Flowers for Algernon Argumentative Essay In the story, “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keys, a man named Charlie Gordon has a low IQ of 68. In an effort to make him smarter, he is a first-time patient for an operation. In the end, the operation concludes to be a failure. The outcome of the operation proves that it was a big mistake for everyone. The reality was that Charlie’s mental conflicts were true. Joe and Frank, fellow workers of his, were not his actual friends. He was fooled with, but did not realize that everybody was laughing at him. At work, a petition was filed to fire Charlie. All but one person signed the petition. After the surgery, he began to see what his past life included. This came across him while he was at a restaurant. An employee, who was most likely mentally challenged, dropped a tray of glass. He was also fooled with as he was cleaning it up. Charlie’s past life …show more content…
Charlie wanted to be used by the doctors for the operation. The operation superseded his life. When the study was conducted, Charlie was nothing more than a lab mouse; even though he was human. He was treated as if he was an experiment. Society would benefit from the operation; there would be no more “dumb” people in the world. At the hospital, Charlie was nothing more than a human experiment to repair mentally-ill people. The surgery was a mistake for everyone. As a genius, Charlie knew the appending, unalterable effects of the surgery; it was a failure. Algernon bit Charlie and discontinued to run the maze. With that, he became less productive. Shortly after, Charlie began to notice his regression as he experienced fuges of amnesia. He slowly lost memory of concepts he learned. Algernon reached his demise shortly after his regression; as all the other lab mice. Charlie’s regression caused him to feel isolated once again. He was slowly becoming his old self again. Charlie continued to regress until his possible
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
If Charlie didn’t have the operation he would not be able to realize that Joe and Frank were making fun of him. Joe and Frank would just keep making fun of him and he would not be able to stick up for himself. Once in the story Charlie said,“It's a funny thing I never knew that Joe and Frank and the others liked to have me around all the time to make fun of me. Now I know what it means when they say "to pull a Charlie Gordon.” I'm ashamed” (page 524). Somebody who has been made fun of before should know that anybody would want to stick up for themselves. This shows that it was a blessing for Charlie to have this operation because now he can stick up for
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
Firstly, Charlie grows emotionally and physically as a human being: growing and becoming more complete with every experience. Starting off, Charlie grows physically as he develops into a more of a complete man. Joe and Frank invite Charlie to a party, during the party he is forced to dance with a girl named Ellen. After waking up the next morning, Charlie says, “I dreamed about the girl Ellen dancing and rubbing up against me and when I woke up the sheets were wet and messy” (Keyes 43). Charlie has his first wet dream, he is slowly going through puberty after the operation and becoming a more complete man. Adding on, Charlie is always happy and thinks all is good in the world, before the operation everything seems fine to him. He is like a child: naive. After the operation, Charlie has therapy sessions with the doctor, where they do tests to measure growth. During one of these therapy sessions, Charlie says, “I had reached a new level and anger and suspicion were my reactions to the world around me” (Keyes 57-58). Charlie grows emotionally, he adds another aspect to his cha...
He was able to see the world through the new eyes that he had gained from the operation learning new things about the world and being able to talk and interact with the people around him as a normal person. For a moment in time Charlie was normal ,and even after he had lost everything Charlie still learns in the end that even though he may have lost everything he was still happy to be able to finally fulfill his dream of being normal. In conclusion I still think Charlie should have undergone the operation for these reasons ,because in the end if he hadn’t he would have experience these many great things and finally fulfilled his lifelong dream of becoming smart and
He is then judged even harsher which is why you shouldn’t try to be someone that you’re not. You should stay true to yourself. In the story, it says “Their going to use me! I am so exited I can hardly write” (Keyes page 351). This implies that Charlie is anxious to undergo the surgery that will make him smart. Another part says “If you volenteer for this experament you mite get smart”. (Keyes page 351) This shows that the operation will make him more intelligent so he can fit in with everyone else. This proves that Charlie is trying to be someone he is not in order to fit
After the surgery, Charlie learned that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side, and that many of his old friends wouldn’t see the same person in him. Charlie suddenly had to experience drastic changes in his lifestyle, and the story revolves around these complications. Charlie’s story began with the surgery, the biggest decision he made in his life. Although he was a guinea pig during 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.
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.
When was the last time you wanted something so much, you would sacrifice your life to have it; even if just for a moment? Charlie Gordon, a 37 year old man with a learning disability, did just that. In the story "Flowers for Algernon", by Daniel Keyes, Charlie gets a chance to alter his I.Q. substantially through operation. The only drawback to this is, the long-term outcomes of the operation are unknown. The operation does succeed, but later Charlie is sent on a riveting downward spiral into the life he tried to run away from. The operation hurt Charlie in every imaginable way; and did nothing to help him.
Charlie?s experiment was temporary, and overtime his IQ regressed. Algernon, a mouse that went through the same surgery as Charlie, died. If Charlie?s hypothesis proves correct, then he will die as well. Charlie?s life was better before the experiment because he was not exposed to the risks and consequences of the surgery. Without the experiment, Charlie would still be living his ignorant but happy life.
This way, Charlie was able to contribute to science and they learned that the experiment didn’t work for an extended period of time. Without him, the doctors would have just picked another candidate. At least this way, Charlie could say that he did everything in his power to make himself smarter. One of the doctors from the story speaks, “He said Dr Nemur I know Charlie is not what you had in mind as the first of your new brede of intelek** (coudnt get the word) superman.“ (Keyes, 57). This part of the short story shows that the doctor was looking for a different person to be the first test subject for the experiment. If Charlie hadn’t volunteered, someone else would have been put through it all the same. By doing the operation, Charlie was able to benefit science in more ways than one. First with the data for the experiment and when he became intelligent, he did an experiment all of his own. He called the outcome the Algernon-Gordon effect, his experiment explained what happened to the brain after it started its rapid loss of
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.
The fact is that Charlie Gordon just wanted to be smart & to be able to fit in.The main character is Charlie Gordon from “Flowers for Algernon” & Charlie’s life was a lot better after the A.I surgery in his image & i agree.Charlie should have had took the A.I surgery. The 3 reasons are he proved the operation was a failure Algernon-Gordon effect,He would never experienced love, & earned more money than before.
Before the operation it is Miss Kinnian who suggests the experiment to Charlie seeing that he is eager to learn. She is one of the only people who is concerned about him and wants to help him achieve his dream. Once Charlie 's intelligence starts increasing, he starts developing feelings for Alice and along the way falls in love with her. However, the old Charlie that is in his mind does not let him have sexual thoughts about her and make love to her: “ ‘I love you...’ the words chocked out of me, ‘but I can 't do it. Something I can 't explain, but if I hadn 't stopped, I would hate myself for the rest of my life. Don 't ask me to explain, or you 'll hate me too. It has to do with Charlie. For some reason, he won 't let me make love to you’ ” (Keyes 205). Charlie is about to make love to Fay but something is restricting him from doing so. He explains this to Alice but she still does not understand what is stopping him. This shows that Charlie does really care for her and does not want to use her. The experiment does not go as planned, a fatal flaw is found that kills Algernon the mouse who is used to test out the same research. When his intelligence starts regressing, Alice stays and takes care of him for a while until he drives her away. She agrees to leave and try to forget about him as she promised him earlier that she would