Intelligence Is Not Of A Carnal Nature!

Michael Friant                                                                                                                              Mr. Sorensen History 132 December 13th, 2018                                                                                                                        

Intelligence Is Not Of A Carnal Nature!

Though society often judges whether or not individuals are intelligent based on looks, there are scores of individuals who are very intelligent but are physically incapacitated in some manner. One of these individuals was Helen Keller, who was the deaf and blind woman, who was best remembered for the water pumping depiction in the movie entitled, “The Miracle Worker.” However, through reading “Helen Keller; Activist” by Rachael A. Koestler-Grack,“The Southern Ties Of Helen Keller”  by Kim E. Neilsen, an interview of Helen Keller entitled, “Why I became a Socialist”,“Helen Keller, Rethinking The Problematic Icon” by Liz Crow,”and “The Radical Lives of Helen Keller by Kim E. Nielsen, one ought to conclude the following: Even though Helen Keller’s critics thought she was an invalid throughout her life due to her being deaf and blind, she was actually a bright, intelligent, and proficient woman because she spoke her mind, formulated her own beliefs, and went to college.

In chapter 7 of Helen Keller; Activist” by  Koestler-Grack, the author isdetailing Helen Keller’s love life with Peter Fagan which demonstrates that Keller was human despite of what others tried to do to prevent her from a love life. Keller expresses her feelings for Peter Fagan as,"His love was a bright sun that shone upon my helplessness and isolation," she said. "The sweetness of being loved enchanted me, and I yielded to an imperious longing to be a part of a man's life" (qdt. Koestler-Grack 72). Keller, as described in the following quote, even is explicitly involved in the secret planning of her escape:

They realized that the only way they could be together was if they eloped. The couple  came up with a dramatic plan. Helen and her mother werc planning to go to Alabama on a boat that stopped at Savannah, Georgia. From Savannah, they were going to board a train for Montgomery. Fagan would kidnap her as she made her way from the boat to the train. The couple would make a run for Florida, where Fagan had a friend who was a minister. (Koestler-Grack 73)

This quote is significant because it shows Keller was intelligent enough to know that she and Peter needed to get secretly married. It is also worth noticing how much brain power it took to come up with a plan such as this. First they had to realize that Keller was going to be passing through the same town that Fagan was living. Then  they had to closely coordinate where Peter would be when the train got to the station so as to not to miss each or that Keller would not be with her mother at the exact moment. 

     In “The Southern Ties Of Helen Keller” by Neilsen, the author is focused on the fact that Keller was from the south. One of the points the author makes is about her love life:

Before leaving the North, however, she fell in love and made secret plans to marry a  finger-spelling fellow socialist, Peter Fagan. The remaining members of Keller's nuclear  family, already angry at Helen, drew the line. Purportedly sneaking her away on a forced  midnight train trip and chasing Fagan away with a gun, they insisted to her that her  disability rendered her ineligible for marriage and childbearing. (Neilsen 797)

This quote is important because though her family saw her as unfit for love and the responsibilities of marriage by physically threatening the wellbeing of Peter, he on the other hand, was drawn to her due to her articulate and confident stance on issues. 

  Helen Keller was very cognitive about her beliefs. Even though some people oppose them, “Helen went on to endorse birth control, the radical Industrial Workers of the world, racial equality, and the the causes of striking workers, and she joined the Socialist Party Of America in 1909” (Neilsen 794). The following quote demonstrates how very little credit individuals were willing to give to Keller for these beliefs, “For example, when as a young adult Keller expressed political opinions considered radical in the early 1900s, opponents from her home state of Alabama blamed it on the Yankee influence of her by-then-married teacher Anne Sullivan Macy and her husband John Macy” (Neilsen 796). This quote is significant because shows the people DID view her as an invalid and a propaganda mechanism for other people’s agendas. 

     However Keller in the interview entitled “Why I became a Socialist,” hinted to being aware of this view when she says,

First — How did I become a Socialist? By reading. The first book I read was Wells' New  World for Old. I read it on Mrs. Macy's recommendation. She was attracted by its imginative quality, and hoped that its electric style might stimulate and interest me. When she gave me the book, she was not a Socialist and she is not a Socialist now. Perhaps she will be one before Mr. Macy and I are done arguing with her. (Keller)

This is a valuable quote for a couple of reasons. First, it proves that Keller was aware of the negative views of her opinions and she was smart enough to read. Second it shows how confident Keller was in herself with such unpopular beliefs. In the same interview she expresses frustration with the view of her propaganda mechanism when she says, “In the future I hope to write about socialism, and to justify in some measure the great amount of publicity which has been accorded to me and my opinions” (Keller). And again when she says, “Let it attack my ideas and oppose the aims and arguments of Soeilsm. It is not fair fighting or good argument to remind me and others that i cannot see or hear. I can read” (Keller).  These quotes illustrate Keller’s desire to be seen as an intelligent human being rather than just propaganda mechanism and someone with a disability. 

