Claim (Point) 

Data (Proof) 

Warrant (Persuasion)

• Relational Conflict
  

– Annie and Keller are not on good terms.

– Annie and the Keller family are awkward in their interactions.

• Situational Conflict – Annie is having difficulty fitting in with the Kellers in her state of employment with them.

"Whose?"

"Yours, young lady, isn't it obvious?"

"Miss Annie, put up with it. And with us."

"Us!"

(She is leaning toward ANNIE, in deadly earnest…)

(… Kate not letting her eyes go; her appeal at last is unconditional, and very quiet.)

(She glances from Kate to Keller, who stare, waiting; and she makes it as plain and simple as her nervousness permit.) 

• Annie and Keller do not get along, particularly because her behaviour/character does not meet his chauvinist expectations of women. Tone further suggests that Keller assumes everyone agrees with him, yet Annie is willing to change his views. Moreover, he thinks the problem lies with Annie, not with them, i.e. "us!".
  
• Both Annie and Keller do not seem to tolerate each other. Keller is unhappy with her while according to Kate, Annie has some trouble accepting some of the Kellers' way of doing things.
  
• The state of relationship behaviour between Annie and the family is conflicted particularly because it borders on negotiation/bargaining most of the time.

• Relational Conflict – Helen fears/ hates to be around Annie.
  

• Situational Conflict – Annie is facing problems trying to teach Helen.

"…the slightest hope of your teaching a child who flees from you now like the plague…"

"I can't teach a child who runs away."

"It's useless for me to try to teach her language or anything else her."

• The situation between Annie and Helen is problematic particularly because one cant stand to be in the same room as the other, particularly because Helen is unable to understand what Annie is trying to do. i.e. help her.
  
• Annie has trouble doing her job because of Helen's behaviour and resistance to being taught. The challenge is daunting and seems to cause Annie some degree of hopelessness/desperation/increased motivation etc.

• Relational Conflict/ Situational Conflict – Annie disagrees with Kate and Keller's methods of bringing up their child on principal as well as because it is preventing her from doing her job well.

"I think everybody else here does."

"I don't think Helen's worst handicap is deafness or blindness. I think it's your love. And pity."

"No wonder she won't let me come near her." 

• Although Kate thinks that it is Annie who underestimates Helen in this extract, it is actually the couple who discount (disregard) Helen's ability to learn and be disciplined. Annie evidently thinks that Helen's bad behaviour and stubborn resistance to being taught is a result of her parent's love and pity.

Claim (Point) 

Data (Proof) 

Warrant (Persuasion)

NO, Annie is NOT successful.

"…teaching a child who flees from you now like the plague, to anyone else she can find in this house."

"…teach a child who runs away."

"… she won't let me come near her."

"I think everybody else here does."

"Like the lost lamb in the parable, I love her all the more."

"I don't think Helen's worst handicap is deafness or blindness. I think it's your love. And pity."

"All of you here are so sorry for her you've kept her – like a pet, why, even a dog you housebreak."

Despite the challenges she faces, for example...

• Teaching a child who refuses to be taught or resistant to learning
  
• Teaching a child who won't let her teacher get close to her.
  
• Having to work with parents who disagree with her views on educating a child, particularly a deaf-blind one
  
• Trying to teach a child in a certain way only to have it undone by parents' efforts to protect and defend their child
  
• Having to undo the ill-effects of parents' extreme love and pity on Helen.

Yes, Annie is successful.

" She did fold her napkin."

"Miss Annie, before you came we spoke of putting her in an asylum."

" …do you know she began talking when she was six months old? […] I never saw a child so bright, or outgoing – "

Also possible to use above challenges as indication of success (but cannot both at the same time – logical flaw):

"…child who flees from you now like the plague, to anyone else she can find in this house."

"…child who runs away."

"… she won't let me come near her."

If yes:

Despite the challenges, Annie manages to teach Helen to fold her napkin, no small feat for this spoilt handicapped child – something her parents could not get her to do for years.

