CBSE Class 10 Answered

Chapter 9 summary

This chapter describes Helen’s trip to Boston. Miss Sullivan described to Helen everything that she saw on her way; she told her about the beautiful Tennessee River, the great cotton-fields, the hills and woods, and the crowds of laughing Negroes at the stations. Helen explains details about her doll Nancy in this chapter. Helen’s visit to the Perkins Institution for the Blind was a happy and an enriching experience for her for she realised that there were indeed people like her who couldn’t see but who used signs to communicate with each other. She visited the Bunker Hill in Boston and went to Plymouth by water, which was Helen’s first trip first voyage in a steamboat. She also made friends with a man named Mr. William Endicott and his daughter.

Chapter 10 summary

Helen and Miss Sullivan spend their vacation at Brewster, on Cape Cod with Mrs Hopkins. Helen was taken to the beach where she wore a swimsuit and tried playing with the waves. Helen describes her first experience at the sea, joyous at first but frightening later because the waves suddenly rushed to her when her foot got stuck in a rock. It was here that she realised that sea water is salty. Miss Sullivan introduced her to a horseshoe crab which Helen took home as a pet. However, the creature found its way back to the ocean and it took a while for Helen to realise that the crab would be happy to go back to his natural habitat.

Chapter 11 summary

Helen describes how she spent her autumn months with her family at their summer cottage in Fern Quarry. The description that Helen gives about their summer cottage and the nearby surroundings is beautiful and exciting. Helen also describes her experiences about the kind of visitors who came to Fern Quarry in the evening. Some men came to play cards while some came to while away their time and tell their hunting stories. As the men slept in the hall outside their door, Helen could feel the deep breathing of the dogs and the hunters as they lay on their beds. Helen writes about the experiences of the hunters in this chapter and also tells readers about her pony whom she called Black Beauty. Helen would ride Black Beauty occasionally and on other days she and her teacher would go for a walk in the woods discovering the trees and the woods. One day Mildred, Miss Sullivan and Helen lost their way in the woods until Mildred found a trestle, probably a short cut home. However, they had a misadventure when a train approached them and they narrowly escaped unhurt.

Chapter 12 summary

This chapter describes Helen’s first experience with snowfall. The earth is benumbed by the icy touch and the trees lay fast asleep, curled up in the dark. There is a snowstorm and Helen rushes outdoors to feel the first few tiny flakes descending. All the roads were hidden, not a single landmark was visible, only a waste of snow with trees rising out of it. However by night, he fury of the wind increased to an extent that it started terrorising Helen. As days passed, the trees lost their icy covering and the children came out to enjoy tobogganing.

Chapter 13 summary

In the spring of 1890, Helen learnt to speak by keeping one hand on her throat while the other hand felt the movements of her lips. In this chapter, she describes her childhood struggles while understanding what others spoke before Miss Sullivan came in her life. In 1890, Mrs Lamson, who taught Laura Bridgman, came to meet her and told her about a blind and deaf girl in Norway who learnt to speak. This inspired Helen immensely and she decided that she too would learn to speak one day. Miss Sullivan took the full responsibility of teaching Helen how to speak. After a lot of practice, Helen uttered her first complete sentence ‘it is warm’. She couldn’t speak well right away and in the beginning, only Miss Sullivan and Miss Fuller could understand her. Miss Sullivan practised with her for hours so that she could speak perfectly. When Helen went back to her home and family, her folks were overjoyed to see her progress and achievement.

Chapter 14 summary

This chapter contains the famous ‘Frost King’ episode where Helen wrote a story for Mr. Anagnos of the Perkin’s institute and turned out that the story was not an original one. Although Helen insisted that her story was original, it was discovered that Helen had heard a story named ‘The Frost Fairies’ by Miss Canby when she was young. And it was possible that unconsciously she reproduced the same story while writing to Mr. Anagnos. The episode affected the friendship between Mr. Anagnos and Helen. Helen made a mention of this experience in her book as she wanted to explain how important it was for her life and education. She neither defended herself nor blamed anyone. 

Chapter 15 summary

Helen spent the next summer and winter with her family in Alabama. Staying at home made her forget about the controversy over ‘The Frost King’. Helen was scared that people would discover that the ideas were not her own. To help her, Helen’s teacher Anne Sullivan encouraged her to write the story of her own life in the form of an assignment. Helen was 12 years old at that time and used to write for a magazine called Youth's Companion. Her visit to President Cleveland’s inauguration, to Niagara Falls, and to the World’s fair were the big events of 1893. Although she couldn’t see the Falls, Helen said that their power had a big impact on her. Helen claimed that beauty and music were like goodness and love to her.