Chapters 1-5

After providing brief descriptions of her home in Alabama and her family members, Keller explains how she became disabled—a fever she had when she was nineteen months old left her blind and deaf—and her first memories of being disabled, recounting her early attempts to communicate. Keller reviews her parents' efforts to find her medical treatment and educational assistance, as well as her early experiences with her first teacher, Anne Sullivan.

Following the illness that left her blind and deaf, Keller got accustomed to the darkness and the silence but retained the memories of the sights and sounds she had enjoyed before her illness. Keller devised a simple system of gestures and tried very hard to make herself understood by her family. She knew when she was being difficult, but she felt she had to resort to fits of temper and frustration because the few...