The Story of My Life: Chapter 14 Summary & Analysis

In the winter of 1892, the “bright sky” of Helen’s childhood was darkened by a single cloud. Helen found herself living in doubt, anxiety, and fear, no longer able to enjoy one of her favorite things in the world—books. Even now, she writes, the thought of the “dreadful days” of that winter chills her heart. Helen had written a story called “The Frost King,” and sent it to Mr. Anagnos at the Perkins Institution, and this little story was the root of all her troubles. In this chapter Helen endeavors to “set forth the facts” about what happened.

Helen wrote “The Frost King” at Fern Quarry, the autumn after she had learned how to speak. While up at the country house, Miss Sullivan had described to Helen the beauty of the autumn foliage, and Helen, reflecting upon this time, notes that Miss Sullivan’s descriptions must have stirred up subconscious memories of a story which had been read to Helen in her youth. As Helen, inspired by the descriptions of the foliage, sat down to write, she thought that she was making up a story. The writing came flowing out of her, and though Helen now knows that if words and images come to her too easily it probably means that they are not “the offspring of [her] own mind,” at the time she thought that the story was entirely of her own invention.

When the story was finished, Helen read it aloud to Miss Sullivan, who corrected her pronunciation and praised her for her hard work. That night at dinner, Helen read the story aloud to her family, and they were so impressed that someone even asked her if she had read the story in a book. Helen, however, insisted that it was her own idea, and that she had composed it for Mr. Anagnos. Helen then copied the story and sent it to Mr. Anagnos, feeling as if she was “walking on air” as she took it to the post office. Mr. Anagnos received the story and was delighted by it, and even published it in one of the Perkins Institution reports. Helen felt that she was at the “pinnacle” of happiness, and did not know that she would soon be dashed back to earth.

Once Helen was back in Boston for school, it came to light that a story very similar to Helen’s, called “The Frost Fairies,” had been published in a book before Helen was born. Helen realized that the story must have been read to her at some point in her childhood—meaning her own story was plagiarism. Helen was ashamed and embarrassed, but luckily Mr. Anagnos believed Helen’s innocence in the matter, and showed her tenderness and kindness. The night before a school celebration, however, one of Helen’s teachers asked her about the story, and when Helen answered that Miss Sullivan had told her about Jack Frost and the turning of the autumn leaves up at Fern Quarry, the teacher believed that Helen had willfully copied the story. She told this to Mr. Anagnos, who also began to believe that Helen had lied.

Helen was brought before a “court” composed of teachers and officers of the Perkins Institution, and forced to answer their questions without Miss Sullivan present. Helen was so upset and so nervous that she could hardly speak, but tried her best to communicate that she had not intentionally copied “The Frost Fairies.”

Miss Sullivan tracked a copy of the original “Frost Fairies” stories to the summer home of a friend the two of them had stayed with many years ago, and their hostess did recall Miss Sullivan having read Helen many books aloud that summer. Helen posits that because she was so young that summer, and so new to language, she must have put in a great effort to understand and remember the words being spelled out to her—she believes that the language of the story became “stamped” on her brain, though she did not realize it or remember from whence it came.

During the ordeal, Helen received many messages of support and sympathy, and even got a letter from the author of “The Frost Fairies” herself. The letter assured Helen that someday she would write a wonderful story of her very own, but Helen writes now that this is not true—she has rarely played with words for pleasure since the incident, and even now when she writes simple letters to friends and family she is seized by the fear that the words she is writing are not her own.

Helen notes that she had, in much of her early writing, a habit of assimilating things that struck or pleased her and reprinting them as her own unknowingly. She was learning, she says—as all young people learn—through imitation. She fears she still has not completed the process of coming into her own as a writer and a thinker, as she still cannot always distinguish her own thoughts from concepts she has read about. Though she still struggles to write thoughtfully and originally, she keeps on trying because she is “not willing to acknowledge defeat.” She hopes that one day she will yet find her true, original voice.

Helen writes that this “sad experience” has actually done more good than harm in the long run—it has caused her to think deeply about the problems of composition. She regrets that she lost a friend in Mr. Anagnos, but ends the chapter by stating that since portions of her memoir have been published in the Ladies’ Home Journal, Mr. Anagnos has made a public statement announcing that he always believed Helen was innocent. Despite this, however, Helen cannot shake the memory of walking into the “courtroom” and feeling only hostility, suspicion, and menace in the air. Helen writes that she has given this account in her memoir because the incident was important to her life and to her education, and she does not want for there to be any misunderstandings about the hard facts.