Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Story of My Life, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Determination and Perseverance
Storytelling and Communication
Education
Friendship, Community, and Goodwill
Summary
Analysis
After her first visit to Boston, Helen spent nearly every winter up North. Once she visited a small New England village, and was able to play in the snow for the first time. She was mystified by the contrasting beauty and bleakness of winter. During a snowstorm one afternoon, Helen and Miss Sullivan rushed outside to feel the flakes falling, but as the storm worsened, they retreated inside and sat cozily around the fire while the snow blew through the air outside. The morning after the storm broke, Helen went out to play in the snow. “So dazzling was the light,” she writes, that “it penetrated even the darkness that veils my eyes.” As the days passed, the snowdrifts melted and shrunk, but another storm came before they were gone and replenished them. On pleasant days, Helen and Miss Sullivan enjoyed tobogganing, and Helen experienced incredible joy and “felt [herself] divine” as she flew down the steep slopes.
Helen’s sense of wonder in the natural world continues to expand as she experiences different regions and different climates with her friend, guide, and companion Miss Sullivan by her side. Helen is “dazzled” by nature time and time again, and delights in these new experiences as they enrich her conception of the world around her and allow her to feel a little bit more at home in it despite the disabilities which held her back in her youth.
Themes
