading. Helen’s achievements are awesome. She had a thirst for knowledge and her love for learning and books was intense. It is quite amazing how she could lead a productive and purposeful life with all her handicaps. Another important theme of the autobiography is the message that even the blind and the deaf can lead a wholesome, purposeful and exciting life. Helen Keller set an example for all the physically challenged, especially the deaf and the dumb. She became the first blind and deaf to earn a bachelor degree. She enjoyed reading Shakespeare, Dickens and had good grounding in Greek and Latin. She read almost all the leading French and German writers. She loved swimming, sailing, canoeing, visiting mountains and beaches. She had an inner eye that could feel the beautiful sights, sounds, inner and smells of Nature. She loved the company of the famous and great personalities of her times such as Alexander Graham Bell and Mark Twain.

Q3. Describe the plot or the structure of Helen Keller’s ‘The Story of My Life’.

Ans.Helen Keller’s ‘The Story of My Life’ was published in 1903 when she was at the age of twenty two. It includes the story of her life and was written during her time in Redcliffe College. The story of Keller’s ability to communicate despite of her insurmountable handicaps immediately fascinate people. Her story gives us an idea of what it means to be both deaf and blind. She faces extraordinary difficulties, limitations and handicaps with courage and grace. The plot or the storyline of ‘The Story of My Life’ covers only her childhood and young womanhood. The story of Helen Keller’s life is incomplete as she had more than sixty years yet to live. Her story serves as a model for what the physically disabled can accomplish. The storyline starts with the mysterious illness that left her deaf and dumb when she was just one and a half years old. The advent of Miss Sullivan changed the very course of her life. The first five chapters describe how Miss Sullivan taught her words by spelling them into her hands. In this way, she learnt words like ‘‘d-o-l-l’’, ‘‘s-i-t’’, ‘‘p-i-n’’, ‘‘h-a-t’’, ‘‘c-u-p’’, etc. The next important step in her education was learning to read. She learnt to speak in 1890. The winter of 1890 was darkened by the charge of plagiarism against her for writing ‘The Frost King’.Chapters XVI to XXI describe Helen’s struggle to read various subjects and languages and to get an education. She became the first deaf and blind to earn a university degree.

‘The Story of My Life’ devotes Chapter XXII to describe Helen’s pleasures and amusements. Swimming, rowing, canoeing, sailing were her thrilling pastimes. Blindness and deafness couldn’t rob her of her sixth sense—a soul sense which would see, hear, feel, all in one. The last chapter XXIII is devoted to great men of letters and friends like Bishop Brooks, Dr. Hale, Dr. Graham Bell, Mr. & Mrs. Hutton and of course, Mark Twain. They made the story of Helen’s life and transcended her limitations to new privileges and opportunities.

Q4. Describe Helen Keller’s early life before the advent of her teacher Miss Sullivan.

Ans. Helen Keller was born on a plantation in Tuscumbia, Alabama on June 27, 1880 to Captain Arthur Keller. Her father was a former officer of the Confederate Army. Helen was the first baby in the family. The happy days didn’t last long. In the month of February came the illness that closed her eyes and ears. Except for some fleeting memories, all seemed like a nightmare. But during the first nineteen months of her life she had caught faint glimpses of green fields, sky, trees and flowers. The darkness that followed could not wholly blot them out. Her hands started feeling every object and observed every motion. She started making crude signs to communicate with others. A shake of head meant ‘‘No’’ and a nod, meant ‘‘Yes’’. A push meant ‘‘Go’’ and a pull meant ‘‘Come’’. At five, she learned and understood a good deal of what was going on about her. She could fold her clothes  and wear them. She began to realise that she was different from other people. Her mother and friends didn’t use signs as she did but talked with their mouths. In those days, a little coloured girl, Martha, the daughter of her cook understood her signs. They spent a great deal of time kneading dough balls and feeding the hens and turkeys. Belle, her dog was her other companion. The family consisted of her father and mother, two older half-brothers, and afterwards, a little sister, Mildred. For a long time she regarded her sister an intruder as she had ceased to be her mother’s only darling.

Helen’s desire to express herself grew. Her failures to make herself understood was followed by outbursts of passion. Her mother’s only ray of hope came from Dickens’s ‘‘American Notes’’. She had read an account of Laura Bridgman who had been educated instead of being deaf and blind. At the age of six, Dr. Alexander Graham Bell advised her father to contact Mr. Anagnos, the director of the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston. Within a few weeks Mr. Anagnos gave a comforting assurance that a teacher, Miss Sullivan had been found to teach Helen. Naturally, the most important day in all her life was the one on which her teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan came. It was the third of March, 1887. And ‘the light of love shone’ on her in that very hour.

Q5. How was the advent of Anne Mansfield Sullivan, the most important day in her life? Describe the ‘immeasurable contrasts’ between the two lives which it connects’. How did Helen Keller react at her first meeting with Miss Sullivan?

Ans. Certainly, the advent of Anne Mansfield Sullivan was the most important day in Helen Keller’s life. Helen was filled with wonder when she considered the immeasurable contrasts before and after her arrival in her life. On that day she stood on the porch, dumb and expectant. She was like a ship at sea in a dense fog before her education began. ‘‘Light, give me light !’’ was the wordless cry of her soul. And the light of love shone on her in that very hour. She felt approaching footsteps and stretched out her hand. She was caught up and held close in the arms of her teacher. She had come to reveal the light of knowledge and above all, to love her.

Miss Sullivan gave her a doll sent by the little blind children at Perkins Institute. She spelled into her hand the word ‘‘d-o-l-l’’. Helen was at once interested in the finger play and tried to imitate it. When she was able to spell the words correctly, she was filled with childish pride and pleasure. In the days that followed she learnt to spell ‘pin’, ‘hat’, ‘cup’ and a few verbs like ‘sit’, ‘stand’ and ‘walk’. She understood that everything had a name. Gradually she came to know that a wordless sensation was called a ‘thought’. Somehow the mystery of language was revealed to her. She knew that ‘‘w-a-t-e-r’’ meant something cool that was flowing over her hand. The living word ‘awakened’ her soul. Each name gave birth to a thought. Helen learned a great many new words that day. These words made the world blossom for her, ‘like Aaron’s rod, with flowers.’’ For the first time Helen longed for a new day to come.

Q6. Describe the ‘slow and often painful process’ through which the deaf and blind child Helen Keller acquired the ‘key to all language’? How did she learn to spell and read words?

Ans.  It was really ‘a slow and often painful process’ through which the deaf and blind child Helen Keller acquired the key to ‘all language’. Children who can hear can acquire language without any special effort. The first word that her teacher, Miss Sullivan spelled into her hand was ‘‘d-o-l-l’’. In the days that followed she learned to spell many words like ‘‘pin’’, ‘‘hat’’, ‘‘cup’’ and a few verbs like ‘‘sit’’, ‘‘stand’’ and ‘‘walk’’. At that time she even didn’t know that everything has a name. Then she realised that a wordless sensation was called a ‘thought’. She understood that everything had a name and each name gave birth to a new thought. Miss Sullivan had taught her to find beauty in the fragrant woods and in every blade of grass. She linked Helen’s earliest thought with nature. She made her feel that ‘birds and flowers’ and she herself were ‘happy peers’.

