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Brittney Guyer
ELD 314
The Miracle Worker








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Throughout the film The Miracle Worker, viewers embark on a journey with Helen Keller
and Anne Sullivan as they begin to discover the versatility of human language and
communication. At the age of nineteen months, Helen Keller lost all ability to see and hear due
to an unknown illness. This movie portrays all of the challenges Helen, Anne, and her family had
to face in order to teach Helen proper ways to behave and how to communicate with others.
Also, while watching the movie, the viewer picks up on the viewpoints and attitudes that Anne
and each family member had towards Helen, her disabilities, and the extent of what she could
do and learn in life. The Miracle Worker teaches its audience what the exceptionalities of
blindness and deafness really are, how attitudes and educational stances can positively or
negatively affect the person with exceptionalities, and all the while portrays a positive
underlying message throughout the film.
When a person is declared to be completely blind or deaf, it is more than just a partial
loss of both of these senses. The definition of complete blindness is the lack of vision that
cannot be corrected with glasses or contact lenses (Vorvick & Lusby). The definition of complete
deafness is total loss of the ability to hear (Andrew Griffth). If one is only partially blind, glasses,
contact lenses or surgery are methods used to better vision. Also, if one is only partially deaf,
hearing aids or even a surgery such as a Cochlear implant can help improve hearing capabilities.
For Helen, the aids would not have helped because she was completely blind and deaf, and the
surgeries were not even available during the time that she was alive. When one or more senses
are taken away, as in the case of Helen, the other senses become more alive and dominant.
Helen had to use the senses of touch, smell, and taste to compensate for what she lacked with
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vision and hearing. Though Helen was the one burdened with these exceptionalities, other
people in her life were greatly affected by them as well.
Before Anne Sullivan began to teach Helen at the age of six, all of the responsibility of
raising and teaching her fell on her family. Because her family did not know the proper way to
raise or teach a child that was both blind and death, they began to spoil her by giving her candy
and practically rewarding her every time she did something wrong or that caused a commotion.
They felt helpless as though she could never be taught, but also felt as though they should not
punish her because she did not know any better. Before Anne came, there only hope was to
send Helen to an asylum. The Captain and his wife, Helens father and mother, did not want to
give up on their daughter in whom they loved but also did not want to endanger the other
members of their family by Helens uncontrollable behavior. Family members that would come
to visit and the help at the Kellers house felt endangered by Helens presence. James, Helens
brother, felt as though Helen was always the center of attention and that none of his actions or
deeds were ever noticed. Hiring Anne to come teach Helen was the Kellers last hope. Anne
came in and viewed Helen as a normal child and expected her to behave like one. She did not
show sympathy to Helens tantrums or bad manners. Her goal was to teach Helen how to
communicate with others and that words have meaning. Anne taught Helen words through
spelling them with sign language in her hand. She quickly learned that Helen was bright and
could imitate the sign language, but she did not yet know that words had meanings. Anne knew
that Helen would never learn while she was still around her parents who gave into her every
tantrum. She convinced the Captain and Mrs. Keller to give her two weeks alone with Helen. In
these two weeks, Anne taught Helen how to properly behave and many new words. She did
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this through repetition and not rewarding Helen when she did something wrong. Anne still
struggled to connect the words Helen was learning with meanings until one day at the water
pump, a light came on inside of Helen, and she realized that the word water and the actual
water were the same and related. After this revelation, Helen was able to learn to
communicate through sign language, Braille, and even speaking (The Miracle Worker).
The life and story of Helen Keller teaches each individual to have hope that they can
overcome any challenge they may face. The Keller family learned that even though their child
may have had exceptionalities, by treating her as a normal child and having patience, she could
thrive and succeed instead of throwing tantrums and being spoiled. As Helen grew older, she
graduated from Radcliffe College with honors. This teaches that even though obstacles may be
placed on your path, determination and hard work can help you overcome them. Personally, I
think the story of Helen Keller is truly inspiring. It teaches others not to limit themselves or their
abilities. Any individual that comes across the story of Helen Keller should be motivated to
dream big and never let hindrances slow them down. The life and legacy of Helen Keller is truly
remarkable and should always been shown in a positive, encouraging light.





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Works Cited

Andrew Griffth. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/Pages/default.aspx
The Miracle Worker [Motion picture]. (2000). Burbank, CA: Disney DVD.
Vorvick, L. J., & Lusby, F. W. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003040.htm