Book Review:- THE STORY OF MY LIFE by HELEN KELLER

Helen Keller probably needs no introduction, She was the first Deaf-Blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. She was a great writer and a really brave & good person. So today I am going to talk about “The Story Of My Life by Helen Keller”.  🙂 This is the autobiography of the young Helen Keller, written by herself when she was 22 and a student at all-female college Radcliffe. And I must say, it was really a good read. It is a nice book and beautifully written by Keller. Her life’s journey is unique. It was totally a very inspirational, motivating and eye-opening experience for me. I felt so bad for her when she described that at one point of her life she was so desperate to communicate with people, and she was sad that no one will understand her or her feelings. 😦 It was heartbreaking to read this. Really, Keller’s story of life, of learning was very touching to me.

The most beautiful thing about Helen Keller’s autobiography is how natural and literate she was. The most enjoyable aspect of this book is definitely her passion for BOOKS. 🙂 There was a huge list of books that she read. Books were extremely important to Keller as they helped her to learn what other people learned through sight and hearing. The first book she remembers making an impact was ‘Little Lord Fauntleroy’. The writing is just excellent. It’s actually exciting to read her in her own words. I really loved every single word of this book. It is just not a book, its her life in her own words, and this is really amazing. 🙂 Her journey, her struggle and everything was just so inspirational and amazing. Keller’s life is neither a miracle nor a joke, it is a great achievement, it is the result of her struggles. I was really amazed to learn that in the course of her life, Keller taught herself French, German and Latin, I mean really this is her passion for books, languages and learning.

There where so many beautiful things in this book. But mostly I loved when Keller’s teacher Anne Sullivan tries to teach Keller what love is, and Keller can’t understand why her teacher won’t show it to her. It was really a sweet moment. When Helen asked her teacher “What is Love?” She simply replied:- “You cannot touch the clouds, you know; but you feel the rain and know how glad the flowers and the thirsty earth are to have it after a hot day. You cannot touch Love either, but you feel the sweetness that it pours into everything. Without love you would not be happy or want to play.” I just loved her answer. She beautifully described love. 🙂 ❤

In the second part of the book, we can read the letters written by Helen Keller to her beloved ones during 1887-1901. Through these letters, she opened her mind, thoughts and love. As Helen became older, she became more politically involved campaigning for women’s suffrage, labor rights, socialism, birth control supporter and other social causes. Another enjoyable aspect of The Story of My Life is that if you ever feel sorry for yourself for what you don’t have or what you are currently struggling with, your deficiencies and struggles may suddenly seem minor in comparison to Helen’s. She was really a great lady. 🙂 In 1964, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the U.S. highest civilian honors and in 2003, Alabama honored her (born in AL) on its state quarter.

Quotes from this book:-

#1. “One painful duty fulfilled makes the next plainer and easier.”

#2. “The bible gives me a deep comforting sense that (things seen are temporal, and things unseen are eternal.”

#3. “Knowledge is love and light and vision.”

#4. “Do not think of todays failures, but of the success that may come tomorrow.”

#5. “It is wonderful how much time good people spend fighting the devil. If they would only expend the same amount of energy loving their fellow men, the devil would die in his own tracks of ennui.”

#6. “It is so pleasant to learn about new things. Every day I find how little I know, but I do not feel discouraged since God has given me an eternity in which to learn more.”

Overall, it is a great book. I liked it very much. The story of Helen Keller or I would say the journey of her life is really amazing, inspirational and motivating. 🙂 And I think, everyone should read this book. It’s an amazing story of overcoming difficult trials and making the best of what is given to us. It is a beautiful biography and after reading this, I now want to read more and more autobiographies. 😀

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