Helen Keller’s ideas were vague and her vocabulary was inadequate. But as she learned more and more words her field of inquiry broadened. One morning she asked Miss Sullivan the meaning of the word ‘‘love’’. Miss Sullivan put her arm gently round her and spelled into her hand, ‘‘I love Helen’. ‘‘What is love?’’ she asked. Miss Sullivan drew her closer and pointing to her heart said, ‘‘It is here’’. Once Helen was finding difficulty in stringing beads of different sizes. She was puzzled. Miss Sullivan touched her forehead and spelled the word with decided emphasis, ‘‘Think’’. In a flash Helen knew that the word was the name of the process that was going in her head. Miss Sullivan had a wonderful faculty for description. Helen was not interested in the science of numbers. But Helen learnt from life itself. When Miss Sullivan came, everything about her breathed of love and joy and full of meaning.

Q7. Describe Helen Keller’s stay at the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston.

Ans.  It was Alexander Graham Bell who advised Helen’s parents to contact the Perkins Institute for Blind for her education. It was the institute where Laura Bridgman, a deaf and blind child had been educated. It was located in South Boston. Michael Anaganos, the director, asked former student Anne Sullivan to become Keller’s instructor. Miss Sullivan herself was visually impaired.

Helen made friends with the litle blind children. It was a unique pleasure to talk with other blind children in her own language. Until then she had been speaking through an interpreter like a foreigner. All the eager and loving children gathered round her and joined heartily in her frolics. They could read the books with their fingers. They were so happy and contented that she lost all sense of pain in the pleasure of their companionship. With the blind children she felt thoroughly at home in her new environment.

Helen learnt to speak in the spring of 1890. The impulse to utter audible sounds had always been strong within her. Mrs. Lamson, who had been one of Laura Bridgeman’s teachers came to see Helen. She had taught a deaf and blind child to speak in Norway. Helen resolved that she would learn to speak. Miss Fuller offered to teach her and gave eleven lessons in all. Her first connected sentence was, ‘‘It is warm.’’

Q8. When and how did Helen Keller learn to speak? How did she feel when she spoke to her mother and little Mildred after arriving home in Tuscumbia?

Ans.It was in the spring of 1890 that Helen Keller learned to speak. The impulse to utter audible sounds had always been strong within her. She used to make noises. She kept one hand on her throat while the other hand felt the movements of her lips. She was pleased with anything that  made a noise. It was her urge to feel the cat purr and the dog bark. She was entirely dependent on the manual alphabet. But she was determined to use her lips and voice. Friends discouraged her. But the story of Ragnhild Kaata inspired her to succeed. In 1890, Mrs. Lamson returned from Norway and came to see Helen Keller. She told her of a deaf and blind girl named Ragnhild Kaata. Mrs. Lamson had taught her to speak. Helen resolved that she too would  learn to speak. Miss Sullivan took Helen to Miss Sarah Fuller. She offered to teach her herself. Miss Fuller passed Helen’s hand over her face and let her feel the position of her tongue and lips when she made a sound. She was eager to imitate every motion and in an hour had learned six elements of speech: M, P, A, S, T, I. Miss Fuller gave eleven lessons in all. She was filled with delight and surprise when she uttered her first connected sentence. She uttered ‘‘It is warm.’’ They were broken and stammering syllables. But they were parts of a human speech. Miss Sullivan’s untiring patience and devotion helped her to progress towards natural speech.

Helen had leant to speak. At last, the happiest moment of her life arrived. The train stopped at the Tuscumbia station. The whole family stood at the platform. Her mother pressed her close to her trembling with  delight. Every syllable that Helen uttered delighted her. The little Mildred seized, kissed her hand and danced. Seeing his daughter uttering audible sentences, he expressed his pride and affection in a big silence.

Q9. How did Helen write a little story called ‘The Frost King’ and how was it received by Mr. Anagnos of the Perkins Institute for the Blind? Why did Helen call the incident a dark ‘cloud’ in her ‘childhood’s bright sky?’ Was Helen guilty of plagiarism?

Ans.  A little story, ‘The Frost King’ which Helen Keller wrote and sent to Mr. Anagnos, created a lot of trouble for her. It was like a dark cloud in her childhood’s bright sky’. For a long time she lived in anxiety, doubt, fear and shame. She was accused of plagiarism.

Helen Keller wrote the story when she was at home. Miss Sullivan described to her the beauties of the late foilage. Her descriptions revived the memory of a story which must have been read to her. Helen must have retained that story unconsciously. When the story was finished, she read it to her teacher. At dinner the story was read to the assembled family. They were surprised that Helen could write so well. It was her story and she had written it for Mr. Anagnos. She sent it to him on his birthday. Mr. Anagnos was delighted  with ‘‘The Frost King’’ and published it in one of the Perkins Institute reports. It was discovered that a story similar to ‘‘The Frost King’’ called ‘The Frost Fairies’ by Miss Margaret T. Canby had already appeared. Actually it was published in a book called ‘‘Birdie and His Friends’ even before Helen was born. The two stories were very much alike in thought and language. It was evident that Miss Canby’s story had been read to Helen. Helen’s story, ‘The Frost King’ was a plagiaris Mr. Anagnosis thought that he had been deceived. Helen tried to explain her position. But he turned a deaf ear to the pleadings of love and innocence. He suspected that Helen Keller and Miss Sullivan had deliberately stolen the bright story of Miss Canby. Helen was brought before a court of investigation. She was questioned and cross-questioned. As she lay in her bed that night, she wept and her spirit was broken. In her trouble she received many messages of love and sympathy. Miss Canby herself wrote kindly.‘‘Someday you will write a great story out of your own head,……’’

Q10. Describe Helen Keller’s visit to Niagara in 1893 and her visit to the World’s Fair with Dr. Alexander Graham Bell.

Ans.  The chief events of the year 1893 were Helen Keller’s visits to Niagara and the World’s Fair. She went to Niagara in March, 1893. It was a unique experience for her. It was difficult to describe her emotions when she stood on the point which overhangs the American Falls. She felt air vibrate and the earth tremble.

It might seem strange to many people that a blind and deaf girl should be impressed by the wonders and beauties of Niagara. What could that beauty and music meant to her? How could a blind and deaf girl see the waves rolling up the beach or hear their roar? To Helen Keller visiting Niagara was an uplifting experience.

