Elen Kellers Writing - Research Paper Example

26 June Helen Keller I) Introduction There is no shortage of generous adjectives used to describe Helen Keller; she was stoic, eager, diligent, brave, intelligent and committed to affecting the world. The author is mostly remembered as an advocate for the visually impaired, yet her influence in the literary world deserves just as much attention, if not more. The paper will explore the author’s early life, later political and social events and the world’s reactions to Keller’s work. Through an analysis of “The world I live in” it will be possible to determine why Keller is still one of the most influential writers of today’s world. II) Biography Helen Keller’s writing is faultless; she has authored numerous articles, letters and books, yet manages to maintain the same endearing finesse in each one of them. Helen owed this literary prowess to her teacher, friend and confidant - Ann Sullivan; Sullivan’s fixation on non-erroneous writing laid the foundation for how Helen Keller wrote in the future (Goddy 22). One must realize that the beauty in language displayed in Keller’s work cannot be learnt as this is a gift of nature; however, having the right teacher can either stifle this gift or stimulate it. Fortunately, for Keller, she had the advantage of having an educator who understood the importance of furnishing one’s students with rich and sufficient literary content. Mastery in writing is not something that one learns in isolation; one requires frequent exposure to various stylistic forms, which can only come from reading good books. Miss Sullivan had excellent taste in literature; she wanted Keller to learn from the best of them thus explaining why she chose slightly mature books for Helen’s age. “Tales from Shakespeare” and “Montaigne” were just some of the several classics that formed part of Sullivan’s selections for her young protégé. Ann Sullivan’s love and passion for proper English nourished Keller’s literary talent; if this enthusiasm were absent, it is likely that Keller would only have read juvenile literature. Her manner of expression may not have grown to professional levels, and she may not have been the great author that many now know and love. Perhaps Sullivan’s most profound influence in Helen’s life was during her seventh year when Keller discovered the joys of language. Ann found a way of getting through to Keller when no one else was able to do so; she used her background as a former visually-impaired person to teach Keller the marvels language. In fact, Helen often credits her discovery of the world surrounding her to that momentous occasion when Sullivan ran a flowing liquid through her hands and then spelt the name ‘water’ on the other hand (Goddy 22). Ann taught Keller how to read in Braille and how to communicate in several other languages; she was able to connect with people who spoke normally by touching their lips and feeling their vibrations. Sullivan sacrificed her life to be by Keller’s side until her passing, and her consistent guidance is what got the prominent author to where she is currently. Keller’s parents no doubt also played a critical role in her success as an author because they chose not to commit her to an asylum at a time when people with Helen’s disabilities were condemned. They invested in her education and arranged a meeting with Alexander Bell on how they could help their daughter to function normally. Other people like Bishop Henry Drummond also impacted Keller’s spiritual journal since the author firmly identified with her Christian background. Helen engaged in other professions, as she was a lecturer, political activist as well as a human rights activist; this came about owing to the realization that the capitalist system and the government machinery were taking advantage of the underprivileged. Keller ruffled a few feathers in her days because she chose political sides that were unfavorable to the controllers of power. She was an advent follower of Karl Marx principles and had strong socialist ties; this even led the Federal Bureau of Investigation to black list her as a communist. Therefore, in philosophical circles, Karl Marx was a profound source of inspiration to Helen Keller whose brevity spilled over into her practices (Hudgins 54). She also battled for women’s right to vote as well as employee’s right to safe and humanitarian working conditions. Keller took bold stances concerning heavily debated topics like birth control at a time when the practice was regarded as immoral. Clearly, this person made a mark in society owing to the fact that she transcended boundaries and spoke about taboo issues. She might not have had archenemies per say, but did annoy some intellectuals when she spoke about things that they were uncomfortable with. For instance, the editor of the magazine ‘Brooklyn Eagle’ used to be an admirer and supporter of the author before she took on a political position. However, when she emerged as a socialist, he was quick to describe her as a disabled woman who was predisposed to error, yet he did not care to mention these deficiencies when she was politically neutral. Keller even once stated that she was at war with the magazine because people who fight often apply the same standards all the time and look beyond superficial traits. Keller lived in Alabama then subsequently moved to Boston Massachusetts, and eventually Washington DC where she spent most of her adult. The latter location was critical in her life because it gave her a platform upon which she could voice her political opinions. Washington was at the center of politics in the US, so it made sense for a person with so many political inclinations to find solace there. III) Historical Time Period Most Americans know the Helen Keller story up to the point when she graduated from Radcliffe College in 1904, yet it would be 64 years before the world lost this incredible thinker. During the latter period, Keller became a revolutionary as this was a time when Marxist thinking began gaining prominence. Therefore, the socialist movement was a profound source of influence to the writer who eventually wrote speeches and articles like “The spirit of Lenin in 1929”, “The unemployed in 1911” and “How I became a socialist in 1912”. These were declarations of an advent socialist and to a certain degree communism; Keller declared in the 1912 article that she loved the red flag symbolizing socialism and even regarded her friends as