Abstract: Helen Keller, a famous American female writer, activist and speaker, was stricken blind and deaf as a baby, and lived for 87 years in a silent and dark world. But in her autobiography The Story of My Life, the “common language mode” consists of joy, happiness, love, pleasure and other words of positive emotions, which indicate that Keller’s tone of narration is positive and optimistic, and her life colorful and happy. Love for nature, pursuit of knowledge, gratitude for the people around her, and content for whatever life offers her, are the four main sources of Keller’s happiness.

Key words: Helen Keller; The Story of My Life; sources of happiness; functional stylistics

Xue Yufeng, Ph. D., is Professor in theCollegeofForeign LauguagesatHenan University,China. Her academic interests include American literature and European culture. Her recent publications include A Trauma Study of American Literature (2014), “Combination of a Vietnam Veteran and a Chinese American Young Man: The Image of A Chinese American Cop by Chinese American Writer Ed Lin” (2015), “Transgenerational Trauma in F. M. Ng’s Bone” (2014), “American Society in the Eyes of a Mr. Dog: On Paul Auster’s Timbuktu” (2014), “Trauma, Busyness and Attitude: A Positive Psychological Reading of The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin” (2013), “Melancholy, Humor, and Wisdom: On Dale Carnegie’s Lincoln the Unknown” (2013), etc.