The Miracle Worker
Heritage Topics: U.S.1865 - 1913; Biography/Keller;
Character Dev. Topics: Handicaps; Female Role Model; Perseverance.
SELECTING THE MOVIE
Age: 10+; Not Rated; Drama; 1962, 107 minutes; B & W; Available from
Social Studies School Service. Order through this link for free shipping!.
Description: This film depicts the early life of Helen Keller (1880 - 1968).
Although blind, deaf and mute from the age of six months, Helen Keller
learned to read, write and speak. She graduated from Radcliffe College with
Honors in 1904 and became world famous for her triumph over her handicaps.
In The Miracle Worker Anne Sullivan teaches Helen Keller the principal of
symbolic communication, i.e., that shapes of the hand, when communicating in
sign language, represent objects in the real world.
Benefits: The Miracle Worker will help introduce children to Helen Keller
and Anne Sullivan. Their story shows the strength and power of human will
and its ability to triumph over the most devastating handicaps. Helen Keller is
one of the most remarkable people ever to have lived. She is a role model for
a person who triumphs over profound handicaps. Anne Sullivan is a role model
for a sensitive and innovative teacher. Without Sullivan, Keller would probably
not have realized her great potential.
The film can also serve as a springboard for a discussion of the meaning and
importance of symbolic language.
Possible Problems: MINOR. This movie shows the South in the period
called the "Redemption" when Southern Whites regained control of the
Southern Governments after the collapse of Reconstruction. The men spend
their free time reliving the lost war. The Black characters in the movie are all
stereotyped but they do not have important roles.
The teaching sessions sometimes degenerate into fights between Anne
Sullivan and an undisciplined Helen Keller. These scenes may scare children
of less than eight years.
Awards: 1962 Academy Awards: Best Actress (Bancroft), Best Supporting
Actress (Duke); 1962 National Board of Review Awards:Ten Best Films of
the Year, Best Actress (Bancroft); 1962 Academy Awards Nominations:
Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Costume Design (B&W), Best Director
(Penn).
Featured Actors: Anne Bancroft, Patty Duke, Victor Jory, Inga Swenson,
Andrew Pine, Kathleen Comegys.
Director: Arthur Penn.
USING THE MOVIE
Helpful Background:
Helen Keller's books include The Story of My Life (1902). She became
a leader for many reformist causes, including Women's Suffrage. She
was also a strong supporter of the Socialist Party, leading marches and
demonstrations. She supported Eugene Debs (1855-1926), the Socialist
candidate who ran for President five times in the early 1900's.
The difference between communication among animals and
communication among human beings is that we make use of symbols
through language while animals, for the most part, give only signals.
Animals signal danger, happiness, pain, anger or their presence but they
do not express themselves with symbols. Only recently, with
extraordinary efforts, have a few animals such as chimpanzees been
taught to use a vocabulary of simple words.
In order for Anne Sullivan to begin to teach Helen Keller to read or
write, Anne had to make Helen understand the concept of symbolism,
that is, that one thing stands for another. In order to do that, she had to
establish some discipline in Helen's life. This movie is the tale of that
process.
The Perkins School for the Blind is famous throughout the world for
teaching the blind or sight impaired innovative ways to adapt to the
world. It still exists today and is located in Newton, Massachusetts.
In the 1880's, when Anne Sullivan journeyed from Boston to the
Keller's home in Louisiana, the best method of long distance travel over
land was the railroad. The trip by horse and buggy would have taken
months. The rail journey probably took more than a week.
At the dinner table, the captain and his son have a spirited debate over
the abilities of Ulysses S. Grant, the Union General who finally beat
Robert E. Lee in the Civil War. For decades after the Civil War and
into the 20th Century, many whites in the South refused to accept the
defeat of the Confederate armies.
Discussion Questions:
1.Words and phrases: dumb (in its meaning of someone who cannot
speak).
2.Do you know any people who have overcome a handicap? Describe
what happened.
3.Do you know any people who have given in to a handicap? Describe
what happened.
4.Was Anne Sullivan right to use harsh methods with Helen? Why was
discipline important to the process of teaching Helen the meaning of
symbolic language?
5.What type of parents did Helen Keller have? Would you have said the
same thing if, for all of Anne Sullivan's harsh methods, she had not
been able to teach Helen how to express herself and how to receive
communications from others?
6.Why was it so important for Helen to understand that there was a sign
that meant water?
7.Do animals communicate? How? What is different between
communication between people and communication between animals?
8.[ Standard Questions ]
Bridges to Reading: Helen Keller's autobiography The Story of My Life
has been recommended for children ages 10 to 15. An excerpt concerning
Helen's discovery of the concept of words and naming as well as portions of
Anne Sullivan's letters describing the revelation can be found at pages 312 317 of The Book of Virtues (1993) by W. Bennett; Simon & Schuster. We
read this to our eleven-year-old after he saw the movie and he was
enraptured. You might also give your child a book called Dear Mr. Bell...Your
Friend, Helen Keller by Judith St. George, Beach Tree Press, 1993.
Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, had a lifelong interest in
helping people with hearing disabilities. He is the person who advised Helen
Keller's father to hire a private tutor who was trained in working with deaf
children. When Helen could write, she thanked Mr. Bell. This short book,
intended for children, tells of their lives and friendship which lasted until Mr.
Bell's death, 35 years later.
Other books suitable for readers ten years of age or older that relate to
overcoming handicaps include: Run, Patty, Run by Cheila Cragg, Harper &
Row, 1980 (a girl overcomes epilepsy by running); Marathon Miranda by
Elizabeth Winthrop, (a girl overcomes asthma by running); A Handful of Stars
by Barbara Girion (a high school sophomore learns to live with epilepsy); Geri
by Geri Jewell (a young girl with cerebral palsy tries to become an actress);
They Accepted the Challenge by Charles Kuntzleman (experiences of
eighteen people who overcame their disabilities); The Mike King Story by
Mike King (about his trip in a wheelchair from Alaska to the East Coast); One
of the Lucky Ones by Lucy Ching (a Chinese girl becomes one of the first in
her country to learn braille); and Vedi (a book about a blind child in India).