comrades. Therefore, the counter-political movements of the day dictated Keller’s interpretation of the goings on around her; she was a member of the socialist part from 1909 to 1916, and within this time period helped to support striking workers during their struggle for better conditions. Within that time period, the First World War was taking place, and owing to Keller’s Marxist leanings, she felt that America had nothing to gain from participating in the war. Her sentiments about the war were made clear in a 1916 speech she gave at Carnegie where she stated that the war was a tool used to defend the capitalists. She asserted that the world war was rooted in exploitation, and the so-called justifications for it were simply mechanisms to protect capitalist investors and their capital. Aside from opposing the war, Keller also took on worker’s rights as evidenced in her participation in the International Workers of the World (IWW) party. She abandoned the socialist party because she felt that it was moving too slowly. Furthermore, their commitment to revolutionary means of change resonated with her. In 1916, the industrial revolution had taken shape, so it came as no surprise that Keller would easily identify with the plight of workers. This was a matter dear to heart because she soon learnt that blindness could be caused by the extreme and worker-unfriendly conditions of the industrial movement. Additionally, Russia was now regarded as a communist party under the leadership of Lenin; Keller idolized this leader and even wrote some articles about it. The 1929 piece called “Help Soviet Russia” as well as the 1929 title about Lenin’s Spirit were all critical in illuminating how the international political events of her time changed her perceptions and work. At a time when workers’ right were seen as trivial and inconsequential to capitalists, it was easy to idolize a place like Russia, which was regarded as the ultimate nemesis of capitalism. Consequently, the increase and rise of a foreign leader like Lenin had a weighty impact on a employees’ privileges activist like Keller (Hudgins 63). This fight for the underprivileged in the economic system continued throughout much of Keller’s life even though some of it ended in 1943 when the FBI placed her on their black list. They created a file about her, but were uncertain where she truly belonged; some called her a communist while others believed she was a fascist or even Nazi. During subsequent years, the feminist/ women rights movement also began taking shape in the west especially in the 1920s and 1930s (Withers 13). For this reason, Keller wrote the article “Great American Women” in 1932 for the Home magazine and even did another piece for the Atlantic Monthly. She firmly believed in empowering women; this was a continuation of the work she had started; as a suffragist. In the early 1900s, female citizens did not share similar rights to men in many facets in life; however, a lot of attention began being drawn to the lack of voting rights among the female gender. Keller’s work was thus influenced by the movement to fight for women’s right to vote, which bore fruit in August 1920. Her work on empowering members of her gender continued in subsequent years owing to the progress that she saw in the monumental decade of 1920. IV) Criticism Keller had more followers than critics since her triumph over the challenges of her disabilities was something that turned her into a celebrity. This support was in part due to the numerous biographies that she wrote about her life; the first of which occurred when she was simply ten years old. Many thought of her as a defender of the physically disabled as she spent many years touring the world and talking about the plight of the visually impaired. Additionally, people who shared her political ideas also supported and loved her speeches; they all believed that flaws in the country’s economic fundamentals had caused most problems for workers. It is for this reason that she was invited to numerous lecturers at universities, and received a number of honorary degrees. Furthermore, her elaborate work as a journalist for eclectic newspapers and magazines illustrates that the love and support for Keller’s work was far-reaching. Despite this consensus on Keller’s greatness, she still has a number of critics who opposed at least one of the contradictions inherent in her life. For instance, some Marxists felt that Keller was biting the very hand that fed her because if she had been born into a working class family, it is likely that she would have been committed to an asylum (Richards 201). On the other side of the political spectrum were the conservatives who were often uncomfortable with Keller’s associations with communists, especially during the cold war in 1955. Some were unsettled by her membership in the IWW party and the Socialist party because they belonged to the ruling either class or benefited from capitalists. The media was known for their attacks against Keller, and even attributed her radical political views to developmental or biological challenges. The contributions that Keller made toward socialism, communism and feminism are profound because they added an American voice to such solid disciplines. Women appreciated her for her fight for universal suffrage as well as control over their reproductive health. Conversely, most Marxists value her for protection of workers’ conditions and for the strong opposition towards the capitalist system of economic organization. Much of the radicalism surrounding Keller’s political activism subsided after 1924 when she drifted apart from members of the IWW. This implies that there was some sort of rise and fall for the writer regarding her political writings; in fact, some of the lasting radicals dismissed here communist connections as a youthful adventure. The work that she did for the visually impaired received much emphasis in many biographies and analyses about Keller’s accomplishments. The deaf community was also highly uncomfortable with Helen Keller in a seeming contradictory reaction to the way she approached her disability. Alexander Bell was the inventor of the telephone and an important force in Keller’s life since he initially arranged to transfer Keller to a school for the blind. He was an ‘oralist’ who believed that all deaf people should strive to learn how normal people speak, so according to him, Keller is predominant disability was mostly her blindness and not