Helen Keller's Heroic Journey

"Helen Adams Keller." Encyclopedia of World Biography. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Biography In Context. Web. 23 Sept. 2013. The Encyclopedia of World published a biography on Helen Keller's heroic cycle. It explained Helen's journey as she enters a whole new world, filled with knowledge. She was born with a disease that caused her to be blind and deaf. But Helen pushed past her inabilities when her parents hired a teacher, Sullivan, to help her learn. And then, the impossible happened; she started to learn how to communicate with those around her. "One month after her arrival, Sullivan had taught Keller the word "water." This sudden learning that things had names unlocked a whole, new universe for the child"("Helen Adams Keller"). This first step gave her hope, and with this new sense of pride and self-confidence, she had no reason to hold back. This is a perfect example of crossing the threshold as it directly relates to Helen leaving her miserable and unfitting life behind to enter a new hopeful yet challenging one. She was no longer helpless and unable to learn but she still needed to comprehend the rules and values of this unfamiliar, yet hopeful world.
"Helen Adams Keller." World of Health. Gale, 2006. Biography In Context. Web. 23 Sept. 2013. World of health provided an article about Helen Keller's life that described one of the steps in her heroic journey perfectly. Helen's ordinary world was not a jubilant one as she was born with an illness that caused her to be blind and deaf. She could not understand the world around her so her parents often extremely worried about her safety. This article described her to be violent when she could not comprehend or interact with the world around her. "She struck out at others, scratched, and hurled herself to the ground in fury at being unable to communicate with the people around her"("Helen Adams Keller"). The ordinary world for a hero is described to be uneasy, uncomfortable, unaware and unfitting. This described Helen