During the summer of 1893, Helen Keller visited the World’s Fair with Miss Sullivan and Dr. Alaxander Graham Bell. She recalled those days when her childish fancies became beautiful realities. She saw many wonders from different parts of the world. All the marvels of invention, industry and the activities of human life actually passed under her finger tips. There she could feel the glories of India with its ‘Shivas and elephant gods’. There was the land of the Pyramids with long processions of camels. The President of the World’s Fair gave her the permission to touch the exhibits. Everything fascinated her, especially the French  bronzes. Dr. Bell went everywhere with them. He in his own delightful way described to Helen the objects of greatest interest. All these experiences added a great many new words in Helen’s vocabulary. It matured her to appreciate ‘the real and the earnest in the workaday world.’

Q11. Describe Helen Keller’s struggle at the Cambridge School to be prepared for Radcliffe College. How did she succeed in her mission?

Ans.   In October, 1896, Helen Keller entered the Cambridge School for Young Ladies. Her mission was to get herself prepared for Radcliffe. Even when she was a little child, she surprised her friends with an announcement. She declared that someday she would go to college—to Harvard. It was decided that she should go to Cambridge so that she could get to Harvard. At Cambridge her plan was to have Miss Sullivan attend the classes with her and interpret to her the instruction given. Her studies for the first year were English history, English literature,  German, Latin, Arithmetic, Latin composition and occasional themes.

There were serious drawbacks to her progress. Miss Sullivan could not spell into her hands all that books required. She had another difficulty. She couldn’t get textbooks embossed in time. Each day Miss Sullivan went to the classes with her and spelled into her hand all that the teachers said with patience. She took a specialdelight in Schiller’s wonderful lyrics and Goethe. She read  Shakespeare, Burke and the ‘Life of Samuel Johnson’. She took her preliminary examinations for Radcliffe in July 1897. She passed in everything, and received ‘‘honours’’ in German and English. In the second year at the Gilman school she confronted unforseen difficulties. The books in mathematics were not embossed in time. Little by little, difficulties began to disappear. For eight months she received coaching at home and the preparation for the college went on without interruption. She took her final examination on 30th June, 1899 but her dream of entering Radcliffe was fulfilled only in the fall of 1900.

Q12. Describe Helen Keller’s experience at Radcliffe. Why did she say, ‘But college is not the universal Athens I thought it was?’

Ans. The first day at Radcliffe was very exciting. She had looked forward to it for years. She  started her studies with eagerness and hope. She felt within her the capacity to know all things. The lecture-halls seemed filled with the spirit of the great and the wise. The professors were the embodiment of wisdom. But soon Helen Keller realised that ‘college was not quite the romantic lyceum’ she had imagined. Many of her dreams ‘‘faded into the light of common day.’’ Gradually she began to realise that there were disadvantages in going to college.

Helen soon realised that one goes to college to ‘learn’ and not to ‘think’. In the college, there was no time to communicate with one’s thoughts. In the classroom she was practically alone. The professors were as remote as they were speaking through a telephone. The lectures were spelled in her hand as rapidly as possible. The significance and meaning of the lecturer got lost in her effort to keep in the race. Very few of the books required in the various courses were printed for the blind. She was obliged to have them spelled into her hand. As a result, she took more time to prepare her lessons than other girls. But there were exceptions too. Scholar like Kittredge would loving back Shakespeare ‘‘as if new sight were given to the blind.’’ She felt like the proverbial bull in the china shop. ‘A thousand odds and ends of knowledge came crashing about her head like hailstones.’ Helen discovered that ‘college is not the universal Athens’ she thought it was. There one doesn’t meet the great and wise face to face. One does not even feel their living touch. They seem mummified. But Helen never gave up the precious science of patience. She took her education as she would take a walk in the country, leisurely.

Q13. Helen Keller ‘depended on books not only for pleasure and for the wisdom they bring to all who read, but also for that knowledge which comes to others through their eyes and ears.’ Justify the statement highlighting her interest in various authors and their books.

Ans. Helen Keller had a passion for books. She started reading when she was just seven years old. From that age she had constantly ‘devoured’ every printed page that came within her reach. She didn’t study regularly nor according to rule. At first she read a few books like ‘Our World’ in raised print. She preferred reading herself to being read to. She began to read in good earnest during her first visit to Boston. She wandered from bookcase to bookcase in the library to pick up books of her choice. The words themselves fascinated her. Her true interest in books started from ‘Little Lord Fauntleroy’. Then she read ‘Greek Heroes’, ‘‘Fables’’, ‘‘Bible stories’’, Lamb’s ‘Tales from Shakesperare’, ‘The Arabian Nights’, ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’, ‘Robinson Crusoe’, ‘Little Women’ and ‘Heidi’. The stories in which animals were made to talk like human beings never appealed to her. But she loved ‘The Jungle Book’ and ‘Wild Animals’ because they were real animals and not caricatures of men. She loved antiquity and ancient Greece with pagan gods and goddesses fascinated her. Greek poetry suited her responsive heart. Her admiration for ‘The Aenid’ was not so great as for Homer’s ‘Iliad’. The stories of the Greeks were full of charm for her and the stories of the Bible didn’t interest her so much. Shylock and Satan were her favourite characters. Next to poetry she loved history. Her favourites were: Green’s ‘History of English People’, Freeman’s ‘History of Europe’ and Swinton’s ‘World History’. She loved to read German literature for its strength, beauty and truth. Goethe’s ‘Faust’ fascinated her. Of all the French writers she loved to read Moliere and Racine best. She loved to read Mark Twain and Scott. In a word, literature was her ‘utopia’. No barriers of senses could shut her out from the sweet and gracious discourse of her book-friends.

Q14. Reading was not the only pleasure of Helen Keller; her pleasures and amusements were many and varied. Describe her favourite amusements and pleasures as mentioned in Chapter XXII of ‘The Story of My Life’.

Ans. No doubt, books fascinated Helen Keller but books were not the only pleasure for her. Right from her childhood she had special love for the country and out-of-door sports. She learned to row and swim at a young age. She liked to contend with wind and wave. She enjoyed canoeing, especially on moonlight nights. Sailing was her favourite amusement. The memories of it was a joy forever. She discovered that every man has a subconscious memory of the green earth and murmuring waters. Even blindness and deafness can’t rob him of the inherited capacity of the sixth sense. There is ‘a soul-sense that sees, hears, feels, all in one.’ All sensations reached her not through the eye and the ear but her whole body was alive to them.

Next to a leisurely walk in the countryside she enjoyed a ‘‘spin’’ on her bicycle. She loved her dog companions, particularly her bull tarriers. Her dog friends understood her limitations and always kept close to her when she was alone. Rainy days kept her indoors. She liked to knit and crochet. She loved to frolick with children. She could manage to read their lips. Museums and art stores were also sources of her pleasure and inspiration. Going to the theatre was a rare pleasure. It was her privilege to meet a few great actors and actresses. No doubt, sometimes a sense of isolation enfolded her like a cold mist. But then, all of a sudden came hope with a smile and whispers. So she tried to make the light in others’ eyes, her sun, the music in others’ ears, her symphony and the smile on others’ lips her happiness.

Q15. Who were the people, acquaintances and public figures who had helped and guided Helen Keller to transcend her limitations giving her a new purpose and happiness in her life? How did she show her indebtedness to them?

