Preview

The Miracle Worker by William Gibson, Essay with quotes describing Annie's battle with the Keller family (page numbers are from my literature book)

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1521 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Miracle Worker by William Gibson, Essay with quotes describing Annie's battle with the Keller family (page numbers are from my literature book)
William Gibson's play, The Miracle Worker, illustrates how people who triumph over hardships can succeed in achieving their goals. The play follows Annie Sullivan, a half-blind northern young woman, as she travels to Post-Civil War Tuscumbia, Alabama in order to teach Helen Keller, a blind and deaf little girl. When she arrives in Alabama, Annie meets Helen's family members; her father, Captain Keller, is a stubborn, commanding former Civil War captain and her mother, Kate Keller, is a young, overly protective woman, both of them have kept Helen almost as a pet because they did not know what to do with her or how to treat her. In order for Annie to succeed in teaching Helen, she has to battle with Captain Keller's stubbornness, Kate's overly protectiveness, and Helen's combativeness.

For instance, Annie is forced to show her combative side as she repeatedly faces off with Captain Keller to be able to teach Helen better. For example, Annie and Captain Keller argue at the breakfast table over how to teach Helen, and Captain Keller exclaims, "'I fail to see where you have taught her anything yet, Miss Sullivan!' to which Annie responds angrily, 'I'll begin this minute if you'll leave the room, Captain Keller! (Gibson 668). Captain Keller desperately wants to have peace at the breakfast table; however, Annie interrupts that peace by demanding that he leave the room. Annie knows that, in order for her to be able to discipline Helen, Captain Keller and Kate must leave the room so that they cannot interfere. In addition, Annie requests another week to teach Helen without the interference of her family, and Captain Keller exclaims, "And what would one more week accomplish? We are more than satisfied, you've done more than we ever thought possible, taught her constructive--"(691). Captain Keller is more than satisfied because Annie has taught Helen manners and how to behave. Annie is frustrated with the Kellers because she knows that Helen's learning manners is only the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    “She disappointed us by giving us an ordinary lesson…,” he generalized (p. 46 l. 137-138). Clearly Tommy does not like everyday teaching again. So when Miss…

    • 197 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Within Annie Murphy Paul's essay, it is argued that reading does have an impact on humans. She began her essay with the counter argument given by Gregory Currie; "we ought not to claim that literature improves us as people. " Not only that but she does provide Currie's credibility, stating that he is a philosophy professor.…

    • 296 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    “If you’d care to hold on, I’ll check our records – it’ll be a few minutes.”…

    • 1354 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Helen Keller: A True Hero

    • 370 Words
    • 2 Pages

    As we go through life we hit bumps in the orad and overcome obstacles in our everyday struggles. As humans we are always taking what we have for granted and never come to be appreciative of what we do have. Helen Keller, although blind, deaf, and mute never let her disabilities stop her. She was a women who appreciated every day of life and demonstrates true heroism to all.…

    • 370 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Esl the Miracle Woker

    • 1298 Words
    • 6 Pages

    To begin with, William Gibson shows Helen was obstinate child at the beginning and Helen was known as a wild child. She had a bad attitude and terrible manners. As the play runs Helen becomes a polite child. For instance, at the beginning of the play Helen doesn’t have table manners. One of the examples from the play is at the breakfast time. When Viney serves the breakfast to everyone Helen set up and starts to mess up with others plate. Helen, instead of having her own plate and sitting down and eating like everybody else did, she went around the table and took foods and drinks from others plate. As well she throws forces and napkins to ground. “ Helen is wandering around the table to explore the contents of the other plate. She messes with her hand in James’s plate, then in Keller’s, both men taking it so for granted they hardly notice. Then Helen comes groping with soiled hand past her own plate, to Annie’s; her hand goes to it, and Annie, who has been waiting, deliberately life ana removes her hand.”(Pg 53, Gibson). Since no one had teach her about table manners everybody ignores her, what she do Helen became a spoiled child. Towards the ending of play Helen start to learn about the table manners by her governess Annie. It was a great effort at firstly for Annie because Helen was used to getting everything she wanted. Also it was hard for Annie…

    • 1298 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    By this time, Keller had mastered several methods of communication, including touch-lip reading, Braille, speech, typing and finger-spelling. With the help of Sullivan and Sullivan's future husband, John Macy, Keller wrote her first book, The Story of My Life. It covered her transformation from childhood to 21-year-old college student. Keller graduated, cum laude, from Radcliffe in 1904, at the age of 24. In 1905, Sullivan married John Macy, an instructor at Harvard University, a social critic and a prominent socialist. After the marriage, Sullivan continued to be Keller's guide and mentor. When Keller went to live with the Macys, they both initially gave Keller their undivided attention. Gradually, however, Anne and John became…

