Helen would not have been able to achieve her aim had she not had a dedicated friend like Anne Sullivan. Comment.

The ability of Helen Keller to surmount her handicaps was nothing short of a miracle. She believed that her success was due to the constant support of and undying encouragement from her teacher, Anne Sullivan. Sullivan was able to understand the fear, loneliness and frustration that Helen felt in her tiny isolated world of silence and darkness. Sullivan was not only Helen’s teacher, mentor, friend and role model, but she was a mother figure also whose nurturing and care made Helen grow into a selfless and compassionate adult. With her prior experiences at the Perkins Institutions, she know the way to deal with Helen was through compassion and empathy. Like Anne Sullivan, Helen eventually succumbed to her teacher’s loving efforts to guide her away from her world of darkness. The day April 5, 1887, was a momentous day for Helen when she realized that the words that Sullivan spelled into her hands correspond to certain objects in the outside world hitherto sealed away from her. Sullivan studied various subjects diligently to prepare herself to be a better teacher for Helen. With Sullivan as her most sincere and devoted teacher, it was a rebirth for Helen. Just as Anne Sullivan had been a maternal figure for her, Helen, in a sense, became a mother figure and an advocate for the blind and deaf. The care and understanding that Helen needed were provided by Anne Sullivan which no other family could provide. Just as Sullivan was a harbinger of hope and light of young Helen Keller’s world, the latter became a messenger of optimism for the blind and deaf.