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Helen keller essay introduction
Essay in short of helen keller
Essay in short of helen keller
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The Roman philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca once said, “It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness.” Not everyone is always on the front lines in the battle of good versus evil. Ranks are filled with select soldiers that will take on the fight. Regardless, those willing to take the rough road, the steep hills, and the bad days are the ones that are truly filling the trenches. Anyone can be great; one way to acheive greatness is by studying this characteristic in others.
In an Article titled The Radical Dissent of Helen Keller published July 12 of 2012 Peter Dreier walks through his own views on the life, and the greatness of the conspicuous Helen Keller. He shows this in her early life, when she lets her voice be heard, and
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her interactions with women’s suffrage, civil rights, and war. Her early life is the part we all hear about, what she is well-known for. He speaks with obvious revere as he goes through the tale of how she rose beyond her difficulties and reached success. This upbringing planted the root for her later ideals and views on what an idyllic America would be. “I owed my success partly to the advantages of my birth and environment. I have learned that the power to rise is not within the reach of everyone.”(5). The author surrounded this quote with words such as acknowledged, making it clear he thought this was a truth she found, not an idea to be contested with. It is also easy to see that he agreed with her when he used phrases such as “but no less inspiring”(3) when he spoke of her radical views. Additional evidence includes his statements of her “exceptional intelligence” (4). All throughout this section, it is blatantly apparent that he highly esteems Helen Keller. The next section of his article is titled “I Must Speak”. “‘I have visited sweatshops, factories, crowded slums,’ she wrote, ‘If I could not see it, I could smell it.’” (8). He included this quote to demonstrate her eagerness so see what was going on around her, in addition to finding ways to improve it. This appeals to pathos; his implementation of several forms of persuasion allows us to see his desire for others to put her in the same light he does. He also wrote extensively on the process, not just the outcome, in hopes his audience would comprehend the effort she made. “She soon began to devour Macy’s extensive collection of political books, reading socialist publications (often in German Braille) and Marxist economists. In addition to giving inspirational lectures about blindness, Keller also talked, wrote, and agitated about radical social and political causes, making her class analysis explicit in such books as Social Causes of Blindness (1911), The Unemployed (1911), and The Underprivileged (1931).” (9) He continued to elaborate on every action, showing how each piece paved the way to her alleged greatness. He also clearly shows the difficulties she had to overcome in addition to her disability, “Although she was universally praised for her courage in the face of her physical disabilities, she now found herself criticized for her political views.” (10). In his final section, Women’s Suffrage, Civil Rights, and War, he brings out the more controversial side of her history, but continues to stand in strong affirmation of her actions.
Some of these controversial topics include birth control, the NAACP, the American Civil Liberties Union, socialism, feminism, and pacifism. His agreement is clear as he includes evidence only favoring her side and adds in quotes intended to be inspiring or move people to action. One such quote was from Helen Keller to a potential presidential candidate, stating, "I am for you because you stand for liberal and progressive government. I am for you because you believe the people should rule. I am for you because you believe that labor should participate in public life." (15). Though her ideas may not be universally supported, Dreier uses quotes with morals generally smiled upon such as aversion to death and suffering. This can be explicitly seen in her quote, "Strike against preparedness that means death and misery to millions of human beings! Be not dumb, obedient slaves in an army of destruction! Be heroes in an army of construction!” (12). Even among the most contentious of topics, Dreier continues to venerate Keller.
In summation, in his article, The Radical Dissent of Helen Keller, Peter Dreier holds Helen Keller in the highest of regards. In each stage of early life, when she lets her voice be heard, and her interactions with women’s suffrage, civil rights, and war he continues to support and
defend the ideas she held resolutely. Throughout the article he makes this point clear and undeniable. Greatness. An attribute Dreier clearly viewed Helen Keller as possessing. Within his own web of opinions he set her as one of the select few filled the trenches. He considered her to be an elite, a goal, and someone to strive to follow.
Margaret Sanger, a well known feminist and women's reproductive right activist in USA history wrote the famous speech: The Children's Era. This speech focuses on the topic of women's reproductive freedom. Sanger uses rhetorical forms of communication to persuade and modify the perspectives of the audience through the use of analogy and pathos. She uses reason, thought and emotion to lead her speech.
Helen Keller, against all odds, became a mouthpiece for many causes in the early to mid-twentieth century. She advocated for causes such as building institutions for the blind, schools for the deaf, women’s suffrage and pacifism. When America was in the most desperate of times, her voice stood out. Helen Keller spoke at Carnegie Hall in New York raising her voice in protest of America’s decision to join the World War. The purpose of this paper will analyze the devices and methods Keller used in her speech to create a good ethos, pathos, and logos.
Margaret Sanger was, at large, a birth control activist, but this speech was more about the questioning of birth control corrupting morality in women. People must remember, in the day and age where Sanger presented this speech, November 1921, women were considered very far from equal and much closer to servants or maids. In her speech, I saw that ethos was present in the sense that she gave herself credibility. Through Sanger’s detailed words and actions, and her statements including the presence of scientists and, or, professionals, the masses of listening people could infer that she was very well informed and solid in her statements. Though she presented herself as agreeable, Sanger was firm in her beliefs. In addition, Sanger says, “We desire to stop at its source the disease, poverty and feeble-mindedness and insanity which exist today, for these lower the standards of civilization and make for race deterioration. We know that the masses of people are growing wiser and are using their own minds to decide their individual conduct” (Sanger, par.15). To me, Sanger made herself appeal to the audience by using the word ‘we.’ In the practice of ethos, this focused on the author more than...
