“Flowers for Algernon” follows a young man in his journey through scientific experimentation to (hopefully) cure him of his suspiciously low IQ. Written by Daniel Keyes in 1958, the story has become a somewhat classic piece of literature, captivating its’ readers in the intensely real, fascinating, yet somewhat agonizing tale of Charlie Gordon. The book started out as a short story published in a 1950s magazine. The “story” emotionally moved so many people that eventually, Daniel Keyes decided to write and publish the full-length novel. The way that the author uses descriptive language and detailed setting and plot descriptions really evoke the readers’ imagination, making for an extremely captivating story. There are not very many books that …show more content…
The following quote shows the apprehension and stress that Charlie’s facing.“Evry morning I think Im gone to be smart but nothing happins. Mabye the experimint dint werk. Maby I wont get smart and Ill have to go live at the Warren home. I hate the tests and I hate the amazeds and I hate Algernon.” PG: 20 Lines: 19-23. Charlie became extremely stressed and frustrated since it seemed that he was making virtually no progress. The following explains how Charlie feels after he had noticed a significant difference. “I’m like a man born blind who has been given a chance to see the light.”(11.107). Charlie begins noticing a difference in ability to learn and the intelligence that he begins to gain. His treatments have made a difference in Charlie’s life, but somehow, he remains pushing and pushing towards his next goal that perhaps he may never …show more content…
Charlie becomes very determined to succeed in his testing and to finally be able to be a part of the group. At the bakery where he worked, Charlie was always demoted to cleaning, or general janitorial work. After some level of treatment, he becomes able to operate the dough mixer which thoroughly impresses all of the employees to the point where they invite him to various house parties and events that otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to attend.
The main characters of the book would include Charlie, Algernon, Professor Nemur, and Dr. Strauss. Professor Nemur and Dr. Strauss are the two men mainly in charge of development of Charlie and Algernon’s experimentation and the different treatments for both of them. Algernon is Charlie’s “opponent” in testing and Charlie, the main character is the one being put through experimental testing, never before performed on
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
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
Before the operation, he exhibited some clear strengths such as determination, a positive attitude, friendly with people and some weaknesses such as education and inability to understand the adult world. After the operation, he begun to change in numerous ways. Charlie started out as being not really intelligent. Being around with “smart” people made him want to change and became “intelligent” just like his “friends.” I think its all crazy. If you can get smart when your sleeping why do people go to school. That thing I don't think will work. I use to watch the late show and the late late show on TV all the time and it never made me smart (Keyes 118). This part of the book led Charlie’s flashbacks takes place of how he was raised or nurtured through his childhood, Of how he wanted to try to become smart. However Dr. Strauss believes that his sleep would help Charlie be able to learn. However in his nature, his disability cannot help him at all, doesn’t matter how much he tries to watch TV and tries to go to sleep, I wouldn’t allow him to learn anything at all. The nurture of this is having the doctor recommend Charlie to do this. His disability also not just affects him but his family as well. His disability kind of makes his sister miserable as well, jealous over how the parents focus on Charlie due to his disability, despite the successes the sister achieves in school. Thus Charlie’s nature towards others has a negative effect which is towards his sister. Charlie was raised by his parents but through a condition that would then follow him probably for the rest of his life as well as being mainly raised through this experiment, which possibly wouldn’t help him at all in the near
The scientists who performed the experiment now need a human subject to test, and Charlie has been recommended to them by his night-school teacher, Miss Kinnian. Charlie's a good candidate for the procedure, because even though he currently has an I.Q. of only 68, he is willing, highly motivated and eager to learn. He's convinced that if he could only learn to read and write, the secret of being smart would be revealed to him.
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.
“I recall your once saying to me that an experimental failure or the disproving of a theory was as important to the advancement of learning as a success would be” (Keyes 301). The reader now understands the experiment was not a success. Charlie also validates Algernon’s expected death when he says “Algernon died two days ago. Dissection shows my predictions were right. His brain had decreased in weight and there was a general smoothing out of cerebral convolutions as well as a deepening and broadening of brain fissures” (302). This confirms Algernon’s expected death by the “Algernon-Gordon
Prior to the operation, Charlie saw Algernon as a rival, and wasn’t a fan of him. “If the operashun works Ill show that mouse I can be as smart as he is.” Before the operation, Charlie was forced to race against Algernon to see who could complete a maze faster, and Algernon always came out victorious. Since Charlie continued to lose, he became frustrated and saw the source of this frustration as Algernon, causing dislike. “I hate that mouse.” If there was 1 thing Charlie hated more than Algernon, it was taking those tests in general, and Algernon was always there. Because Algernon was always present during the time of the tests, Charlie associated the hatred for the tests with Algernon.