     In “Helen Keller, Rethinking The Problematic Icon” by Crow, the author examines the disability aspect of Keller’s life. As a young child, Keller was inventing her own language. To the bystander Helen was very difficult to handle due to her seemingly sporatic behavior, but to a close family member who actually interacted with Keller, “...she had by now began to devise her own basic signs, permitting the family rudimentary communication” (Crow 846). This is important because this shows Keller was both conscious of her surroundings and intelligent enough to understand she needed to take the initial step in trying to communicate with those around her. Later in the article, the writer responds to those who “maintained that a deaf and blind woman could not possibly know anything of the real world, that her 'mistakes spring out of the limitations of her development'” (854) with the following quote:

Exceptionally resilient, intelligent and inquiring and with the advantages brought by her class, it was those factors in combination with impairment and disability that made her what she was and brought her public notice. As a disabled woman she was different—she could not fit the life she was born to and, like so many others, was impelled to invent another. (Crow 859)

This is important because the quote acknowledges that Keller did not fit the stereotypical view of the people with disabilities but that she was exceptionally resilient and intelligent. 

     However, Crow also acknowledges that Keller struggled with the public image of herself. She says, “Where she struggled was to make public and be taken seriously for her opinions on anything other than impairment”(854). This is valuable because it shows that Helen was competent enough to know others thought and responded to that criticism as any other ‘normal’ human would.

     In The Radical Lives of Helen by Neilsen, the author is giving a deep synopsis of Keller’s life. During the presidential election year of 1944, Neilsen describes a media appearance in response to people trying to persuade Keller not to vote for FDR as, “In August, Keller indicated to the New York Times that she would, for the first time, cast a ballot and that it would be for President Roosevelt” (77). This is significant because Keller did not cave to the pressure of others, but rather stood up and indicated she would take action for what she believed. 

     There were individuals in Keller’s life who saw her as ‘normal.’ Neilsen describes one such relationship as, “With [Sculptor Jo Davidson] she debated theology, politics, art, and literature. Unlike many others, he dared to disagree with her outright and bluntly” (73). This is relevant because while most people saw Keller for her disabilities, her friend treated her as he would any other friend. 

     However, her disability had significance when it came to appealing to people’s emotions. The author describes a fundraising technique as, “She and others appealed to the public's sympathy and lamented disability as an unfortunate tragedy” (Neilsen 22). This is valuable because she had the intelligence to realize she could capitalize on her disability by using it as a fundraising technique. 

     While Keller capitalized on her disability as a fundraiser technique, she did not let her it define her. Neilsen writes her view of herself as:

Keller did not buy into the contention that her disability disqualified her from civic fitness. Nor did she acquiesce simply in order to protect her livelihood. The numerous obstacles caused by interpretations of her disability made the political participation she desired increasingly difficult for many private and public reasons. (49)

This is crucial because it shows Keller’s  mental strength to push through adversity and to stay focused despite the obstacles. 

       Koestler-Grack, Crow, Neilsen, and Keller challenge the stereotypical narrative of Helen Keller by taking a deeper look at the perception of her life. Society knows Keller as the deaf and blind child and the civilization of her by Ann Sullivan who was her teacher. From this deeper look of Keller’s life, society ought to approach individuals with disabilities with an open mind.

Works Cited:

Crow, Liz. "Helen Keller: Rethinking the Problematic Icon." Disability & Society, vol. 15, no. 6,  2000, pp. 845. ProQuest, http://ezproxy.cfcc.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.comdocview/195761506?accountid=9875.

Keller, Helen. “How I Became a Socialist” Helen Keller: Her Socialist Years, International Publishers, 1967, https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/keller-helen/works/1910s/12_11_03.htm

Koestler-Grack, Rachael. Helen Keller; Activist. Infobase Publishing, 2009.

Nielsen, Kim E. The Radical Lives of Helen Keller. NYU Press, 2004. EBSCOhost,ezproxy.cfcc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=129491&site=ehost-live.

Nielsen, Kim E. "The Southern Ties of Helen Keller." The Journal of Southern History, vol. 73, 
no. 4, 2007, pp. 783-806. ProQuest, http://ezproxy.cfcc.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.cfcc.edu/docview/215768897?accountid=9875.