Nineteen percent of the population in the U.S is mentally disabled(www.census.gov ). If they could become intelligent by getting the operation that will make them have artificial intelligence the world would be a better place, but everything comes with a price. In the short story, “Flowers for Algernon” 37 year old, Charlie Gordon is a disabled man and wants to be smart like other people. He ends up getting the operation, that will triple his sixty -eight point IQ score and make him smart just like he wants to be. In the end , Charlie and the doctors find out that the operation was temporary, so he will lose all of his intelligence as fast as he gained it. Which was in less than a month. Charlie disappears mysteriously because he did …show more content…
Charlie loses Algernon which was a friend after the operation because he became too smart and they did not like the changes. In the text it says, “I put Algernon’s body in a cheese box and buried him in the backyard. I cried.” (Keyes,240). Since Algernon was one thing that Charlie really cared for it upset him to see Algernon die. It was scary for Charlie because it adds on top of his depression that he is worried what will next happen to him. Anyone could tell that Charlie was really upset because Algernon died suffering and that was one of Charlie's only friends. This proves that Charlie loses a close friend, and is only one of the many horrific costs of the …show more content…
In Charlie’s case he could have died from the operation, but there is a possibility he killed himself too. Anyone can infer that he died or committed suicide because he left a note saying, “P.P.S. Please if you get a chance put some flowers on Algernon’s grave in the back yard.”(Keyes, 245). Since he left a note any person can tell that he definitely cares but, is not coming back. If he did not get the operation he would not have ever went through this and died so young. Once again this is another one of the terrible outcomes that happened with this operation. Charlie probably just felt so stressed out because of so many bad things happening so quick. Like Algernon dying, friends leaving him, and dying while becoming less and less smart everyday. All of this proves that if he never got the operation, he would never be in the
On that day he picked up Algernon like normal but got bit. Charlie watched afterward for some time and saw that he was disturbed and vicious. Burt tells me that Algernon is changing. He is less cooperative, he refuses to run the maze any more, and he hasn't been eating. Burt and others have to feed Algernon because he refuses to do the shifting lock. This a indication that the procedure isn't permanent and Charlie may start to lose intelligence. On May 25 Dr.Nemur and I told Charlie not to come to the lab anymore. Then on May 29 we gave him permission to start a lab and he worked all day and all night on the reason he is losing intelligence. On june 5th he is forgetting stuff which leads up to him becoming absent minded on June 10th. The other indications the procedure wasn’t permanent was once they dissected Algernon who died on June 8th Charlie predictions were correct. Charlie also can’t read or remember books he already read. Soon Charlie can’t remember where he put stuff, forgets punctuation, and spelling reverts back to before. These indications are clear that the procedure wasn’t
Is becoming smart always better than staying dumb? After considering Charlie’s situation, I have decided that the answer to this question is no. Charlie is the main character in the science fiction story Flowers for Algernon written by Daniel Keyes. In the book, Charlie is a 37 year old man who has an I.Q. of 68 and is on a mission to become smart. When the opportunity comes for him to participate in an experiment for an operation that can triple his I.Q., he willingly takes it. It turns out that the operation only grants a temporary intelligence boost, and Charlie experiences high intelligence only to have it start deteriorating. I think that Charlie was wrong to have the operation that temporarily made him smart.
Charlie was used, opportunists only looked after Charlie for their own well-being. These doctors knew Charlie was the ultimate person, he had no family. Additionally, the surgeons superseded Charlie’s life, nobody was definite of the side effects, yet they agreed on performing this experiment. No heart was given to Charlie, he was just an item for Dr. Strauss and Dr. Nemur. Moreover, Algernon was not the only lab mice, there were hundreds more! Tons of these animals probably died; however, the specialists prepared this analysis with one victorious lab to rodent. All the people working with Charlie on the study were conscious on the side effect; despite that, nobody informed Charlie. Over the months, Charlie was only a gadget to benefit the opportunists, the human himself. Not being aware of all the circumstances, Charlie was an investigation to fix
He was much happier before the operation. The situations were the same before. But, after the operation, he had started noticing the obstacles. Joe and Frank used to tease Charlie before, but now he was ashamed and realized that they had befriended him to make fun of him. He now started noticing the wicked incidents in his surrounding and started to compare them to his life. He became lonely after he got fired from his job. His life had become a track lane with obstacles all along the way after he became intelligent. Intelligence does not always lead to happiness. The story “Flowers for Algernon” proves that ignorance is
Algernon is a mouse. He's a special mouse, Charlie Gordon is told, and it must be true, because whenever Charlie and Algernon run a race (Algernon is in a real maze; Charlie has a pencil-and-paper version), Algernon wins. How did that mouse get to be so special, Charlie wonders? The answer is that Algernon's IQ has been tripled by an experimental surgical procedure.
