26 pages • 52 minutes read
Russell FreedmanOut of Darkness: The Story of Louis Braille
Nonfiction | Biography | Middle Grade | Published in 1997A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Key Figures
Themes
Index of Terms
Important Quotes
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BetaChapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “The Dormitory”
Louis Braille, a blind teenager, is awake one night in his school dormitory at the Royal Institute for Blind Youth in Paris. He punches holes in paper with a stylus (a sharp point). A friend nearby whispers that he should be asleep, but Braille perseveres, pausing to feel the raised dots which he has created. Braille reflects that he can no longer remember the sites of his boyhood home, or his parents’ faces.
Chapter 2 Summary: “The Accident”
Chronologically, Chapter 2 occurs before Chapter 1: It is 1812, and Braille is three years old. Braille enters the workshop of his father, Simon-Rene Braille, who works as a saddle and harness maker. Braille has been cautioned that the tools are not toys, but he is curious, and his father is distracted. Braille picks up an awl and tries to pierce a piece of leather. The surface is slippery, and the awl slips and punctures Braille’s left eye. In the following weeks, the eye becomes infected. The infection spreads to Braille’s other eye, destroying the corneas of both eyes. Braille becomes completely blind by the time he is four years old.
Chapter 3 Summary: “The Little Blind Boy”
Braille memorizes his home through touch and is able to navigate it safely. His father crafts him a cane, and he begins exploring further afield. Braille learns the distance to landmarks such as the village center and the pond. He also memorizes the smells and feels of different seasons and learns the distinct sounds of peoples’ voices.
The village priest, Father Jacques Palluy, offers to teach Braille, who is seven. Impressed by his intelligence and curiosity, Palluy recommends that he attend the local school. Schoolmates take turns leading Braille to school each day. Antoine Becheret, the schoolmaster, is impressed with Braille’s intellect, particularly in memorization and answering questions. However, Braille cannot read or write and must sit in silence.
Meanwhile, Father Palluy travels to Paris and visits a school for blind children: The Royal Institute for Blind Youth. Braille’s parents advocate for his attendance, and he is admitted on a scholarship. Braille begins attending the school at the age of 10, in February of 1819.
Chapters 1-3 Analysis
Freedman opens his biography at a climactic moment: Braille’s development of his titular system of reading and writing. Chapters 2 and 3 take readers back to understand the accident which led to Braille’s blindness, and his life as a young, blind boy in a small French country town. This sequencing allows readers to be engaged by Braille’s seminal idea, and then to understand the chronological events which led Braille to developing this idea.
It is clear that people during this time underestimate Braille and other members of the blind community. Braille’s schoolmaster, Antoine Becheret, considers Braille’s intelligence and wit “miraculous” (17). Becheret is shocked that when it comes to memorization and verbal repartee, Braille eclipses his peers. In 19th-century provincial France, sighted people deem the prospects and abilities of people who are blind to be limited. Freedman uses Braille’s story to show that stereotypes about people who have disabilities are damaging; Blind People as Capable, Intelligent & Self-directed is an important theme.
Braille’s parents stand apart from mainstream opinions about blind individuals. They advocate for Braille and urge him to explore independently—“his family encouraged him to do things for himself” (12). They are determined that Braille should live as independently as possible and learn useful skills. This leads Braille to attend the Royal Institute for Blind Youth in Paris, where he is inspired to create his seminal braille system.
Freedman shows that Braille is determined through his adventures outside the home and into the village. This speaks to one of the pivotal themes of the text: Perseverance in the Face of Setbacks and Obstacles. Armed with only his cane, Braille ventures into town and memorizes distances, smells, and sounds to orientate himself. This speaks to Braille’s intelligence. Freedman characterizes him in these opening chapters as smart and eager to learn. Both the village priest, Father Palluy, and the schoolmaster, Antoine Becheret, note Braille’s “quick mind” when engaged in lessons (7). Braille’s invention of braille is foreshadowed by his determination and intelligence as a child.
The limits of the education system in the provincial town of Coupvray are evident in these opening chapters—“it was unheard of for a blind child to attend a village school” (16). Braille memorizes verbal lessons, but must sit in silence as the other children read and write. Braille’s exclusion during his first years of schooling foreshadows his determination to develop a system where people who are blind can read and write. Freedman implies that the young, bright Braille is frustrated and isolated by his inability to communicate nonverbally. These anecdotes allude to a pivotal theme: Learning and Education as a Fundamental Human Right.
Chapter 1 further explores Braille’s sense of atomization. As an eleven-year-old student at the Royal Institute for Blind Youth, he feels “isolated from much of human knowledge” (3). Even education for people who are blind at specialized institutions is clearly limited in the 19th century. Braille feels that the systems in place devised for people who are blind to read and write are “almost useless,” and that people who are blind “could never share fully in life” (3).
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