Helen has been described as being, "like a little safe, locked up, that no one can open". Helen fits this description because she has lots of things hidden and locked away in her brain so the only way for her to unleash some of the stuff that's inside her is for her to act like an animal by running around and using her hands to find what is in front of her. She does that because there is no other way for her to communicate with others, so her mother hired Annie Sullivan to teach her sign language so that she can tell people what she wants to do and say. Annie sees that Helen is smart. "Helen pushes the doll's face. Kate now sees, she comes swiftly to kneel, lifts Helen's hand to her own eyes in question". Helen understood that when she touched the doll's eyes, that they were missing, and she wanted the doll to have eyes like her.
Helen Dennis / 20071117.10D.46197 / SML
Helen
Helen Dennis / 20071117.10D.46207 / SMLIt also showed in the book that Helen was actually a very smart girl because she knew how to open a door, turn the key to open and lock the door and hide the key. She learned how to walk up and down the stairs, how to go from plate to plate at the dinner table to get what she wanted. Helen was also smart because she knew exactly when to throw a temper tantrum when she didn't get her way or get whatever she wanted.
Her family doesn't know that her brain is normal but locked like a safe in her head. No one can open her to see what's inside.
Helen lost her sight and hearing when she was a baby, so she doesn't have words to tell or show people what she's feeling inside her. She uses her hands, mouth and her nose to figure things out.
Her family can't open the "safe" inside Helen because they don't know she is smart and they don't know how to teach her. They don't think she can learn. If they could open the safe they would find that Helen is smart and can learn.
Mr. Pignati can also fit this description because he was a very lonely person. I know that because in the book it said, "he sounded like such a nice old man, but terribly lonely". Mr. Pignati is a lonely person because his wife died and whenever he talked to someone he always had a jolly voice and he always wanted to keep talking to the person by telling himher jokes. Even though he was a lonely person he was always a nice person because he always enjoyed company and if people asked him for anything he would be more than gladly to give them whatever they wanted. Another reason in why he was a very nice person to everyone was because when Lorraine and John had a party in Mr. Pignati's house without him knowing about and they trashed his house and broke his glass pigs, Mr. Pignati was sad but kind enough to say it was alright and he wasn't mad at them. He wasn't mad at them because he knew that they didn't mean to break anything and he knew they were truly sorry about what they did.
Mr. Pignati was a kind guy in a lot of ways. He always offered things to Lorraine and John like buying them food or drinks or admission tickets for the zoo and skates. Mr. Pignati offered to take them to different places like the zoo and the store.
But at the end of this book John and Lorraine were thankful for all that he did for them and I think that at the end of the book when Mr. Pignati died they were sad, John and Lorraine probably made him a very happy guy by just being around with him and talking to him
Baby Helen: A Quadruple Upper Canine Yawn!
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