With his simple minded approach to life, he was able to live happily without problems or difficulties that we face in relationships today. Although he was never smart, Charlie was a good person before the surgery.
The experiment starts to work and Charlie gets smarter and he starts realizing new things. Before the operation his imagination and his brain weren’t working that well. His imagination started to work for the first time when he got this operation. Now that he was smart, he could quit his old job of working as a janitor at a bakery and start working for the hospital full time.
Although Charlie was a thirty seven year-old man, his understanding and comprehension of a situation was far too low to understand such consequences that the surgery could come with. In the article, "Five Steps to Better Ethical Decision Making", it says to ask yourself if you could understand making that choice (Dobrin). The doctors in "Flowers for Algernon" did not ask themselves if they were lacking as much intelligence as Charlie, could they make the choice to have the surgery? Charlie didn't know what could happen to him if the there were side effects until it was too late. Therefore, the doctors did not act ethically when choosing Charlie as the test
As a result of the operations, Charlie gains the experience of what it is like to be intelligent. Therefore, he sees the world as it is. “Only a short time ago, I learned that people laughed at me. Now I can see that unknowingly I joined them in laughing at myself. This hurts most of all” (76.) He can now truly understand how the outside world functions and how he is truly treated.
Flowers for Algernon Flowers for Algernon, written by Daniel Keyes, is a book that is an emotional roller coaster. This book includes science that one day might not be fictional but may come true and will be able to be used by people who have intellectual disabilities in today's world. The book starts with a man, who is mentally retarded, writing in a journal about them using him in a surgery used to change him for the better. This mans name is Charlie Gordon. He is the kind of man who works hard to achieve only little accomplishments and never gives up.
In conclusion, I believe that Charlie?s life was better before the surgery. Although ?
At the end of the story, Charlie moves away from his home because he can’t relate to people or go back to his normal life. “I forgot I wasn’t in Miss Kinnian’s class at the adult center...She started to cry and run out of the room and everybody looked at me and I saw they weren’t the same people who used to be in my class….That’s why I’m going away from New York for good” (Keyes 379). He has to move away from his hometown and friends because he can’t function normally, so obviously, not much is gained. It is also implied that Charlie dies at the end of the story because of the operation. Algernon also dies and Charlie says “Goodbye Miss Kinnian and Dr. Strauss and everybody” (Keyes 380). Dying because of an operation and losing all of the intelligence he had does not make his journey worth it. In Awakenings, however, the journey is different, and that makes it worth
Before Charlie had the operation preformed on him, he had friends at the bakery he worked at. They were not really his friends because they always made jokes about Charlie, but he was not smart enough to realize it. As he gets smarter he loses his friends because they think he is just trying to act smart.
Was Charlie better off without the operation? Through Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes sends an crucial message to society that man should never tamper with human intelligence or else the outcome can be personally devastating. After Charlie's operation, he felt isolated and lonesome, change in personality made him edgy around people or (lack social skills), and suffered from traumas due to past memories.
“Flowers for Algernon, first published in 1959, is considered a landmark work on both science fiction and disability literature,” (Werlock 2009). The American Library Association reports that this novel was banned as an obscene for its love scenes. When the main character, Charlie Gordon, increases his IQ from 68 to a level that makes him a genius (after received experimental brain surgery), his maturity leads him to fall in love with his teacher, and a sexual encounter ensues. This caused Flowers for Algernon to be banned and challenged in many places (Plant City, Florida- 1976, Emporium, Pennsylvania- 1977, Oberlin High School (Ohio) - 1983, among others). Most people consider the sexual scenes fairly mild, but there are those who consider any mention of sexual behavior inappropriate for teens or pre-teens, hence the attempts at censorship. Many of the challenges have proved unsuccessful, but the book has occasionally been banned from school libraries including some in Pennsylvania and Texas. Flowers for Algernon has won numerous awards, even for the film, and it is regularly taught in schools around the world; therefore, it should remain on shelves.