The oppression that Charlie’s mother forces onto him during his younger years profoundly affects him. In Jacques Lacan’s literary theory referring to the “perfect world,” he discusses a place of the mother’s womb and how one has all they need in the womb. During the course of a child’s life well into his adulthood even, there is always a need or attempt at trying to get back to the mother’s womb, also known as the “perfect world.” As a human being at his very core, Charlie Gordon yearns the closeness and acceptance from his mother that he remains unable to receive due to the barrier between him and his mother at the fault of his mental disability. At the beginning of the story where the possibility of undergoing the experimental surgery from …show more content…
When Charlie reflects on his childhood, the powerful, oppressive force within his life is mainly his mother, the one source of acceptance Charlie needs. The author applies this theory to reinforce the loneliness within Charlie and his soul, and this acts as the main aspect of him throughout the story. Keyes, then in turn, reinforces the loneliness that minorities feel in the world because of the acceptance they do not ever receive despite adhering to the average or advanced intelligence of the society enforcing the hurtful, impacting oppression. The impact of this oppression only exasperates the damage within Charlie and his emotional being. As his intelligence increases, Charlie Gordon’s emotional capacity does not necessarily grow, but it does suffer many destructive realizations that only lessen the strength of his emotional self. Cisneros, 12 Conclusion Through Charlie’s progress reports, the irony has to do with how informal the entries are in the novel. The focus of the experiment does act as a special case, the increase of intelligence, but the striking element of Keyes’s work is that of the personal, and often vivid, experiences outlined …show more content…
His emotional capacity remains out of immediate reach from him throughout his life, but the intelligence he gains, and inevitably loses, grants him the nearly perfect vision he needs in order to view his life through the entire scope of experience. This allows Charlie to reevaluate his relationships with others and his lack of human connection despite his increased intelligence. Through Daniel Keyes’s use of stylization, Charlie realizes the full extent of his inability to connect with others and how different intelligence is to that of the ability to form relationships. The more Charlie realizes how unfairly people treat him, the more isolated he becomes from the society that he initially wants to accept him. His original thoughts of becoming more integrated within society contrast with those of reality due to the pain the society inflicts upon him without apology. Keyes explores this inner journey within Charlie through the progress reports and the ironic element of the honesty within the entries that are being used for experimental science. In short, the lack of connection between intellectual and emotional capacity symbolizes the
The societal problems became a reality for Charlie as he overtook the brain of a genius. Every day, Charlie woke up thinking he was best friends with Joe and Frank; nonetheless, after the operation, Charlie’s brilliance knew Frank and Joe were not his legitimate cohorts. All the mocking was assumed to be friendly until Charlie was able to comprehend the actuality. Charlie’s acquaintances turned around
Charlie lived in a paradise-like world, he though he had many "friends". The only thing he felt he was missing was brains. When he was offered the chance to become 'smart' he jumped at the chance to be like everyone else. Unprepared for the changes intelligence would bring, Charlie lost his innocence. When he realizes his 'friends' don't actually like him they just liked to make fun of him.
After weeks of testing Charlie is selected and has the procedure performed. There are no noticeable changes immediately, however after some time Charlie begins to have flashbacks and mixed emotions of his childhood for example, Charlie’s first flashback begins with him standing in front of the bakery as a child and it goes blurry and cuts out. (2) As Charlies intellect increases so does his perception of the world around him and the way people act toward him. Charlie finally begins to realize guilt and shame along with all other natural human
...beginning, he becomes more complete by every situation he has to deal with and the way he handles it shows him developing into a complete person. With his evolution as a person and his better understanding of the world: Charlie Gordon is a complete person. Daniel Keyes exploits the many flaws in today’s society regarding the mentally challenged. He tells the reader: being smart is not everything and no matter what ones does, some people will never like them. One should always be themselves and do not try to change, we are all special the way we are. No matter how much we try to change ourselves, we will always we who are because that is the way nature intended us to be, changing it is trying to go against a much superior power in which we will fail in the end. Accept who you are and be happy with that you have because changing yourself will not make you happier.