Ans. In the last chapter of ‘The Story of My Life’ Helen Keller sketches the names of all her friends, and public figures who contributed in making her life happy and purposeful. Their influences sweetened and ennobled her life. Helen disliked hypocrisy in human relations. A heart handshake or a friendly letter gave her genuine pleasure. Helen Keller counted it one of the sweetest privileges of her life to have known and conversed with many men of genius. She enjoyed the joy of Bishop Brooks’ friendship. As a child She loved to sit on his knee and clasp his great hand. He impressed upon her mind two great ideas—the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. She remembered meeting Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes. She saw Holmes many times and learned to love the man as well as the poet. His gentle courtesy won her heart. Dr. Edward Everett Hale was one of her very oldest friends. She had known him since she was eight and her love for him increased with her years. He had been a prophet and the inspirer of men.

Helen Keller could never forget the contribution of Dr. Alexander Graham Bell in shaping her life. He had advised her parents to send Helen to the Perkins Institute for the Blind. She had spent many delightful hours listening to him about his experiments. He had a humorous and poetic side and loved children passionately. During her two years stay in New York she had many opportunities to talk with distinguished people. She met Laurence Hutton and Mrs. Hutton. He introduced Helen to his literary friends like William Dean Howells and Mark Twain. They were also gentle and sympathetic. Twain had his own way of thinking, saying and doing things. To sum up, Helen Keller remembered all those friends, acquaintances and public figures who made the story of her life. They turned her limitations into beautiful privileges and opportunities.

CHARACTER SKETCH OF HELLEN KELLER

 Helen Keller was born on 27th June 1880 in Tuscumbia in Alabama. Her father, Arthur H. Keller, was a descendant of Caspar Keller who was a native of Switzerland. He was a captain in the confederate army. Helen’s mother was Kate Adams who was Arthur’s second wife and was many years younger. At the age of nineteen months, Helen became very ill with brain fever. When the fever subsided, Helen was left blind and deaf forever. Helen was quite eager to learn. Despite her handicap she had learnt some crude signs of communication and also how to fold the clothes etc. later, she showed exceptional capabilities for learning and very soon could learn to read, write or even speak. She had voracious passion for learning, knowledge and exploration.

Like Wordsworth, she learnt to find solace in nature and its peaceful serenity. Her power of observation was commendable. How beautifully she has described the details of her observations! Even those with eyes and ears cannot describe as beautifully as she has done. Natural beauty was abundant around her house. The Keller homestead was quite near a rose- bower. Its old fashioned garden was the paradise of her childhood. Before Miss Sullivan's arrival, this garden was the place where Helen went to find comfort and hide her hot face in the cool leaves and grass. Helen felt extremely happy in that garden of flowers, wandering happily from spot to spot. She could recognize each vine and plant by touching them.  

Helen was a prodigy child since her early childhood! However, the challenges she faced were quite arduous---as if Nature had planned a special obstacle course for her to help her bring her best out! After being rendered blind and disabled in hearing and speaking, Helen's frustration to learn more and more about life mounted very high. Her hearing disability combined with visual disability made the teaching and learning more challenging. Helen was a very industrious girl; she always did her best to learn. She had such a natural, innate passion for learning which always motivated her. Manual alphabet, reading, arithmetic, etc., all were formidable challenges for her initially, but Helen overcame them. The most arduous of all of them was learning to speak. Learning to speak is almost an impossible task for those who  have hearing disability. So Helen had to work very hard. She had to repeat each word and sentence many times for the right tone and pronunciation. She practiced untiringly. At times she became discouraged and weary too, but she never gave up. She faced all the difficulties courageously. Her courage and perseverance are source of inspiration for all mankind!

Rally for Rivers

This is not a protest. This is not an agitation. This is a campaign to raise awareness that our rivers are depleting.  Everyone who consumes water must Rally For Rivers. –Sadhguru

The Interact club of Arvnid Gupta DAV Centenary Public School joined Rally for Rivers project , a nationwide awareness campaign to revive our rivers .The students and staff members pledged to support the Rally for Rivers project by giving a missed call on 800098009 .

PREIODIC 2

                                   




                         ALL THE VERY BEST TO ALL 

THE STORY OF MY LIFE( AUDIO BOOK)

THE STORY OF MY LIFE( AUDIO BOOK)

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https://archive.org/details/story_keller_librivox

THREE MEN IN A BOAT CLASS IX  Chapter 1-11)

Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) Summary

Summary

Preface

Jerome introduces his book as being commendable nor for its style or relevance, but rather for its straightforward truth. He insists that the boat trip he details actually took place, and that the characters he speaks of are actual humans, not literary constructions.

Chapter 1

The narrator, J., is smoking in his room with his friends, George and William Samuel Harris, and his dog Montmorency. The men, all hypochondriacs, are chatting about their latest illnesses, each man certain that he is in danger of death or serious disease.

In a flashback, J. recollects how he once went to the British Museum to research a treatment for his hay fever, and after reading about diseases, convinced himself that he was suffering from every illness known to man except for housemaid’s knee. J.’s doctor, clearly recognizing the man's paranoia, prescribed him beefsteak, beer, walking, and good sleep habits, and urged him not to “stuff up your head with things you don’t understand” (10).

J. still believes that he suffers from every disease, but he is especially concerned about his ‘liver condition’ – the main symptom of which is “a general disinclination to work of any kind” (10).

The friends decide that taking a vacation together would restore their health, and debate locations for a week-long excursion. J. suggests a rural, old-world spot, but Harris wishes to avoid remote locations and counters with the suggestion of a sea cruise. J. vetoes that idea because one week is not enough time to overcome seasickness and actually enjoy the trip. He notes to the reader that no one admits to being seasick on land, but that many people have trouble with it when actually on a ship. George suggests taking a boat trip down the Thames, an idea that everyone approves. Though J. worries that Montmorency will get bored in the boat, they decide to bring him along anyway.

The men begin to make plans for their boat trip. George and J. want to camp along the river, believing that sleeping outside will offer a true escape from the city. J. writes sentimentally and poetically about the beauty and power of nature.

However, Harris points out that camping would be unpleasant if it rains, so they decide to camp on nights with good weather and sleep in inns when the weather is poor. J. believes Montmorency will prefer hotels because they offer more excitement and stables that the dog can run around in. J. explains to the reader that Montmorency’s adorable appearance endears him to everyone who meets him, but he is actually a hyperactive troublemaker.

The men leave for a pub, to further discuss arrangements for the trip.

Chapter 3

At the pub, they compile a list of what they need to pack. Harris volunteers to write out the list, and J. compares him for the reader to his Uncle Podger, who always volunteers to help others but bungles the job because he is so accident-prone. Further, Uncle Podger ends up causing more work for everyone else because of his general incompetence. To illustrate his point, J. tells a lengthy story about how Uncle Podger once caused chaos for his entire household when trying to complete the simple task of hammering a nail into the wall.

Because the men do not want to leave anything behind, the list soon becomes ridiculously long. George suggests that they bring only the things they cannot do without, and they agree to travel light, even deciding to bring a cover a sleep in the boat so that they do not need to pack a tent. George promises that it will be easy to wash their clothes in the river with a bit of soap, and J. and Harris trust him (although J. notes that they will later regret this).

Analysis

Three Men in a Boat straddles multiple genres, largely without drawing any attention to its tonal shifts. When the book was published in 1889, critics were not quite sure what to make of it. Superficially at least, it is structured as travel guide. Today, travel guides are often presented as reference works, and are not meant to be read cover-to-cover. In the nineteenth century, however, it was common for works of this genre to be written as one long itinerary. Jerome initially intended Three Men in a Boat to be a serious travel narrative, but his humorous digressions eventually become so prominent that the book was reconceived as a comic novel. What is most fascinating, though, is that there are still serious and honest passages that reflect the original intention, which creates a notable mix of tones. Because of this, modern and nineteenth-century critics alike tend to deride the book as uneven.

Jerome’s two main modes of humor are satire and observational humor. Satire is a mode of writing the uses irony to criticize society. It is often humorous, but does not necessarily have to be. Although some satirical novels are very dark, Jerome’s lighthearted satire is mostly concerned with illustrating and gently mocking the pretensions and hypocrisies of certain social conventions.

Observational humor sometimes overlaps with satire, especially in this case. It is a type of humor that draws its subject matter from human behavior and daily life, attempting to show the absurdity of human behavior by focusing of everyday, banal details. One example of observational humor is Jerome’s discussion of people who claim never to get seasick. The digression is meant to illustrate how most people present themselves as one type of person, in a way that's almost expected, even if they are all quite different.

In fact, the frequent use of this type of humor does provide a fairly consistent absurdist worldview. Most of Jerome's irony suggests that people are usually unaware of the extent to which they delude themselves. For instance, J.'s tone reveals that he clearly understands that he does not suffer from so many diseases, and yet he continues to progress as though it were true. Throughout the novel, Jerome revels in illustrating the illusions that men and women construct, usually fooling themselves most of all. Even though the novel remains rooted in everyday concerns, Jerome sees a regular absurdist vein that runs throughout them.

In fact, the Preface itself can be revisited after reading the text and seen as a joke itself. First, Jerome did not actually have a dog that he brought on the trip, which immediately contradicts the preface's insistence on its simple truth. In fact, the story is as fictional as it is factual. However, even without knowing this fact, the preface's humility reads as somewhat silly and false, as though he were saying 'I just wrote what happened.' He insists he will not use literary tropes, though he does so frequently (although sometimes to mock them). Despite its seeming simplicity, the Preface provides a microcosm of the novel's contradiction between irony and earnestness.

Chapter 2 features the book’s first significant instance of Jerome’s alternation between lighthearted humor and sentimental description. His long-winded description of nature's beauty is very different from the humorous passages in both tone and style. One could be forgiven for being momentarily confused, for looking through these descriptions for some sense of irony that they lack. Tonally, the description is very serious, and takes an idealistic, uncritical view of nature. Jerome’s style also changes dramatically. While the humorous passages are clear, concise, and conversational, Jerome uses very formal and flowery diction in the descriptive sections here. He relies heavily on the detailed, syntactically complex writing style that was common in ‘literary’ Victorian prose.

Jerome’s attitude toward nature is strongly influenced by Romanticism, a movement in literature and visual art that peaked in the first half of the nineteenth-century. It emphasized the beauty and majesty of nature, and encouraged people to privilege emotion over logic. Jerome’s Romantic influence can be seen in his sentimental view of nature and his professed distaste for modernity.

And yet it is the foibles of modernity and civilization that provide most of the novel's push. These are clearest in Jerome's digressions, which he frequently uses to go on extended comedic 'riffs.' These riffs are often quite notable and distinct from anything else in the novel. The Uncle Podger section is a perfect example. Though it initially serves to illustrate a point about Harris, it quickly becomes its own segment, an almost slapstick scene. Once Jerome establishes the irony - that sometimes the most helpful person proves the least helpful - it becomes all about gags. Further, the Uncle Podger section features a very different set of characters. While J. and his friends are privileged, urban gentlemen, Uncle Podger is the head of a large country family. When it was first published, Three Men in a Boat was criticized for pandering to working-class readers (“My Life” 75). Digressions like the Uncle Podger anecdote are what inspired this criticism.

However, Jerome’s digressions are not always overtly comedic. Many of the sentimental passages about the beauty of nature are also digressions, and Jerome's criticism of materialistic people has a serious edge as well (26-27). Of course, that passage employs a wry irony even despite its formal, serious language, since the speaker is clearly as materialistic as the people he criticizes. J. briefly breaks the fourth wall and acknowledges this irony when the narrator stops himself and writes: “I beg your pardon really. I quite forgot” (27). In other words, he discovers yet another illusion that he uses for himself.

Finally, it is worth noting that the digressive structure gives the novel a stream-of-consciousness style, as though Jerome were constructing it as he went along. While it is possible that this is entirely accurate, it is equally plausible that Jerome means deliberately to explore a variety of approaches and subjects, all with an eye on entertainment. If so, then the style could be more suitably likened to that of a contemporary stand-up comedian than to more 'traditional' Victorian novels.

Summary

Chapter 4

Continuing to plan, the friends discuss what they will need for cooking. Although paraffin oil stoves are more common, they decide to bring a methylated spirit stove, remembering how the paraffin oil had oozed everywhere on a previous boat trip.

Back at his house, J. volunteers to pack the clothes, believing himself an exceptionally efficient packer. However, he keeps forgetting items, and then has to unpack in order to fit them in. To the reader, he expounds briefly on his habit of losing his toothbrush when traveling.

Harris and George watch J. pack with great amusement, and volunteer to pack the food when J. finally finishes. They are no better at it – they constantly forget items, and Harris steps in the butter. Throughout it all, they keep tripping over Montmorency. After some bickering, they finish, and assign George to wake them up at 6:30 the next morning.

Chapter 5

However, they oversleep, only waking when Mrs. Poppets comes in at nine. Harris and J. are greatly irritated with George, and their mood grows worse when they learn that the day’s weather forecast is poor. J. digresses to complain about how often weather forecasts are inaccurate. He also concocts a hypothetical story about staying inside when the forecasts predict rain and missing a beautiful day, and then believing the forecast of sun the next day, but ending up wet.

When they finally depart, the greengrocer’s errand-boy mocks them for their immense amount of luggage. As the men wait for a taxi, passers-by speculate about where they are going. Eventually, they hail a taxi to the train station, but none of the conductors there know which train they should take. When one conductor tells them that nobody knows where the trains are supposed to go, they give him a half-crown bribe and luckily end up heading towards Kingston, disembarking when they reach the river.

Chapter 6

As the men row through Kingston, J. provides some background on the area. (Although Kingston is now a suburb and part of Greater London, it would have been an independent town when Jerome wrote Three Men in a Boat in 1889.) J. describes how many of the pubs in this area claim that Queen Elizabeth dined there. He also tells about a shop that boasts a beautiful carved oak staircase, which the present owner has covered in blue wallpaper.

J. uses this as an occasion to meditate on how people always want what they cannot have, and do not want the things they do have. He recalls a former classmate named Stivvings, who was dedicated to his studies but was often too sick to complete his work. Meanwhile, the other boys hoped to get sick to avoid schoolwork, and became sick only when vacation came around. Returning to the subject of the oak staircase, J. writes at length about how people in the future will consider quotidian objects like dinner-plates and cheap figurines as priceless works of art, much as his contemporaries consider the day-to-day objects of prior civilizations to be priceless.

In the boat, Harris and Montmorency accidentally spill the contents of the food hamper. As they row past Hampton Court, J. initially marvels at the building’s beauty, but then decides that it would be too dark and depressing to live in all the time.

Harris tells his friends about the time he attempted the hedge maze at Hampton Court. The map, given out in advance, seemed quite simple, so that Harris was confident he could easily best the maze. His confidence attracted a mob of 20 people who were lost in the maze, and they turned on him when he realized the maze was more complicated than he thought it was. They wandered for a long time, until a young groundskeeper came to fetch them, and got lost himself. An older groundskeeper eventually guided them out.

The men agree to send George through the maze on their return trip.

Analysis

J.’s digressions serve multiple functions. Most importantly, they give Jerome the opportunity to experiment with different types of humor. In both the paraffin oil and the cheese stories, Jerome uses hyperbole – that is, exaggeration – to turn mundane experiences into comedy. The difficulty with packing provides an opportunity for slapstick, while the discussion of weather men is one commonly heard even today.

The digressions also help to characterize J. Because the plot ofThree Men in a Boat is so tightly focused on George, Harris, and J.’s trip down the river, J.’s digressions and flashbacks give readers a chance to learn about his past and his personal qualities.

One thing we learn about J. is that he is a classic unreliable narrator. Jerome conveys this to readers by using dramatic irony – that is, situations where the readers understand what is going on even when the speaker does not. As previously discussed, one example of this is J.'s discussion of his diseases in Chapter 1. Readers are supposed to understand that J. is a hypochondriac, not that he is actually ill. The dramatic irony is not limited to J.’s understanding of his surroundings; it also applies to his tone. For example, J. writes with apparent earnestness that he “can’t sit still and see another man slaving and working” (36). Attentive readers will know from previous chapters that this is not true. The disconnect is meant to show us that J. is pompous and hypocritical, qualities that Jerome tends to play for laughs. Again, this particular point - that people construct illusions to fool themselves - continues to manifest throughout the novel.

And yet the novel is notable for several more serious digressions as well. Chapter 5, for instance, gives readers a brief glimpse of why J. dislikes urban life so much. As George, Harris, and J. travel through London on their way to the Thames, they encounter a wide variety of people, most of whom are unsavory and vulgar. Rather than helping the men with their bags, they mock them and speculate rudely about where they are traveling. The confusion at the train station is another example of the hectic confusion that J. is trying to escape. Despite the jovial tone of the novel, one can sense a pervasive cynicism about people, a cynicism that often extends even to the people who are ostensibly his friends.

By this point in the text, readers may begin to wonder why J. constantly criticizes Harris. Harris will continue to be J.’s proverbial ‘punching bag’ throughout the text. “On second thoughts,” Jerome writes, “I will not repeat what Harris said. I may have been to blame, I admit it; but nothing excuses violence of language and coarseness of expression, especially in a man who has been carefully brought up, as I know Harris has been” (55).

Part of the reason for this criticism is to demonstrate J.’s hypocrisy; he himself is guilty of many of the character flaws he attributes to Harris. Harris also provides Jerome with an outlet for slapstick and insult comedy, which does not always fit into J.’s wry observational humor. Through Harris, Jerome gets an opportunity to cater to readers who might not be interested in J.’s ironic satire. But finally, by using one of his friends as an antagonist, Jerome is able to more effectively deliver his light but cynical worldview.

Jerome’s editorializing – about both London and about life in general – is typical for a travel narrative from this period. According to the scholar Mulreann O’Cinneide, Victorian travel writers often used travel as a platform to express their views on other topics. There was a precedent for this in fiction as well. Gulliver’s Travelsand Candide, both immensely popular in England throughout the nineteenth century, are both satires disguised as fictional travel narratives. As the critic Samuel Pickering points out, the travel narrative and the comic novel have similar purposes and structures. Travel narratives make foreign life seem familiar, and comic novels turn a critical eye on the familiar and make it seem foreign (Pickering 678). By this point in Three Men in a Boat, a reader can discern that Jerome was, intentionally or not, pursuing both of these ends at the same time.

Summary

Chapter 7

After passing Hampton Court, the men row through a lock — that is, a section of the river where the levels are lowered or raised between gates, to regulate traffic and water flow. This particular lock attracts many picnickers and pleasure-boaters, and J. remarks how nice it is to see people dressed up in their summer clothes. However, he criticizes his friends’ outfits – Harris has chosen to wear yellow, which does not suit him, and George has bought an ugly new blazer for the trip.J. digresses to consider how women’s boating clothes tend to be pretty but impractical. He recounts a time he and a friend took several women rowing. The women wore such delicate clothes that even a drop of water would stain them, and they were unable to have fun on the trip because they were concerned about ruining their outfits.

The boat nears Hampton Church, and Harris proposes stopping to visit the graveyard, where someone named Mrs. Thomas is rumored to have a funny tombstone. J. protests, as he finds cemeteries depressing. For the reader, he recounts a time that he visited one with his friends. He refused to enter, and insulted the groundskeeper rudely when the man offered to show him the graveyard’s points of interest.

However, Harris insists on visiting the tombstone. George has gone into town to run some errands for the bank where he works. J. and Harris bicker about whether to visit the cemetery, and Harris decides he needs a drink. While trying to find the whiskey bottle, he falls head-first into the food hamper.

Chapter 8

Harris and J. stop to eat lunch by the side of the river. A man appears and accuses them of trespassing, threatening to report them to the landowner. Harris – a large man – physically intimidates the visitor until he leaves. J. explains to the reader that the man was expecting a bribe, and most likely did not work for the landowner at all. He adds that these attempts at blackmail are common along the banks of the Thames, and that tourists should avoid paying people who do this.

J. then launches into a diatribe on the violence he would like to inflict on landowners who actually do enforce trespassing laws on tourists like himself, since their claim at owning the river is specious in his mind. J. shares his feelings with his friends, and Harris insists that he feels more anger towards the owners than J. does. J. chides Harris for his intolerance, and tries to convince him to be more Christian.

