# Personality explained — The Story of My Life

> Chapter companion for The Story of My Life by Helen Keller.

## What happens

This chapter explores Helen Keller's personality, character, and the unique ways she interacts with the world. It highlights her humor, courage, perseverance, pure-mindedness, and the balance between her logic and sympathy. The chapter also discusses her sense of touch, her methods of communication, and her determination to do everything others do, as well as she can.

## Themes in this chapter

### Overcoming Adversity

Helen's determination to learn to speak and attend college despite advice against it exemplifies her perseverance against challenges.

### Identity and Self-Expression

The chapter explores how Helen's unique personality, humor, and courage define her identity and her way of expressing herself.

### Language and Communication

Discusses Helen's use of the manual alphabet, her gestures, and her reliance on touch and smell to understand the world.

### Love and Friendship

Helen's forgiving nature and her definition of love as 'what everybody feels for everybody else' highlight her capacity for love and friendship.

## Character check-ins

### Helen Keller

The subject of the chapter; her personality, humor, courage, and determination are explored in depth.

### Anne Sullivan

Helen's teacher and constant companion, who guides her understanding of the world and is noted for her wisdom and humor.

### Charles Dudley Warner

A friend who wrote about Helen's pure-mindedness in Harper's Magazine in 1896.

### Joseph Jefferson

Explained phrenology bumps to Helen, leading to her quip about fighting difficulties.

### Mrs. Laurence Hutton

A friend Helen visited, during which she defined toleration.

### Albert H. Munsell

The artist who let Helen experiment with a wax tablet and stylus when she was twelve.

### Mark Twain

Quoted as saying the two most interesting characters of the nineteenth century are Napoleon and Helen Keller.

## Key lines

> I believe she is the purest-minded human ever in existence. … The world to her is what her own mind is. She has not even learned that exhibition on which so many pride themselves, of 'righteous indignation.'

Charles Dudley Warner believed Helen Keller to be the most pure-minded person alive, and that her world is a reflection of her own mind, lacking the pretense of righteous indignation.

_This quote from Charles Dudley Warner in Harper's Magazine illustrates Helen's innocence and purity of character._

> If he had only known what a good dog she was, he wouldn't have shot her.

When a policeman shot her dog, Helen forgave him, saying he would not have done it if he had known the dog's good nature.

_Demonstrates Helen's forgiving and compassionate nature._

> Toleration is the greatest gift of the mind; it requires the same effort of the brain that it takes to balance oneself on a bicycle.

Helen defined toleration as the mind's greatest gift, requiring as much effort as balancing on a bicycle.

_Shows Helen's insightful and metaphorical way of thinking._

> Yes, but I like to play also, and I feel sometimes as if I were a music box with all the play shut up inside me.

When asked if she liked to study, Helen replied that she also likes to play, comparing herself to a music box full of play.

_Reveals Helen's playful and imaginative side._

> Well, he seems to have done all the essential things.

When told that all we know of Shakespeare is that he was baptized, married, and died, Helen quipped that he had done all the essential things.

_Example of Helen's wit and humor._

> I never fight, except against difficulties.

When Joseph Jefferson said she had a prizefighting bump on her head, Helen replied that she only fights against difficulties.

_Highlights Helen's determination to overcome obstacles._

> Where are the singers? ... One is silent.

While feeling a bas-relief of dancing girls, Helen asked where the singers were, and upon finding them, noted that one had closed lips and was silent.

_Illustrates Helen's acute tactile perception and attention to detail._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_story_of_my_life_se/chapters/ii-personality
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_story_of_my_life_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_story_of_my_life_se/chapters