Improbably Predictable: Viney predicts how the Captain will respond to the news that supper will be delayed.See Jerk with a Heart of Gold in the Characters subpage. Additionally, James Keller (Helen's condescending half-brother) also demonstrates this in the film's climax, being the only one to realize that Helen's attempts at misbehaving are just a way of testing Anne. Hidden Depths: The whole premise of the film helps to show off how much Helen emulates this, in-universe.Then he learns that any kind of light hurts her eyes, and tells her to put them back on. Heel Realization: Annie removes her dark glasses in response to Captain Keller's complaint.(She had over sixty such signs (they're called home signs) long before Annie arrived.) Most notably, she strokes her cheek to indicate that she wants her mother, and adults nod or shake their heads against her hand to indicate yes or no. Hand Signals: Helen's most effective means of communication before learning language.Good Versus Good: Annie and the Kellers are both trying hard to do whats best for Helen, but they clash over what that means.During her flashbacks, Annie hears and interacts with the voices of her younger brother and others from the orphan asylum.īoy's Voice: Annie, does it hurt to be dead? Flashback: Annie's past is revealed to the audience through multiple flashbacks.Famous Ancestor: Aunt Ev reminds Kate that Helen is a Keller, and that all the Kellers are cousins to General Robert E."Eureka!" Moment: Just as described in Helen Keller's autobiography, feeling water from a pump as Annie spells out the word causes her to suddenly make the connection that the symbols are the things everything around her has a name, and her finger game has actually been teaching her a language.
The next scene shows how difficult the several years since then were for the family.
Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Annie tells Kate not to pity her, despite the fact that Annie had grown up in an almshouse, because it made her strong.
The Disney version retains the physical violence and the black plantation workers, though it does tone down Annes backstory. A mild case as she's not being truly prevented from eating Annie is just insisting she has to eat her own food, from a separate plate, rather than going around grabbing off everyone else's plate, and as part of this is preventing her from taking other food so that she has to eat from her own plate if she wants to eat. Denied Food as Punishment: One of Annie's teaching methods for Helen which Helen's mother, Katie, disapproves of.Corporal Punishment: Annie slaps Helen when Helen hits her.
THE MIRACLE WORKER BREAKFAST SCENE HOW TO
You have to know how to spell it before you can look up how to spell it. Through sheer willpower and compassion, the walls separating Helen from the outside world begin to crumble, as student and teacher forge a connection.Annie: What a dictionary. And so begins a battle of wills between the obstinate Helen and the equally stubborn Anne (a breakfast scene between the two becomes a virtual wrestling match). That help arrives in the form of Anne Sullivan, a teacher whose personal struggles have provided her with the tools to assist Helen. The young Helen, blind and deaf since infancy as a result of scarlet fever, becomes prone to violent outbursts that grow more frequent and intense, resulting in her parents, Captain Arthur Keller (Victor Jory, Gone with the Wind) and Kate Keller (Inga Swenson, Advise & Consent), reaching out to a school for the blind for help. Working on familiar ground (having directed Bancroft and Duke in the Broadway play), Penn would find a fresh approach in transitioning the story of Helen Keller from stage to screen by opening up the action with on-location shooting, unique camera work by Ernest Caparros (TV's Naked City), razor sharp editing by Aram Avakian (Lilith) and several bravura set pieces. The powerhouse performances of Anne Bancroft (The Graduate) and Patty Duke (Valley of the Dolls) are the heart and soul of director Arthur Penn's (Bonnie and Clyde) screen adaptation of The Miracle Worker.