Helen Keller
Helen Keller certainly had more than her share of obstacles to overcome and she showed us a great determination to live life to its fullest. A great read; very inspiring.
The author grabs our attention with the simple statement, "Imagine not being able to communicate with anyone." I, for one, would be very frustrated, not being able to see or hear or speak. Many people suffer such a fate; but one lady stands out for her courage and determination to succeed in a world dominated by seeing, hearing and speaking people. The book really makes young people and adults aware of how one would struggle with so many challenges.
Using quotes, anecdotes and photographs, Ms. MacLeod tells a story of great determination. The author makes us think and feel and then realize just how lucky we are. We have to use whatever gifts life presents us and Ms. Keller is a wonderful example of how one can make the best use of what one has. Ms. Keller once said, "I had strong senses of smell and taste and lived in a world rich in sensations." Touch and smell were her only connections to the outside world. At a time when many people were locked away in institutions for such handicaps, Ms. Keller overcame her deafness and blindness and demonstrated her ability to function in a busy and very noisy world. She believed that "the world is moved along not by the mighty shoves of a few, but the tiny pushes of each individual." As only one individual, Ms. Keller gave the world more than a few tiny pushes into acceptance and consideration for those with different disabilities.
I found Ms. MacLeod's book on Helen Keller to be an exciting story of how one woman's courage and determination made her into a champion of human rights. I had read Ms. Keller's autobiography and I had seen movies on her life; but I hadn't realized the many honors that she received for her campaigning for all human rights. Ms. Keller bears the title of America's First Lady of Courage. Americans are proud of this woman and her shining example of what one little person can do, in spite of the odds stacked against them. Ms. Keller was the first deaf-blind person to graduate from college. She became a writer and she lectured around the world about women's rights and the rights of minorities and those with disabilities.
Ms. Keller's journey was not an easy one. Struck blind and deaf from a disease that, in the latter half of the nineteenth century, baffled doctors. She wasn't expected to live from what one doctor described as an "acute congestion of the stomach and brain." Today, experts in the medical profession think the disease might have been encephalitis, which causes high fevers and swelling in the brain. Or it may have been scarlet fever or meningitis, two diseases, which are more recognizable and treatable today than they were in 1882. Ms. Keller didn't die. The disease left her blind and deaf and, to parents who didn't understand this handicap, she was considered to be dumb as well. Ms. Keller described this event as "the illness, which closed my eyes and ears and plunged me into the unconsciousness of a newborn baby." With no one to fully understand Ms. Keller's handicap, she was left to fumble on her own, until a very special teacher, Annie Sullivan, came into her life.
