The Story of My Life

The next stage of Keller’s education takes the form of her learning speech, a particular challenge for someone who is deaf. In 1890, she recalls the intense desire she had always had to make noises, and how fascinated she was with feeling other people’s lips when they spoke. Despite her acceptance of her condition, Keller still deals with the frustration surrounding her inability to communicate with other people fully.

Having learned of other deaf children who learned how to speak, Keller wants to be able to do the same. Her inspiration is the story of Ragnhild Kaata, a blind and deaf girl from Norway who had learned how to speak. Keller’s desire to talk is so great that Miss Sullivan takes her to meet Sarah Fuller, the principal of the Horace Mann School, who becomes Keller’s speech teacher.

Keller describes the process by which she learned to talk, learning the movements of the tongue and lips by examining Miss Fuller’s face. She writes that she will never forget her first connected sentence, “It is warm” (79). For Keller, her soul is freed as over time her voice becomes a means to communicate with those who can see and hear.