During their conversation, Harris mentions that he would sing a comic song while hunting the owners, so J. then digresses to explain how Harris believes himself a fine singer of comic songs, while he is actually quite terrible at it. He tells the reader of a party where Harris demanded he be allowed to sing, and then embarrassed himself and the piano players who tried to help him. Jerome relates part of this section in play-form.

J. then digresses to tell of a time he and others embarrassed themselves at a party. Two German guests, whom everyone was mostly ignoring, interjected to insist that a colleague of theirs could sing the funniest German songs they had ever heard. They offered to fetch him, and the man soon arrived to play. Though it turned out that his song was actually tragic, J. and the other guests laughed constantly, thinking it polite to do so. However, they actually angered the pianist, and the two German liars escaped before the song was finished, having played their practical joke.

The boat approaches Sunbury, where the backwaters flow in the opposite direction. J. recounts another boat trip on which he tried to row upstream in this area, but was only able to keep the boat in the same place. He lists a few points of interest around Sunbury and Reading, including a Roman encampment from the time of Caesar, a church that holds a torture instrument called a ‘scold’s bridle,’ and a dog cemetery.

When Harris and J. arrive at the village of Shepperton, they reunite with George, who surprises them by announcing that he has bought a banjo.

Analysis

In Chapter 7, Jerome sends up the same Romantic writing conventions that he seemed to embrace in the novel’s earlier chapters. He writes:

It was a lovely landscape. It was idyllic, poetical, and it inspired me. I felt good and noble. I felt I didn’t want to be sinful and wicked any more. I would come and live here, and never do any more wrong, and lead a blameless, beautiful life, and have silver hair when I got old, and all that sort of thing (64).

The lyrical descriptions in this passage are typical of Romantic writing, as is the notion that nature can bring out a person’s best self. Because of these qualities, the passage is similar to other sentimental descriptions that appear in the novel. However, Jerome shows a sense of self-awareness here that he does not always demonstrate elsewhere. By wrapping up the description with “all that sort of thing,” he suggests an ironic distance from Romantic conventions, and gently mocks their sentimentality even as he seems to sincerely embrace their ideas. To connect this to one of the novel's other primary themes, he seems to gently suggest that this embrace of nature as a manifestation of man's best self is simply another illusion that we use.

These chapters also reveal more of J.'s meanness of spirit. He mocks the outfits of both of his friends, and mercilessly insults the graveyard custodian in a flashback. In a more serious novel, episodes like these might affect J.’s relatability; however, Jerome instead makes his narrator’s flawed personality a source of comedy. This may be one reason why critics derided Three Men in a Boat as “vulgar” when it was first released (“My Life” 75). In the Victorian era, many readers and critics expected fictional characters to be either role models or explicit villains (Golden 9). Although Jerome was certainly not the only author from this period to write about an unpleasant protagonist, his decision was nevertheless bold in upending contemporary readers’ expectations.

Of course, most of his meanness is reserved for Harris. Even in cases where he mocks Harris, however, Jerome uses the opportunity to make larger satirical points. For instance, his lengthy flashback about the party satirizes the pretensions of the middle class. After Harris concludes his song, the “fashionable and highly cultured party” engaged in a variety of ‘high-class’ activities, including discussing philosophy and speaking German (72). He then connects this latter activity to a later party, where it was revealed that the pretension to speaking German was only an illusion. In fact, when everyone laughed mistakenly at the tragic song, they showed that their behavior was dictated solely by custom, and not by any perception of what was actually happening. Through his wry descriptions of these parties, Jerome suggests that people do these activities not out of a love of learning, but rather to bolster their image and seem more ‘upper-class’ than they really are. Yet again, one can get a glimpse of why proper critics derided this novel as "vulgar," since it mocks the very pretensions that a Victorian novel was supposed to uphold.

The interlude where Harris attempts to sing also draws extensively on Jerome’s background in the theatre. In his early twenties, Jerome acted in a low-budget, traveling theatre troupe. (In fact, his memoir about the experience was his first book to achieve popular success.) The passage – which is written like a script and even includes stage directions – was undoubtedly inspired by Jerome’s own love of drama. The awkwardness between Harris, the audience, and the pianist also suggests a firsthand knowledge of bad performance. Because Jerome’s troupe was very amateurish, it is entirely possible that Harris’s failed performance has an autobiographical basis.

Finally, it is worth noting that the novel continues to straddle its multiple genres. There are several geographic descriptions in these chapters that conform to the travel genre, there are plenty of comic interludes, and there are more serious discussions, especially that of the landowners who charge for boats that rest on the river. And yet Jerome seems to rely on comedy to provide the transitions - notice the irony of his discussion with Harris about wanting to hurt the landowners. When Harris confesses similar sentiments, J. immediately chides him for his ill will, even though he had only just before confessed such violent thoughts to us. We are not meant to doubt the truth of his feelings, but rather to enjoy and laugh at the discussion even while processing it.

Summary

Chapter 9

Since George has been away from the boat all day, Harris and J. assign him to untangle the tow-line while they make tea. To the reader, J. explains how easily tow-lines become tangled. On long journeys like this, it is common for travelers to take a break from rowing while someone tows the boat from shore. However, J. observes that the towers, on the shore, tend to become distracted by their conversation and stop paying attention to the boat. Whoever is left on the boat is usually uncomfortable or responsible for whatever crisis emerges, but is ignored by the towers.

Over tea, George tells a story about seeing a couple distracted as they towed their boat from land. Sneakily, he tied his boat to their tow-line, thus tricking the couple into dragging the wrong boat for several miles. J. recounts a similar story, about a group of men whose boat ran aground because they were distracted. However, he argues that girls are the worst towers of all because they are so flighty and distractible.

After tea, George tows the boat from the shore. According to J., the last few hours of towing are always the most difficult. He remembers going boating with a female cousin. When towing the boat at the end of the day, they got lost, only to be saved by a group of working-class locals.

Chapter 10

Although the friends intended to spend their first night on Magna Charta Island, they are too tired to travel all the way there, and decide to stop earlier. Because they did not bring a tent, they have to pitch the canvas cover over the boat before they can sleep. This task proves more difficult than it seems, and it takes them several attempts to successfully set it up.

They cook dinner, which is very satisfying because they have had such a long and exhausting day. They then prepare to sleep together in the boat's cramped quarters. J. tells his friends a story about two men who accidentally shared a bed in an inn; during the night, they stumbled into the same bed, and each thought his bed had been invaded by an intruder.J. sleeps badly, and has a dream that doctors are trying to cut him open after he swallowed a sovereign. He begins a serious digression, discussing the beauty and melancholy of night. He concludes the chapter with a story about a knight who gets lost in the woods but manages to find joy in his suffering.

Chapter 11

George and J. wake up at six the next morning, and cannot get back to sleep. George tells J. a story about how he once forgot to wind his watch before going to bed, which left him confused when he woke at three in the morning. He only realized the mistake when he arrived at work, and aroused the suspicion of several constables as he walked around London so late at night.