In the book “Flowers for Algernon”, Charlie gordon,A genius with a lost heart, In Progress report #7 Charlie explains to us that he's going too keep reading and keep trying to learn new things to keep is intelligence level at a good place. I believe this is a indication of charlie's real personality.
Flowers for Algernon written by Daniel Keyes is the story of the journey of a man, Charlie Gordon, from the state of mental incapacitation to the state of the most intelligent man in the world and comes back to his original condition in the end. Charlie Gordon is a thirty-two-year-old man who is suffering from a severe mental weakness with an IQ of 68. During the day time, he works a menial job in the bakery his uncle found for him. However, in weeknights he attends reading and writing classes for the mentally retarded in Beekman College Center. His teacher is a kind woman Alice Kinnian and Charlie falls in loves with her.
Initially, Charlie’s narration begins with his first “progris riport”, the commencement of a series of journal entries spanning the length an experiment that is intent on increasing his IQ. In one of the initial progress report written prior to the operation—an experiment that has thus far been successful in a mouse named Algernon—Charlie muses the possibility of becoming smarter in which he confesses, “I just want to be smart like other pepul so I can have lots of frends who like me” (Keyes 15). This manner in which Keyes presents Charlie’s initial mindset and his view towards “becoming smart”, is critical—for in this desire to be smart, to possess his preconceived idea of what intelligence brings forth, Charlie’s true yearning is recognized: to belong amongst his
One of the main issues that Charlie encounters is his friends at the bakery. He loves his job, but he realizes that all of his co-workers have made fun of him. He desperately wants to tell them about his surgery, but he cannot due to the chance that his intelligence could deplete. He eventually is fired from his bakery job because his co-workers are afraid of his sudden rise in intelligence, and they realize that he could be a threat after he discovers how they have treated him. Charlie continues to express his worries, realizations, and thoughts to the
Charlie struggles with apparent mental illness throughout his letters, but he never explicitly addresses this problem. His friends make him realize that he is different and it is okay to be different from everyone else. This change in perspective gives Charlie new opportunities to experience life from a side he was unfamiliar with. Without these new friends, Charlie would have never dared to try on the things he has. His friends have helped him develop from an antisocial wallflower to an adventurous young man who is both brave and loyal. Transitioning shapes how the individual enters into the workforce, live independently and gain some control over their future
He also realized what true love and beauty was, especially when he was with Miss Kinnian. “The thought of leaving her behind made me sad. I’m in love with Miss Kinnian.” Charlie soon realizes that his mental state will gradually decrease, most likely causing him to die. One of the one things that he does not want to do, is leave behind Miss Kinnian. Charlie is realizing what true beauty is, and soon, what true love is as well. He saw how smart Miss Kinnian is, and how good she is at her job. Charlie learns to be compassionate, loving, and kind to others, in a way more complex than even many adults could. something about how algernon is his friend* Even things like Algernon the mouse had many impacts on Charlie’s life, like Charlie seeing what a real friend is. When Charlie was with Miss Kinnian, he realized that she was very smart, good at what she did, and was very kind to Charlie, and to others. “Once again now I have the feeling of shame burning inside me. This intelligence has driven a wedge between me and all the people I once knew and loved. Before, they laughed at me and despised me for my ig-norance and dullness; now, they hate me for my knowledge and under-standing. What in God’s name do they want of me? They’ve driven me out of the factory. Now I’m more alone than ever before.” Charlie feels a lot of despair, when he sees that his friends only laughed at him, and hated him, but now they loathe him even more for containing knowledge and wisdom that they don’t have. His friends could only tolerate him when he was “dumb, stupid” and “retarded,” and even then, they still didn’t take a liking to him, but what hurt Charlie most, was that when he became smart, they hated him more now than they did before, because he held emotions that they couldn’t possibly feel,
Flowers for Algernon is not a normal book. Not normal meaning it does not use proper grammar and spelling for a large portion of the book. The novel follows the story of a mentally handicapped 32-year-old man named Charlie. The following paragraphs will discuss Charlie’s ‘transformation,’ how his varying writing displays his astuteness, and how the incorrect spelling and syntax are key aspects in the structure and understanding of the book. The book opens with Charlie discussing his life and how he was instructed by Dr. Strauss to keep a record of what happens to him. The story is also written in journal entries. An experimental procedure is conducted on Charlie in hopes to make him smarter. Over the course of time it works and Charlie’s grammar and ability to write gradually increase. Charlie’s IQ and overall intelligence eventually surpasses that of the scientists he worked alongside, however, Algernon’s intellect slowly fades. This complicates things for Charlie.
Because of the parties he attends with his new friends he has tried using some drugs. These new friends help Charlie see things with a positive perspective, and to be confident in himself. When his friends move away, Charlie experience isolation and has a mental crisis that leads him to be internalized in a clinic.