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Flowers for algernon analysis
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In Daniel Keyes’s Flowers for Algernon, the protagonist, Charlie Gordon, struggles with validation and the acceptance of others regardless of his various intelligence levels. This is one of the few instances in the novel where I can empathize with Charlie considering his situation parallels mine approximately three years ago. When I got accepted to the Collegiate School and started my preparations for the transfer, my friends believed that I viewed myself as superior to them. For fourteen months before that I had been growing and learning through Prep for Prep and the changes in my priorities caused my friends to become envious and nervous around me. Just as Charlie has I occasionally speculate about what would happen if I went back to my
To begin with, Charlie Gordon experiences pain throughout the novel. “Those who want to reap the benefits of this great nation must bear the fatigue of supporting it,” (Paine). In the novel Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes Charlie Gordon is a thirty-seven year old man who is mentally impaired and has a I.Q. of sixty-eight. This quote relates to the novel because it is saying that if anyone wants the benefits they have to go through some bumps to get there. Even though Charlie did get his feelings hurt throughout the journey, his operation had more benefits than costs.
...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.
The famous quote from Alfred Lord Tennyson, “'tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all” is particularly relevant to the story “Flowers for Algernon.” Charlie Gordon is a 37 year old man with an I.Q. of 68 his one goal in life was to become smarter so he could be normal. This chance comes to him as he is selected to undergo an operation that should in theory increase his intelligence. This procedure has already been performed on multiplies animals most notably on a mouse named Algernon. After undergoing the operation, Charlie rapidly gains intelligence until he reaches an Iq of about 200 or more. Then tragedy strikes when Algernon starts to mentally regress to his former state after which he dies. From this Charlie learns that soon the same will happen to him all of the things he’s learned will soon disappear soon Charlie finds himself in a downward spiral as he quickly forgets everything he’s learned after the operation. In the end
Even though Daniel Keyes wrote Flowers for Algernon in 1966, its messages about humanity still are true today. One of these themes is people treat people with mental disabilities poorly. The main character Charlie Gordon is a mentally disabled adult with a low IQ. Charlie is constantly being picked on by others, but he doesn’t realize it because he’s too slow to figure it out. Later on in the story, however, Charlie is chosen to get an operation to have his IQ is raised. I think people today are still picking on others who are less smarter than them.
The plot of both the novel and film version of Flowers for Algernon share common similarities. They both feature a retarded middle-aged man, Charlie Gordon, who receives an operation to heighten his intelligence. Charlie’s IQ eventually surpasses human normalcy to reveal that the experiment did prove successful. In both the film and novel, Charlie became even more intelligent than the professors who worked with him. In the film, Dr. Strauss was embarrassed to reveal that Charlie was smarter than him. That played a milestone event in Charlie’s identification of himself. Slowly his intelligence began to decrease and he eventually returned to his original state of mind. Throughout the story, Charlie encountered many different emotions that he had never experienced before because he didn’t have the common knowledge to understand them. The episode when he was at the nightclub with his co-workers gave him the opportunity to experience betrayal and anger. “I never knew before that Joe and Frank and the others liked to have me around just to make fun of me” (Keyes 30). The plot for both versions also carefully depicted Charlie’s psychological traumas that he suffered after his operation. These outbursts were often caused by romantic anxiety and the painful memories he would recall. Whenever Charlie got intimate with Alice he would tend to get extremely nervous or have a hallucination, causing him to ruin the moment. “I dropped a fork, and when I tried to retrieve it, I knocked over a glass of water and spilled it on her dress” (56). One of Charlie’s most painful memories was the one about the locket incident. Both versions did a great job of emphasizing this particular moment. “His clothes are torn, his nose is bleeding and one of his teeth is broken” (38). These flashbacks occurred many times in the novel yet the f...
