The Miracle Worker a play by William Gibson

The Miracle Worker by William Gibson is a play about the story of Helen Keller and her teacher, Annie Sullivan. Helen was born in the late 1800s a typical child. As an infant, she suffered from an illness that left her blind and deaf. Helen's family struggled to raise her, but never truly found a way to reach her until they hired Annie Sullivan. Annie had been blind herself, but underwent several surgeries to bring her vision up by about half. At age 20, she was summoned by the Kellers to teach Helen. Helen's family had catered to Helen all her life, so she had no manners and no discipline. Annie worked to change that, but it was tough. She knew she somehow needed to get Helen to understand that each object had a "name", which she dutifully finger-spelled using sign language into Helen's hands each time she encountered something. While Helen learned to finger-spell many words herself, Annie knew she did not connect those gestures to the items they named. That is, until one crazy evening during supper when Helen threw a tantrum, splashing the water out of the pitcher at the table. Annie took Helen and the pitcher to the water pump, and that was when the breakthrough occurred. Suddenly Helen wanted to know the names of everything, including her mother and her teacher.

I already knew the story of Helen Keller before reading this book, but it was eyeopening to read about it! Because this is a play, all of the stage directions and emotions are described for the actors to follow. This made everything easier for me, as the reader, to visualize. Wow - if ever there was a teacher to admire, it's Annie Sullivan. She never gave up, even though she wanted to, even though she was stopped at every turn, even though it seemed hopeless.