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, along with many other women, packed into a convention on a hot July day to all fight for a common cause; their rights. At the first Women’s Rights convention, Stanton gave a heroic speech that motivated the fight for the cause to be even stronger. Through Stanton’s appliances of rhetorical devices such as emotional, logical, and ethical appeals, she was able to her win her point, change the opinions of many, and persuade people to follow her.
Heroification is a degenerative process that makes people into heroes regardless of any type of character flaw they may possess. It appears that Mr. Loewen?s greatest concern about heroification does not revolve around who gets chosen for the history books but what actually happens to them after they do. He cites two examples of people that had led colored lives but in our textbooks show them as people we should strive to become like. These two people are Helen Keller and President Woodrow Wilson. (Lies?19) Mr. Loewen feels that heroification has distorted the lives of Keller and Wilson and that we can no longer think straight about them. He does not just think this of these two but many other people throughout history. When it comes to Keller we think of someone who, throughout her entire life has struggled to overcome her disabilities. I feel that no one would dispute this but in reality Miss Keller was a radical Socialist for most of her life. This in itself is not so bad but her condemnation of the country into which she was born to and lived in could be considered treasonous. (Lies?20) President W...
Personal fulfillment has to do with achieving life’s goals which are important to an individual. The two authors, Helen Keller in The Story of my Life and Frederick Douglass’ in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave, share a similar goal to learn to read and write during a time in their life of extreme hardship. Both Keller and Douglass demonstrate the necessary attributes required to develop as individuals and progress in life. Their dedication and determination, their positive attitude and gratefulness along with their life experiences are what drove Douglass and Keller to achieve what no one could believe they were capable of due to their backgrounds.
Heroification is the process where details—both important and trivial—are left out or changed to fit the archetypical mold of the flawless, inhuman "heroes." This "degenerative process" makes "flesh-and-blood individuals into pious, perfect creatures without conflicts, pain, credibility, or human interest (Loewen 19)." For example, many people know of Helen Keller only as the blind, deaf girl who despite her handicaps learned to read, write, and to speak, but this is only the first twenty years of her life. Whatever happened to Keller for the next sixty-four years of her life? Keller was, in fact, a radical socialist in Massachusetts starting in the early 1900s, and was one of the most passionate and famous woman during that time rallying for the new communist nation. Keller's love for socialism did not stem from a vacuum but was rooted deep within her experiences as a disabled person, and she sympathized with other handicaps and learned that social class controls not only people's opportunity but also their disabilities. But during the heroification process, the schools and the mass media omitted Keller's lifelong goal and passion to bring about radical social change because we would rather teach our young to "remain uncontroversial and one-dimensional" than to have a room full of leftists (Loewen 35).
The contrast between how She sees herself and how the rest of the world sees Her can create extreme emotional strain; add on the fact that She hails from the early 1900s and it becomes evident that, though her mental construct is not necessarily prepared to understand the full breach against Her, She is still capable of some iota of realization. The discrimination encountered by a female during this time period is great and unceasing.
Keller begins by addressing that some in her audience consider her a mouthpiece for others’ beliefs. She states that she does not want “their pity” and would not change places with them. All she wants is “a fair field and no favor” (Zinn, 284). She is capable of getting information,
A very wise person once said, “Never bend your head, hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye.” Helen Keller did just that, even though she could not see. Helen lost her sight and hearing when she was only one and a half.
Helen is remember for many things that she did throughout her life. At the age of eight she was learning different languages, she learned to talk and read peoples lips by putting her fingers on their mouth. Helen was also a writer, she wrote a total of twelve books one of the earliest she wrote was at the age 11 called The Frost King. Despite the fact that she was both blind and deaf she was able to come over many obstacles and do many things any normal person was able to do. On January 5, 1916 at Carnegie Hall in New York, Helen Keller made her Strike Against War speech.
1. Can you imagin not being able to see here or speaking. That was the world in witch Helen Keller lived,
Foreseeing that she would suffer suppression and discouragement from the people ( which were nearly everyone) she became a fearless suffragette. In school, for example, I might do a presentation and suddenly become nervous, but that is when I am reminded of my hero, who had self-confidence aside from her disabilities. She upsurge against the everyday tests of life. It is because Helen Keller was depressed, outraged she lead a life of wonders, what life is there in an isolated fantasy of bereavement, is life even worth existing with such hopelessness? Helen Keller gratified her life to the upmost quality, not hesitating to do everyday activates which some other might find complexing and difficult, Helen Keller was not just highly confident,
To be deaf-blind and make a difference in society is a big accomplishment. Helen Keller has made many contributions toward helping and caring for the blind and deaf-blind. Because she never gave up, Helen Keller changed the way society saw the blind.