    • 794 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The “Miracle Worker” by William Gibson is about Helen Keller overcoming her blindness and deafness. In 1959 the “Miracle Worker” was published and it was a great hit. In “Miracle Worker” there is a lot of symbolism that readers don't pick up on. Symbolism is when an ordinary objects are actually representing a nother thing. Symbolism gives you a hidden theme in your story.…

    • 167 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    One of the scenes that is very intense and shows this theme is when Annie forces Helen to fold a napkin. They are all at dinner on one of the first nights Annie is there, and Helen comes up to the table and starts grabbing food off people's plates. Annie is appalled and makes everyone leave the room as she wrestles Helen for awhile before making her fold a napkin to show manners. During this scene chairs go flying and Helen is doing everything she can to get away from Annie. She doesn’t let her go and by never giving up Annie helps Helen finally understand that there are rules and that there are consequences for actions. This is just one of the many scenes in this play that show how important it is to never give up on…

    • 701 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the story The Miracle Worker, Capt. Keller and his son James are unable to communicate with each other because Capt. Keller will not listen to James.<br><br>Both have very different personalities. Capt. Keller is a strong, stubborn, and easily angered kind of guy. James on the other hand is a kind and obedient kid that does what he is told. Though with all their differences they both love Helen and want the best for her.<br><br>In the story Capt. Keller is motivated to forget his past, That is probably why he ignores James so much. Keller is forgetting that James in not only from his past but is part of his life now. James is motivated to get his father to pay attention to him, but to do that he must first stand up to his father.<br><br>James…

    • 243 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The development of the character is considerable in a story. It helps shape how the story is going to terminate. In the story, Miracle Worker Miss Sullivan was one of those characters that genuinely helped shape the story. Helen did not know how to do anything, but now she distinguished how to do many more things she did not know how to do before. She knows how to do all this because of Miss Sullivan. Miss Sullivan would wrestle Helen so that she would learn how to eat properly. She did this because she knew how Helen…

    • 98 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Miracle Worker Comparison

    • 546 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Annie Sullivan and Kate Keller are, surprisingly, alike and different in many ways. Both characters are so different, yet so similar, you can tell that the author did a great job when writing “The Miracle Worker”. As you are reading, you don’t even notice anything, you think of them separately. But when you think about it, the whole time you were comparing and contrasting them, especially since Kate doesn’t seem like a big character. You can tell Annie is, but Kate seems like she is more in the background. They seem like the perfect pair to compare and contrast.…

    • 546 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In William Gibson’s play, The Miracle Worker, while isolated at the breakfast table Annie was able to accomplish three feats with Helen. Although, the process Annie went through to achieve these three feats wasn’t easy. Helen tried her best to runaway and resist Annie’s lessons, smashing plates and throwing food in the act of defiance. In the end Annie was able to get Helen to properly do three things related to table manners. For example, when Kate asked what happened, Annie answered “She ate from her own plate”, “She with a spoon. Herself”, and “she folded her napkin”(671). At hearing this news Kate immediately became flabbergasted, but Captain Keller remained skeptical. I myself was astounded at Annie’s patience and determination with Helen…

    • 204 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    First, we will start off with how Gibson presents the theme in The Miracle Worker. Gibson presents the them in The Miracle Worker by the dad would say that Helen is not capable of learning anything and that if she was taught some discipline then that was the only thing was capable of doing. Then later in the story we see that Helen has learned how to read and write. The father was always never thought that would ever happen. The prejudice of the father could ruin Helen's life because if Anne just agreed with the father that Hellen was not capable of learn to read and write, then Helen would…

    • 625 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In “The Miracle Worker,” by William Gibson, Helen Keller is a blind, deaf, and mute protagonist, who is trapped in a dark, isolated culture by her disabilities. She has been disabled ever since she was a baby, and has basically been cut off from contact to the rest of the world. Because of this, she has developed her own identity and her own culture. This causes her to grow further and further apart from her family. In the play, Kate says (talking about Helen): “She wants to talk, like-be like you and me……

    • 476 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Annie Story Map

    • 686 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The play’s setting was in the early of the 1930’s in New York, in the New York Municipal Orphanage. The characters of this story are Annie, the main character, whose only wish is to find her parents, Miss Hannigan, the cruel orphanage supervisor who is usually drunk, Mr. Warbucks, the billionaire who always has his mind on business, his lovely assistant Ms. Grace Farrell, Ms. Hannigan’s brother, Rooster Hannigan with his female accomplice Lily St. Regis. The other characters are the orphans, namely Molly, Pepper, July, Kate, Tessie, Duffy and other orphans, Drake, the butler in the Warbucks Mansion who is very kind to Annie and Mr. Warbuck, the radio announcer Bert Healy with his singers – the Boylan Sisters, President Roosevelt, Lt. Ward, Hooverville-ites, the Mansion staff and Sandy, the stray dog.…

    • 686 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays