The Story of My Life · Chapter
I explained
Helen Keller begins her autobiography with a sense of trepidation, reflecting on the difficulty of separating fact from fancy in childhood memories.
What happens
Helen Keller begins her autobiography with a sense of trepidation, reflecting on the difficulty of separating fact from fancy in childhood memories. She describes her birth on June 27, 1880, in Tuscumbia, Alabama, and traces her family lineage on both sides, including her father's service as a Confederate captain and her mother's ancestry. She paints a vivid picture of her early home, 'Ivy Green,' and its garden, which was her paradise. She recounts her early development, including speaking a few words and walking at one year old. The chapter concludes with the illness in February that left her blind and deaf, and her gradual acceptance of the silence and darkness until her teacher arrived.
Themes in this chapter
Identity and Self-Expression
Helen grapples with the challenge of writing her autobiography and distinguishing fact from fancy, reflecting on how her identity is shaped by memory and experience.
Nature and the Senses
The chapter richly describes the sensory experiences of her early life, including the garden, roses, and the natural world, which remain vivid despite her later loss of sight and hearing.
Overcoming Adversity
Helen introduces the illness that took her sight and hearing, setting the stage for her journey of overcoming profound challenges.
Characters to notice
- Helen Keller
The author and narrator, reflecting on her early childhood and the onset of her illness.
- Kate Adams Keller
Helen's mother, who soothed her during illness and chose her name.
- Captain Keller
Helen's father, a former Confederate captain who suggested the name Mildred Campbell and accidentally gave her name as Helen Adams at her christening.
- Mildred Keller
Helen's younger sister, mentioned as the namesake her father initially proposed.
- Robert E. Lee
Mentioned as a second cousin to Helen's grandmother.
- Edward Everett Hale
Mentioned as part of the same family as Lucy Helen Everett, Helen's great-grandmother.
Key passages
“It is with a kind of fear that I begin to write the history of my life. I have, as it were, a superstitious hesitation in lifting the veil that clings about my childhood like a golden mist.”
Helen feels a sense of awe and reluctance as she starts to recount her life, as if her childhood is shrouded in a beautiful, mysterious haze.
This opening reflects Helen's awareness of the difficulty in accurately recalling and narrating her early years.
“I was born on June 27, 1880, in Tuscumbia, a little town of northern Alabama.”
Helen states her birthplace and date of birth clearly.
This establishes the factual starting point of her life story.
“Then, in the dreary month of February, came the illness which closed my eyes and ears and plunged me into the unconsciousness of a newborn baby.”
In February, a severe illness struck, robbing Helen of her sight and hearing and leaving her in a state of sensory deprivation.
This marks the pivotal event that defines her early childhood and sets the stage for her education.