This story is written in the form of journals to convey Charlie’s personal thoughts to the reader. This form of writing shows the thought process of Charlie before, during, and after his operation, and it explains how people shouldn’t change for anyone else. In Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes presents the idea that self-acceptance is important in life along with staying true to who you are.
Charlie’s story began with the surgery, the biggest decision he made in his life. Although he was a guinea pig in the procedure, he wasn’t worried at all about the surgery, but rather on becoming smart as fast as he could. Supposedly these doctors were doing Charlie the greatest favor he would ever receive, and he was so eager to learn as much as he could. Soon however, Charlie would encounter challenges he never faced with the intelligence of a 6 year old. Before his surgery, Charlie had great friends in Miss Kinnian and the bakery workers. After the surgery the relationships between Charlie and everyone he knew would take a drastic turn.
Charlie soon becomes aware that his smartness may not stay forever, that he might lose his genius. He starts to research the experiment himself. He studies a little mouse named Algernon who they did the experiment on first. Charlie starts to become attached to the little white mouse. Together they are the smartest of their species. When Charlie and Algernon have to go Chicago for an interview, Charlie gets so frustrated at how all the scientists are talking as if before the operation Charlie wasn’t a real person. In his frustration he accidentally on purpose let Algernon go.
.... As his intelligence advances, Charlie becomes aggressive and hostile after realizing how he was taken for granted. He can no longer tolerate his former coworkers, because he still remembers the humiliation at their hands. His friends at the factory become threatened by his new personality and growing intelligence, and petition to fire him out of the factory. This led to Charlie becoming isolated and lonely. Once Charlie became a genius, he became a little arrogant and even egotistical. This, in turn, makes him lose his friends and all of his happiness in his simple life. Because his progress reports are written in first point of view, you can infer how his personality changed from amiable to hostile. At the end, he hopes someone will continue and fix the error in Dr. Nemur and Strauss's experiment. From this, you can conclude that what he is writing is the truth.
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.
The scientists finally decide Charlie is the perfect subject for the experiment due to his motivation and his eagerness to be smart. As Charlie's IQ begins to grow, so does his ability to understand how cruel the world around him really is. While Charlie's knowledge grows, his attitude changes along with those around him. Charlie loses his job, friends, happiness, and even his willingness to care or learn. On the contrary, Charlie also experiences and learns a lot from this experiment.
Therefore, Even though Charlie becomes mentally retarded by the end, he becomes a more complete person. Charlie undergoes a lot of changes during his journey. He matures which contributes to his intelligence growth, learns significant life lesson, and realizes that he is better of being mentally retarded rather than a genius. Charlie does not realize the fact that after becoming a genius, he is as far away from his goal of being normal and fitting in as he is being mentally retarded.
... mistakes. Charlie is not ready, to change himself, since he repeats his past misdeeds. It seems like he will never be able to change or be happy about what he has or had in his past. There is no money in the world, which can help him. The story "babylon revisited" has anticlimax end, and Charlie left empty handed. In life any person, who tries change has to put a lot of efforts and time, to do it. If a person wishes to change himself, the first step he has to take is to remember his past mistakes and stay away from them. A past of a person will be always a part of him. He can never escape or ignore it, but he can learn from it and change himself. Every person has to learn how to use his/her unpleasant experience of the past as an advantage, to stay away from his past misdeeds, to build a bright future.
For Charlie, Ignorance is bliss. He realizes that his so called ?friends? were just using him to entertain their perverse humor. Also, he was also fired from the job that he loved so much because his new intelligence made those around him feel inferior and scared. This sends Charlie into a short depression. His life was better before the experiment because he had a job he looked forward to and ?friends?.
In the end, Charlie is returned to his previous mental state proving that scientific experimentation leads to a destructive nature of man. In Flowers for Algernon Daniel Keyes shows the reader a destructive nature of man through stereotypes, absence of family, and the various IQ levels needed to mature. Therefore, science experiments should be left for chemicals and labs not humans and animals.
We can all sympathize with Charlie on the surface, we have all made mistakes that we have to live with. Charlie is attempting to move forward with his life and erase the mistakes of his past. The ghosts of his past torment him repeatedly throughout the story, his child's guardians despise him and his old friends do not understand him.