Sketch for a Portrait, written by author Van Wyck Brooks, focuses on the blind, deaf and mute phenomenon, Helen Keller. This non-fiction book describes Helen’s life as she attains knowledge, builds and manages relationships and deals with life-altering afflictions. Though the book offers a realistic perspective, it also focuses on Helen’s point of view, which differentiates this book from other biographies of mutual interest.
This book is very specific and highlights many intimate relations and conversations. The intimacy within the thesis is easily noticed due to the acutely analyzed relationships of Helen’s past. It begins when Brooks arrives in Saint Augustine in the winter of 1932, as a pursuer of knowledge, to understand the admiration that people had for the young Helen Keller. He writes surreptitiously to disclose Helen’s eminence by comparing her to those of great status and power, such as Queen Victoria and Mark Twain. The thesis concludes as Brooks compares and contrasts Helen’s fame to her young age. Fundamentally, Van Wyck Brooks sets Helen Keller on a pedestal to be admired by everyman for her heart-warming achievements. It would be unreasonable to claim that Brooks was not biased; implying that there was some sympathy and strong emotions set toward this child at the time. The author obviously felt a personal connection to Helen and he may have embellished certain features of her life in order to signify the greatness which Helen secured.
There is one main contention in this book and it is to prove that nothing in life is unattainable. Though the author does not blatantly expose this idea, he wrote about a child whom was unknowingly about to emancipate the blind and deaf from self bondage. Helen Keller had no voice, yet was one of the loudest personas of her era and she had no site, yet was able to see beauty in everyone. Mark Twain even said that “she was the most marvellous person of her sex who existed on the earth since Joan of Arc.”(1) This book’s major strength is also its major weakness. It has supreme diction and sentence structures which make it a pleasure to read, yet it is so monotonous that it is easy to lose focus. Moreover, several new characters are introduced throughout the book and if the reader is not concentrated on the text, it may perturb them.
Undoubtedly, Sketch for a Portrait offers an in-depth description written by a man who knew Helen Keller on a personal level. To know someone as well as Brooks new Helen, means to acquire an explicit sense of emotion for an individual. This book differs from other biographies about Helen Keller because it is more impassioned than a typical, straight-forward biography could ever be.
Sketch for a Portrait, written by author Van Wyck Brooks, focuses on the blind, deaf and mute phenomenon, Helen Keller. This non-fiction book describes Helen’s life as she attains knowledge, builds and manages relationships and deals with life-altering afflictions. Though the book offers a realistic perspective, it also focuses on Helen’s point of view, which differentiates this book from other biographies of mutual interest.
ReplyDeleteThis book is very specific and highlights many intimate relations and conversations. The intimacy within the thesis is easily noticed due to the acutely analyzed relationships of Helen’s past. It begins when Brooks arrives in Saint Augustine in the winter of 1932, as a pursuer of knowledge, to understand the admiration that people had for the young Helen Keller. He writes surreptitiously to disclose Helen’s eminence by comparing her to those of great status and power, such as Queen Victoria and Mark Twain. The thesis concludes as Brooks compares and contrasts Helen’s fame to her young age. Fundamentally, Van Wyck Brooks sets Helen Keller on a pedestal to be admired by everyman for her heart-warming achievements. It would be unreasonable to claim that Brooks was not biased; implying that there was some sympathy and strong emotions set toward this child at the time. The author obviously felt a personal connection to Helen and he may have embellished certain features of her life in order to signify the greatness which Helen secured.
There is one main contention in this book and it is to prove that nothing in life is unattainable. Though the author does not blatantly expose this idea, he wrote about a child whom was unknowingly about to emancipate the blind and deaf from self bondage. Helen Keller had no voice, yet was one of the loudest personas of her era and she had no site, yet was able to see beauty in everyone. Mark Twain even said that “she was the most marvellous person of her sex who existed on the earth since Joan of Arc.”(1)
This book’s major strength is also its major weakness. It has supreme diction and sentence structures which make it a pleasure to read, yet it is so monotonous that it is easy to lose focus. Moreover, several new characters are introduced throughout the book and if the reader is not concentrated on the text, it may perturb them.
Undoubtedly, Sketch for a Portrait offers an in-depth description written by a man who knew Helen Keller on a personal level. To know someone as well as Brooks new Helen, means to acquire an explicit sense of emotion for an individual. This book differs from other biographies about Helen Keller because it is more impassioned than a typical, straight-forward biography could ever be.
by Olivia