However, had Annie not come, Helen's education might not have been possible as Helen might have been sent to the madhouse.

If NO:

Annie does not seem to overcome the challenges. All she manages to do is teach Helen how to fold her napkin, something which, given Helen's intelligence, is not entirely to Annie's credit.

In addition, she further worsens the situation such that Helen fears her, runs from her to other people in the household, and won't even let her come close.

Claim (Point) 

Data (Proof) 

Warrant (Persuasion) 

Agree: Helen's worst handicap is not deafness or blindness.

"…everybody else here does [underestimate her]"

"Like the lost lamb in the parable, I love her all the more."

"All of you here are so sorry for her you've kept her – like a pet, why, even a dog you housebreak."

"… of putting her in an asylum."

"For mental defectives."

"… people like – animals, with – rats, in the halls, and – "

"I only today saw what has to be done, to begin!"

- Helen is absent from the conversation in the passage

• Parent's underestimation of her prevents her from accomplidhing all that she can. i.e. fulfilling her potential. This contrasts with the possibilities Annie sees in Helen.
  
• Parents lack of understanding about the condition of blindness and deafness had them to treat Helen's physical handicap as a mental condition, affecting the way they bring her up
  
• Choice of diction such as "kept her", "putting her", repetition of the word asylum plus consistent reference to animals further convey impression of parents' lack of regard for Helen's humanity. They have objectified her and in doing so, fail to have normal expectations on her development as an individual.
  
• This is further compounded by image of suffocating parental love that threatens to confine Helen in a sheltered/controlled environment for her safety.
  
• Eventually, just as how Helen has no say in how her life should be run, as reflected from her absence in this passage, she too will grow up handicapped beyond physical restrictions.
  

Secondary reference to text to support above claim made:

• James and Captain Keller discuss putting Helen away with Kate. James wants to put her in "[s]ome asylum" while Keller just wants "a way of confining her".
  

In the same discussion, James highlights Annie's views about how handicapping Helen's parents love is to her. "Never learn with everyone letting her do anything she takes it into her mind to –" contrasts with Keller's opinion: "Deprived child, the least she can have are the little things she wants." (p14)

Kate argues: "How can you discipline an afflicted child? Is it her fault?" (p15)

• Breakfast scene, Annie flares up: "The whole house turns on her whims, is there anything she wants she doesn't get? I'll tell you what I pity, that the sun won't rise and set for her all her life, and every day you're telling her it will, what good will your pity do her when you're under the strawberries, Captain Keller?"(p55)
  

• During Annie's negotiation for more time with Keller, Annie considers Helen's potential. "Cleanliness is next to nothing, she has to learn that everything has its name! That words can be her eyes, to everything in the world outside her, and inside too, what is she without words? With them she can think, hagve ideas, be reached, there's not a thought or fact in the world that can't be hers."(p99)
  

Disagree: Helen's worst handicap is her deafness and blindness.

" It's still in her, somewhere, isn't it? You should have seen her before her illness, such a good-tempered child – "

"She's changed."

- Helen is absent from the conversation in the passage

" I – want complete charge of her."

"She has to be dependent on me."

"Everything. The food she eats, the clothes she wears, fresh – air, yes, the air she breathes, whatever her body needs is a – primer, to teach her out of."

"…the one who lets her have it …"

• Helen's potential is restricted by her physical limitations. She is a bright child but unable to satisfy her thirst for knowledge, nor have an outlet to express her emotions and knowledge.
  
• Physical handicap has affected her character, which in turn affects her social interaction with the family. As a result, Helen has no say over her fate.

Secondary reference to text to support above claim made:

• The incident where Helen yanks buttons off Aunt Ev's dress, Aunt Ev makes the observation that "This child has more sense than all these men Kellers, if there's ever any way to reach that mind of hers."(p14)
  

• As Anagnos points out when briefing Annie, Helen is "Deaf, blind, mute – who knows? She is like a little safe, locked, that no one can open. Perhaps there is a treasure inside." (p18)