her deafness. This dissociated her from the deaf community, which had a profound influence in the country and already had an elaborate sign language system (Nielsen 93). Some analysts frowned upon Helen’s choice to stay isolated from people with disabilities on a personal level; Helen preferred associating with non-disabled friends and only served as a spokesperson for the American Association for the Blind. She toured the world advocating for blind people’s rights but did not really belong to the community truly. Many explain that this predisposition arose from her story of overcoming great odds; these expectations meant that she has to be the exception and not the rule. Communing too intimately with other disabled persons would have limited her star power, as it would have made her appear less special (Nielsen 150). Furthermore, some socialists, labor activists and feminists also question Keller’s influence in their fields as perceptions about her disability came in the way of their interpretation of these influences. They have categorized Keller as a novelty and profound source of inspiration but some of them did not see her as a comrade. It is likely that the odds she overcame were seen as critical parts of her life, but these exceptions prevented her from fully belonging to the communities, she supported. Overall, however, the world agrees of her lasting influence in the world of literature; they simply differ on the fields in which they fit. V) Close reading of selected text The text chosen for analysis is the book “The world I live in” where Keller talks about her experiences as a blind and deaf person and compares this to the privilege others enjoy as physically capable individuals. Keller wrote the book for intolerant individuals who felt that the disabled were somehow less deserving of certain human rights. She wanted to describe how she went about dealing with daily challenges and some of the experiences that she encountered. This would be juxtaposed against some of the things that her less-financially endowed counterparts lacked, so a call to action was being made to such individuals to change their attitudes. This piece is quite useful in the area of socialism as it covers workforce privileges on a personal level, and it is applicable to the disability rights movements. What makes the work particularly meaningful is the fact that it illustrates the practical ways in which a person of disability can live a significant life. It challenges society’s notion of privilege because someone who appears to lack two of the most important senses finds way of making an impact in life. She is able to accomplish this objective using a serious but relatable tone throughout the book; Keller is assertive and clear about how cripples can offer service to the country. For instance, she says “I too can work and because I love to labor with my head and hands…” (Keller 67) However, she tampers this with a warm statement “It is my service to think how I can best fulfill the demands that each day makes upon me, and to rejoice that others can do what I cannot.” (Keller 67). The tone in the book is complemented by the mood, which is highly optimistic as one can read the voice of triumph in her writing. Some figurative language is also evident in the book especially in the first portion when the writer focuses on hands and the role they have played in her life. She uses personification to describe her hands especially when she calls them the “seeing hands”; Keller attributes living characteristics to a part of her body because they enabled her to touch other people’s hands and thus discern what they were saying (Perrine 51). She also uses a lot of imagery to describe the environment surrounding her; she says “Heat waves and sound waves play upon my face in infinite variety and combination until I am able to surmise the myriad sounds that my senseless ears have not heard.” (Keller 142) The above quote draws in audiences by making them imagine how Keller perceives the sounds and feelings in her environment without seeing eyes or hearing ears. Keller’s voice is thus purposeful and personal as her message is clear but quite personal in nature; this also implies that her writing style is thus informal and serious. She conveys these ideas through her methods of exposition; sometimes Helen uses analogy where she compares Darwin’s thirty-minute daily devotions to the minimal efforts that the disabled can put into their day, but their efforts are worthwhile. She also compares and contrasts the experiences of the physically fit who do not appreciate their world with what people like her perceive. Keller also describes experiences very vividly like how she feels when she make outs things and people through her hands and fingers. Perhaps the most important literary element is her style as it wins the hearts of audiences through its personal but assertive character (Cuddon 90). VI) Conclusion Helen Keller’s work has lasting impact in the world of literature owing to its daring nature, noble intentions and the positive effects it had on the movements of the time. Keller’s willingness to transcend boundaries and to speak openly about controversial topics is what makes her writing universal. It made a lasting impact in the world owing to the values that it espoused; that is, protecting the rights of the weak and the underprivileged even when one possessed these qualities too. Keller’s books often talk about her experiences as a deaf and blind person, so they add to her authenticity as a unique individual who overcame adverse hurdles. This component causes many other individuals to embrace the possibilities that are open to human beings who are focused and hungry for success. Works Cited Cuddon, Andrea. A dictionary of literary terms and literary theory. New York: Blackwell Publisher Ltd, 1998. Print. Goddy, Sonya. "The woman behind the miracle." Literary Cavalcade 56.3 (2003): 22. Print. Hudgins, Andrew. "Helen Keller answers the iron." Kenyon Review 33.2 (2011): 52-69. Print. Keller, Helen. The world I live in. NY: The Century Company, 2003. Print. Nielsen, Kim. The radical lives of Helen Keller. NY: New York University press, 2004 Perrine, Laurence. Literature, structure, sound, and sense. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1998. Print. Richards, Norman. Helen Keller. Chicago, IL: Childrens Press, 1968. Print. Withers, Sara. "Helen Keller: Feminist." American Notes & Queries 16.1 (1977): 13. Print. Read More