How did helen keller’s disabilities affect her before her teacher, anne sullivan, arrived? support your answer with evidence from the text.

Before the arrival of Miss Anne, Helen is portrayed in a well of loneliness. Her father pities his child for her disabilities. However, he cannot put her away but remains infuriated by Helen’s behavior. He also yells at the poor child because of this. Her untamed behavior affected everyone in the household.

In the first scene, Helen tries to attract some attention to her doll with no eyes. She wants the toy to get rescued. In order to achieve this attention, she swindles a few important papers from his father’s desk. However, the response from Mr. Keller is ice-cold. He says,“Whatever it was. Deprived child, the least she can have are the little things she wants.”

Further, when we study Kate’s behavior, it stands out to be overprotective towards her little girl. The first appearance of the mother describes her efforts to shield Helen. She appears when Helen is about to injure one of their servants. Kate struggles physically while separating her albeit disabled daughter with the scissors but gives up at last.

The last member of the family is the elder brother who hardly accepts Helen as her sister and makes fun of her disabilities. An example can be extracted from the text to prove his sarcasm towards the behavior of his younger sister:

“She only dug Martha's eyes out. Almost dug. It's always almost, no point worrying till it happens, is there?”

James also pushes the thought of taking her away to an asylum when he says, “Half sister, and half-mentally defective, she can't even keep herself clean.  It's not pleasant to see her about all the time.” This again shows how disgusted he is from his kin.

However, all this madness in the life of Helen Keller ends with the arrival her savior- Miss Anne.

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explanation:

a. both connotative and denotative.