He is once emotionless man, a person who rarely thought about his surroundings, the rules of his society, or his day to day actions. This all changed when he met a girl named Clarisse. She made him aware of the man he should be and he began his painful evolution to an agog man, eager to know about the world around him. This man is Guy Montag from the book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Montag is a fireman, but not a typical fireman. Instead of saving people and their homes, his job is to burn books and ruin anything to do with knowledge, enlightenment and freedom. Throughout the book, the main character Montag undergoes a rapid transformation from being disengaged from himself and the world, to a man curious about books, nature and feeling,
The story "Flowers for Algernon", by Daniel Keyes, that we read in English was about a mentally retarded person, named Charlie who had an operation to increase his intelligence, but the operation was a failure and Charlie is slow again. He wants to move now so society won’t ridicule him for being slow again. Daniel Keyes wrote this short story for good reasons. Daniel Keyes wrote "Flowers for Angernon" to show people from an outside look on how we treat mentally challenged people. When you treat people as you always do, you don’t see how mean or how cruel it really may be. It could just be your personality or the way you were brought up. By him writing a story on a mentally challenged person wanting to become smart to be accepted by society, and be able to be seen as a "normal" person, at any length or means, was to show us, the society, how we treat mentally challenged people. He could possibly have seen a mentally challenged person being treated poorly, or perhaps was related to one and wanted to tell the society it was not right, but put it in a way by which it touched people in their own way, depending on how they interpret the story. In the story, there was a point where Charlie was at a party and they got him drunk, and made him dance with a girl. Charlie had never been with a girl before and didn’t know what to do. They were tripping him when he was trying to dance with the girl. Later after the operation when he is smart he says "…...
One of the most crucial conflicts that happens often in society is the lack of respect to people. Most often the role of intelligence plays a major part in the perceiving of one’s character. No one has better expressed this message than Daniel Keyes as he displays these qualities in the book Flowers for Algernon. From his personal encounters in life, Keyes has created a moving story that has inspired many readers and has brought light into many obscure topics.
In the book “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury,Montag is a character who is mainly shaped by those around him. Two characters who have a great impact on Montag and shaped him to who he is at the end of the book, are Faber and Beatty. Both Faber and Beatty are two men who love literature and who are both cowards. One thing that is different with these two character is that neither of them like these new rules but only one of them decides that enough is enough and rebels against these rules.
As I was growing up one of my favorite television shows was Good Luck Charlie. Good Luck Charlie features a large family consisting of Amy and Bob Duncan who live with their four children Teddy, TJ, Gabe, and Charlie. Throughout the show Teddy documents life advice for her baby sister Charlie through a video camera. Good Luck Charlie relates to me because I come from a large, busy family, I am the eldest child of three in which I hold a lot of responsibility, and I document most of my life through pictures and journals in hopes that my siblings use my experiences to make their experiences easier just as Teddy.
Relationships between people are important to maintain. During one’s lifetime, these relationships will change for the better or worse. In the novel, Flowers for Algernon, the author, Daniel Keyes, presents a change in the main character’s relationship with many people. Charlie Gordon, a 32 years old man who is mentally disabled takes the risk of undergoing a surgery that will make him intelligent. As Charlie’s intelligence increases, he finds out a lot about himself and becomes a different person. He learns the meaning of love, and experiences this newfound feeling with Alice Kinnian. Charlie’s teacher at Beekman College for Retarded Adults, Miss Kinnian, is one of the only people who is concerned and genuinely cares about him. When they part
Mistreatment is an act of harm towards another being that is completely unnecessary and uncalled for. Such deeds are unjust and cruel regardless of the race, gender, intellect, or characteristic that the victim might or might not have. Although it is common knowledge that one should treat their peers as they would like to be treated, everyone has been mistreated multiple times throughout their lives. Daniel Keyes, the author of Flowers for Algernon, presents acts of mistreatment all throughout his novel. The story is based on a realistic, near future world in which a mid-aged mentally challenged man has an experimental operation that elevates his intelligence in several months to a point where he is much smarter than the scientists who devised and performed the operation. With such a drastic change in intellect, he realises that his ‘friends’ have not been as friendly to him before the operation as he once thought, so he becomes cold and untrusting. The main character, Charlie Gordon, has a long psychological and emotional journey to come to terms with himself and the people around him over the course of nine months. Contrary to what he expected, Charlie is treated worse after the operation due to his friends’ hostility and the scientist who insults Charlie.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a coming of age film that chronicles the life of a boy named Charlie. Charlie is 15 years old and has just begun his first year of high school. He will give a detailed account of the joys and pains of his freshman year in high school. He begins by writing letters to an unknown stranger, but then, you realize that stranger is you. Through these Charlie tells his story from his perspective. He will experience many highs and lows related to the adolescence phase. The highlights of the paper will focus on the biological/physical, psychological, social, spiritual, cultural issues, as well as his strengths and challenges.
Why watch them burn? Why not enjoying the purpose of them? It was such a hurt to hear about them burning and being destroyed. Society should’ve used the books how they were supposed to be used. Enjoying each and every word in them. This was from the perspective and view of Faber, in my opinion. He didn’t like the idea of the burning of books at all. Faber was a Smart man. He was a literature teacher, so he loved books. He really disagreed with all the firefighters, who were actually starting fires instead of stopping them.