J. and George finally wake Harris. They had previously agreed to go for a morning swim, but are now reluctant to jump in the cold water. J. falls in and tries to trick his friends into joining him, but they refuse. J. also accidentally drops a shirt into the river, which George finds hilarious until he realizes it is actually his shirt.

Harris volunteers to make scrambled eggs, promising that they will be delicious. Of course, Harris has no idea how to make scrambled eggs, but George and J. enjoy watching him make a fool of himself in the process. Naturally, the eggs are inedible.

That morning, the men arrive at Magna Charta Island, near Runnymede. As the name suggests, Magna Charta Island is where King John signed the Magna Carta in 1215. J. speculates at length about what it would have been like to be a peasant living in Runnymede at the time of the event.

Analysis

Poetry occupied an important place in Victorian culture, and it was popular among readers of all classes. Jerome often borrows techniques from poetry for his prose. Personification is one technique he uses that is typically associated with poetry. Early in Chapter 9, Jerome personifies tow-lines at great length. “There may be,” he writes, “tow-lines that are a credit to their profession—conscientious, respectable tow-lines—tow-lines that do not imagine they are crochet-work, and try to knit themselves up into antimacassars the instant they are left to themselves” (80). The effect here is light and humorous; by using personification, Jerome engages the reader and manages to be entertaining even though he is writing at great length about a relatively simple point.

Jerome also continues to juxtapose highbrow with the low in these chapters. In addition to using different types of humor designed to appeal to readers of different levels of education, Jerome also has his characters interact with people from all walks of life. A prime example of this comes at the end of Chapter 9, when J. and his cousin are rescued by a group of “provincial ‘Arrys and ‘Arriets,” whom J. praises effusively for their kindness and earnestness (88). “‘Arry and ‘Arriets’” was a common, slightly derogatory slang term for the working-class during the Victorian period; it references the tendency of lower-class English people to drop H-sounds when speaking. Ironically, Punch Magazine would later mock Jerome for his tendency to pander to lower-class readers by referring to him as ‘Arry K. ‘Arry (“My Life” 75).

In Chapter 10, Jerome returns to the theme of wanting – and often not being able to get – the things that one does not have. He addresses this first in his comic description of the men's attempt to make dinner. As J. observes, hot water seems to take longer to boil when one most wants a cup of tea. The men comically try to work around this by talking loudly about how much they do not want tea, and J. believes the strategy actually works.

Jerome also explores this theme obliquely through the story of the knight in the woods. This story (and the digression about night that precedes it) is told in the serious, Romantic style that Jerome occasionally uses in the novel’s digressive passages. In it, the knight finds a deeper, more meaningful happiness being lost in the woods than his comrades do after weeks of feasting in the palace. Although the passage’s tone is dramatically different from the novel's more humorous sections, both address the phenomenon of wanting one does not have – be it physical comfort or emotional fulfillment.

The knight story also emphasizes the novel's common theme of the illusions men make for themselves. Where the knights in the castle are distracted by the luxury they believe defines them, the lonely night truly finds himself by stripping himself of such illusions. In this way, the story does hearken to the Romantic belief that nature could bring transcendence.

Callbacks to earlier jokes is a common technique used in comedic writing, and Jerome begins to use that technique heavily in these chapters, which are around the novel's midpoint. An example of a callback can be found early in Chapter 11, when J. explains that “the idea, overnight, had been that we should get up early in the morning . . . and revel in a long delicious swim. Somehow, now the morning had come, the notion seemed less tempting. The water looked damp and chilly: the wind felt cold” (102). This was foreshadowed in Chapter 3 when J. noted that he is always more excited about swimming when he is not immediately faced with the prospect of diving into cold water. And again, this moment touches on the theme of illusions - it is nice to make plans for ourselves, but another thing to actually carry through with those plans.

Chapter 11 concludes with a sentimental historical interlude. As the men approach Magna Charta Island, Jerome imagines what it would have been like to be a peasant when King John was forced to sign the Magna Carta in 1215. To a certain extent, this passage tips Jerome’s political hand. It is notable that despite his middle-class background (and his patronizing attitude toward ‘Arrys and ‘Arriets in the previous chapters), he identifies with the peasants rather than the bourgeoisie or the nobles. His positive description of the Magna Carta as “the great cornerstone in England’s temple of liberty” also hints at Jerome’s populist sentiments.

CHARACTER SKETCH OF Ms. SULLIVAN ( The story of my life)

The story of my life

CHARACTER SKETCH OF Ms. SULLIVAN

Miss Anne Mansfield Sullivan had the greatest influence on the life, character and acheivements of Helen Keller. She gave a new direction, meaning and purpose to Helen's dark life. Miss Sullivan inherited all those triats and characterisitcs that go in making a perfect teacher. She was a picture of tireless patience and unreading devotion. It was her constant encoragement, help and guidence that made Helen Keeler first deaf and blind in the world to earn a bachelor degree.It was Graham Bell who advised the parents of Helen Keller to contact the Perkins Institute for the Blind. The director, Mr. Anagnos asked a former student of Miss Anne Sullivan to become Keller's instructor. Miss Sullivan was herself a visually impaired 20 year old lady. It was he begining of a 49-year-long relationship. The relationship evolved into Miss Sullivan becoming Helen's governess and then eventul companion. Anne Sullivan arrived at Keller's house in March 1887. She immediatiely began to teach Helen to communicate by spel;ling words into her hand, begining with "d-o-l-l" for the doll. It was Miss Sullivan who unfolded and developed Helen's skills and possibilities. It was Sullivan's genius as a teacher, her sympathy and loving tact which made learning so beautiful and interesting for Helen Keller. She felt that her being was inseparable from her student. All that was the best in Helen Keller had been awakened by the loving touch touch of Miss Sullivan. Anne Sullivan stayed as a companion to Helen Keller long after she taught her. Anne Sullivan married John Macy in 1905. She remained a s a constant companion to Helen Keller till she died in 1936.

The Story of My Life reveals Annie Sullivan as the inspiration behind Helen Keller's extraordinary life. She is only partially-sighted herself, after undergoing surgery to correct her vision at a young age and herself having been educated at The Perkins Institute for The Blind, a place instrumental in Helen Keller's own development.

Anne Sullivan, Annie, is the person responsible for "the most important day I remember in all my life"  as Helen recognizes Annie's contribution throughout her life as teacher, interpreter, friend, companion and motivator. Annie never misses an opportunity to teach Helen, whether it be academically or life skills. She teaches Helen an appreciation in even the smallest detail: "in every blade of grass, and in the curves and dimples of my baby sister's hand." Annie has the capacity to help Helen connect with nature and "made me feel that 'birds and flowers and I were happy peers.'"

One of Annie Sullivan's most instrumental effects is felt when she makes Helen "Think." It is this that helps Helen make the connection between the abstract and the physical as "you feel the sweetness that it (love) pours into everything."Annie makes "every subject so real that I could not help remembering."(c So profound is the impact that Annie Sullivan has on Helen that "her being is inseparable from my own, and (that) the footsteps of my life are in hers."