Intelligence Override

572 Words2 Pages

“Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes is a short story explaining a young man’s journey throughout his mentally disorder hardships. The story escalates towards his heyday, but soon collapses towards the end. As a student in an adult public school, Charlie Gordon is mentally disabled with an IQ of 68, wishing to become a genius. Being the best student in Mrs. Kinnian’s class, Charlie soon acquires the opportunity to become smart, but doesn’t realize the consequences he would later face. Before everything changed, Charlie was a happy, honest worker, but gained knowledge and imagination after his surgery. Previously before Charlie’s operation, he was oblivious yet motivated to learn new knowledge, but didn’t comprehend his “friend’s” actions toward him. Back when Charlie was a student, he was “a slow redder too in Mrs. Kinnian’s class...but...trying very hard.” (222) Inspired to obtain knowledge, Charlie tried everything he could of done to be smart, but nothing really fixed his old self. Soon, he was chosen for an operation exciting Charlie. As the operation neared, Charlie believe...

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