Was Helen Keller Real?

 

Helen Keller was known for many things as being a blind and deaf woman. Helen found many ways to work around her disabilities and accomplish things that seem imposible for someone under her circumstances. Over her lifetime she wrote 14 books, almost 500 speechs, was the first blind and deaf person to graduate college, and some say she flew a plane. 

 

Helen Keller was born in 1880 to Aurther and Kate Keller. At 19 months old, she was diagnosed with a high case of at the time was called "brain fever", but now experts say it was scarlet fever. This left her completely blind and deaf at a young age. She had to find ways to be able to comunicate. One way is she would interprate hand signals that were pressed into her palm. Helen would also lip read by placing her hand on someones houth as they talked and on there throat to feel the vibrasions. Luckily for Helen, she had a teacher, Anne Sullivan, who helped her get to where she was with education and communicating which lead to her being an author. Helen Keller graduated from Radcliffe College in 1904 and later became the first blind deaf person to get a Bachelor of Arts degree. She wrote her first book in 1903, The Story of My Life. 

 

Helen wrote books to try and educate people about her journey and what she accompished. She worked hard to promote the needs for blind and deaf people. Her essays and speechs she wrote were to speak out many causes like women suffrage and workers' rights. Many people find it hard to believe most of the things Keller accomplished were real. A deaf-blind person writing multiple books seems pretty imposible. What seems to make everyone really not beileve is that she flew a plane. In June 1946, Keller flew a plane over the Mediterranean Sea for 20 minutes of its route. Back in this time, woman were not usually the ones to fly the plane and she had barley ever been a passenger in one before this experience. It is said that she piloted this plane with help from an interpreter who was giving her the instructions the piolet was telling him. Its hard to imagine a blind-deaf woman flying a plane which is why many people are sceptical of this. 

 

Personally, I think that she was a real person, but some of the things said she did are hard to believe. Some say she was never a real person at all. There is photographed evidence of Keller and witnesses that confirm some of the things she had done. However, I still find it hard to believe that she got in the pilot seat of a plane and flew it while being blind and deaf. Back then, these things seemed impossible that she even could have learned to read and write in the first place. 

 

Do you think she could have flown a plane?

Do you think she was even real at all?

If you were in her position, would you push to accomplish as much as her?

https://www.perkins.org/helen-keller-faq/#:~:text=How%20did%20Keller%20become%20deafblind,from%20scarlet%20fever%20or%20meningitis. 

https://www.britannica.com/video/221178/did-you-know-Hellen-Keller#:~:text=When%20Helen%20was%20six%2C%20she,and%20to%20even%20speak%20verbally.

https://afb.org/about-afb/history/helen-keller/books-essays-speeches#:~:text=She%20was%20also%20a%20tireless,in%20Europe%2C%20and%20atomic%20energy.

You need to be a member of History 360 to add comments!

Join History 360

Replies are closed for this discussion.

Replies

    • I agree with your comment. I do think it is near impossible to be blind and deaf, but also fly a plane. Also if she was blind and deaf, how would she learn what each letter is and sounds like. Also how would she understand words and phrases. It isn't adding up. 

  • I don't think Helen Keller could've flown a plane because it seems so unrealistic for a blind and deaf person to do. I think she could've been a real person but most of the things she accomplished like writing books sounds ridiculous because she was blind and DEAF!! If I was blind and deaf before I could understand things I don't believe I'd be able to accomplish the things she did. This is either fake or a miracle with everything she did. 

  • I dont think she could have flown a plane, personally because if she was mute, blind, and deaf how would she be able to see, hear, and talk though the process of flying a plane, it just couldnt be possible. I think that she was real, although the things that she had "done" seemed fake. I think I would push to accomplish as much as I could although the things that she did are quite interesting. 

    • Yes, i agree. If she was all of those things then how could she communicate and understand something as complicated as an aircraft?

  • Do you think she could have flown a plane? I think that with enough help and instructions that yes, she could've flown the plane. They also probably had her fly over a flat area with many possible emergency landing spots if they needed to. There was also a pilot that could take over and get the plane back on track. 

  • 1.) I do not think Helen could have flown a plane by herself or even with a passenger, but I do think she could have potentially been a co-pilot or could have flown it with assistance.

    2.) I think Helen was real but some of the achievements/things she did could have been exaggerated or faked.

    3.) To be honest, as much as I would want to think I could accomplish the things she did, I definitely would not be able to do things she did because I wouldn't even know what a plane was because you can't see it, or ever hear anyone talk about it to even teach you.

  • No I dont think that should could have flown a plane beacuse its imposable to fly and land a plane being blind and deaf. I think that she may have been real but her achvement definenty arnt. Yes but there is no way I would be able to do as much as she did because she didnt do any of it. 

  • I don't think that a blind and deaf person could have flown a plane specially back then when not even woman would fly planes. It would be very hard for her to fly the plane even if someone was giving her directions. 

  • No, I do not think that she flew a plane, there is no way that she did that she was blind, dying at a young age. i think that she was real but there is no way she did all of those things. I think people made up stories about her to make her more popular. I was her. I think that I would be able to do nothing that she "supposedly" did.

    • I do not think she flew a plane either. People could have potensially made storys up aswell. Yes, the things she supposedly did would be almost impossible.

This reply was deleted.
eXTReMe Tracker