Helen Keller's Unique Signs

One reporter once wrote about Helen Keller acknowledging the fact, “Of all the blind and deaf-mute children, Keller of Tuscumbia, Alabama, is undoubtedly the most remarkable. It is no hyperbole to say that she is a phenomenon. History presents no case like hers” (Lash 80). Because of a childhood sickness Keller became blind, deaf and mute. However, she bravely defied all expectations by learning how to read braille, write and talk. She became an activist for the disabled. Keller’s story can inspire many to overcome adversity.
Before her sickness Keller lived a simple, joy filled life and showed signs of great intelligence. Keller was born in 1880. Growing up in Tuscumbia, Alabama, she lived in a tiny house, built by her father, consisting
“Young, Helen lived in a dark and quite world. She could not speak to anyone. So, she began making signs with her hands” (Christy 8). She used very unique signs, “A shake of the head meant “No and a nod, “Yes,” a pull meant “Come” and a push, “Go” (Keller 17). She would feel objects and observe every motion to attempt to learn things (Keller 17). She learned to fold and put away the clean clothes when her parents brought her laundry and when a guest left, she would wave goodbye to them because of her vague remembrance of an old gesture. (Keller 18). Although Keller’s u signs and way of operating daily task may be considered satisfactory by most she still longed to be understood,
Sullivan, known by Keller as the teacher, greeted her with love as Keller recorded, “I stretched out my hand as I supposed to be my mother. Someone took it, and I was caught up and held close in the arms of her who had come to reveal all things to me, and more than all things else, to love me” (Keller 33). Even though Sullivan loved her, she knew her greatest problem she had to solve was “how to discipline and control her without breaking her spirit” (Lash 51). Every simple task at the beginning was a conflict between Keller and her teacher. For instance, “Helen’s teacher had to use force to get her to brush her hair or wash her hands or even buttoning her boots” (Lash 52). After Keller finally submitted to her teacher’s authority, this allowed her teacher to guide her and to sharpen her intelligence which is the begging of how to stir the child’s soul (Lash