A short story written by Daniel Keys, “Flowers for Algernon” is about a thirty-seven years old man named Charlie who suffers from a below average I.Q of sixty eight. Recommended by his teacher, Ms. Kinnian for an experimental surgery, Charlie undergoes a surgery planned by Doctor Nemur and Doctor Strauss. Once the surgery is over, Charlie’s intelligence increases exponentially. However, in the end, he retrogresses, again at a below average I.Q. Prior to becoming smart, Charlie led a simple life, naïve and hardworking; however, afterwards, he understands himself and others. Before the operation, Charlie is naïve yet hardworking. As he once wrote, “I told them I dint spill the ink on the cards and I coudn see anything in the ink” (pg. 222) Even after given direction for this test (the Rorschach test), Charlie is unable to think clearly about what the ink blots look like. Throughout the time before the surgery, his thoughts, such as this, reflect his naiveté. Later on, he attends the adult night school by himself, explaining that “I asked pepul and sumbody told me where I shud go to lern to read and spell good…all my life I want to be smart and not dumb” (pg. 222). Although disadvantaged, Charlie repeatedly attempts to improve himself. Driven to be smart, he shows determination in trying to do his best. In addition, he relates, “Joe said I shoud show the girls how I map out the toilet in the factory…I showed them and everyone laffed when I told that Mr Donnegan said I was the best janitor he ever had because I like my job and do it good” (pg. 228). Content with the job he has, he works hard at it, much to the workers’ amusement. Misunderstanding their taunting remarks, Charlie believes Joe and the people at... ... middle of paper ... ...understand motives as to why people act a certain way. In addition, he can perceive what it is like for people who are normal and those who are mentally impaired – he once was a “clown” and he once was a “genius.” As a result, he sympathized with all people and strived to help them out, such as Doctor Nemur. Lastly, he can listen to his own feelings and comprehends them, both in his frustration and his wish to leave. Like in both cases, Charlie can make his own decisions rather than being completely gullible to what people say. Although he was a hard worker before he surgery. His naiveté subjected him to cruelty and a childlike world and even though he lost most of the intelligence he gained, he still retained his interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence. Overall, Charlie was better off getting a glimpse of the real world rather than just skimming the surface.
In the beginning Charlie had very bad mental problems, he didn't have the experience everyone had. He couldn't spell well, talk well, etc. After he decided with Miss Kinnian to get the surgery he started getting smarter and smarter. Towards the end he lost his job and his girlfriend. After that he started slacking and then he went from getting smarter and smarter to getting dumber and dumber to a point where he got worse than he was before. I found the end of the book inspiring because no matter how smart you get if you start slacking and never go back to trying again you life can go upside
To start, it is a good feeling to feel normal and everyone should feel that way. In the story, Charlie wants to be smarter and Dr. Strauss can do that for him. Charlie wants to be smarter so he can just be normal like other people. The thought of his I.Q. being tripled was amazing to him. At one point in the story Dr. Nemur said,“remember he will be the first human being ever to have his intelligence tripled by surgical means” (page 518). Anyone who has wanted just to be normal would understand what Charlie was feeling. If Charlie didn’t have the operation he would not be able to experience the benefit of being normal.
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
Charlie wants to be smart because he works as a janitor in a factory where he has many friends, but even as he goes along with their hijinks, he suspects his friends mock him. The opportunity to be made smart--really smart--is irresistible, even though there's a chance that the results of the operation will only be temporary. Because Charlie wants his co-workers to accept him.
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
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.
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.
From being laughed at to being treated like he was a baby. All of this happened to him just because he was mentally challenged. The worst part is that Charlie didn’t know that he was laughed at and nobody told or tried to help him. This went on until Charlie got the operation and got smart. However things became worse after the operation. A while after the operation Charlie understood that he was laughed at the hard way. After this he became lonely and depressed. People didn’t like changes. When he got smart people thought that he was playing got and made a petition for him to get fired. Later on when Charlie went to a bar, the dishwasher dropped the plates down and broke them and everyone started laughing at the dishwasher. When Charlie saw what was happening he yelled and said that it isn’t his fault that he is mentally disabled and that it isn’t funny to laugh at someone who is mentally handicapped. After this event Charlie got a paranoia of people laughing at him and treating him like a child. This shows us how cruel mankind can be to his own
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.
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.
After the operation, Charlie is now using phrases such as "the mathematical variance equivalent in Dobermans Fifth Concerto"(Keyes). About two months after the operation Charlie's IQ has tripled from 68 to 204. He has become insanely smart and is helping boost production at the factory he is working at. Later he quits his job to help further the Dr. Nemur and Dr. Strauss research. While working on his research, he learns that Algernon has died and becomes worried about his fate.
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.