The Silent Cry
During
my first-grade year, I was diagnosed with red-green color blindness. It is not
such a serious health problem that it greatly affects one’s life, however, my
parents was quite shocked with unexpected news as if I had cancer. I was
brought to the biggest hospital in my town for treatment. Looking back, I find
it humorous that my old doctor applied eye drops into my eyes, but the
medication was for the complete color-blind. Consequently, as I opened up my
eyes in the water, my sight became blurred for a day. Although it was only
one-day experience, it was the most fearful day in my entire life.
Overcoming
fears is a difficult task. These days, a number of people have various types of
fears, but they attempt to avoid and disregard their frights because simply it
is tough to face them. In this sense, people value courage highly and call the
people overcome difficulties with great bravery as heroes. “They are
individuals of great physical and mental courage” (Polster, 2001). There is a
great example of fortitude and perseverance from our history, Helen Keller.
Most
importantly, Helen Keller demonstrates remarkable heroism that she overcame her
formidable disabilities. When Keller was less than two years old, she lost both
her sense of seeing and hearing due to an illness called “Brain fever”, and for
certain, it should be a terrible faith for a little girl. Tollefson points out
that heroes serve powers or principles larger than themselves (Tollefson,
1993). Keller made her crisis as a golden opportunity. Furthermore, she proved
that the mental strength is the most important factor in humans’ lives because
it determines one’s life. Keller also had a strong eagerness to learn. She
quickly mastered the lessons of her lifelong teacher, Sullivan, so then she
started reading and writing at the age of seven. As the first deaf-blind
graduate, Keller successfully graduated from Harvard University. Her performance
should be highly praised because it is extremely challenging even for not
disabled people to be admitted from prestigious school like Harvard. Keller did
not escape from obstacles, but she persistently gave her best effort to find
the purpose of life.
Another
heroic characteristic of Keller is that she dedicated her life to working and
helping handicapped people. In general, humans conduct the pursuit of their own
benefit. Contrasted with ordinary people, Keller was always forward to help
others. “She never lost a sense of true empathy for the poor of the world” (“In
Search of the Heroes”: Tragedy to Triumph, n.d.). As soon as she left college,
she focused her energy on various activities in order to take better care of
the socially weak and alienated. First, she began writing and published her
first book in 1903, The Story of My Life.
The book described the process how she went through her difficulties as a
deaf-blind person. Through her stories, a large number of people found the
importance of optimism. Moreover, Keller joined several organizations such as
American Foundation for the Blind and American Braille Press in order to help
blind people. By this time, she traveled around the world and gave hundreds of
speeches to incite people who felt unsatisfied with their lives. In her
lifetime, she received various medals and degrees. Her accomplishments were
particularly unusual and heroic.
To
conclude, Helen Keller obviously displays heroic characteristics because: she
overcame her disabilities with great courage and she spent her life to help
other disabled people. She deserves to be known as a hero due to her braveness
and dedication. For certain, she would not even be existed without massive
helps from people, however, her performances were extraordinary and not
everyone could do. Keller did not save people from such a dangerous moment like
other superheroes, but she gave priceless motivation to people, as a result,
they earned new lives.
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