The Parallels of Keyes and Flowers for Algernon

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What makes a book successful? Perhaps it is the characters and their varying personalities that make them memorable and realistic, or maybe it’s the thought-provoking plotline with its many twists and turns. One of the elements to a good book is most definitely the characters, and a good number of main characters gain their characteristics when the author encounters someone similar in their life. This encounter makes the character seem real, someone the reader can relate to. The same inspiration can be said happened for Flowers for Algernon. Specific events in Daniel Keyes’s life led to the formation of many main characters.
Daniel Keyes was born in Brooklyn, New York on August 9, 1927. He received his bachelor’s degree in psychology after serving in the U.S. Maritime Service as a purser at the age of seventeen. Along with this degree, he was permitted to teach English in the schools of New York City, the setting for Flowers for Algernon. The award-winning short story version of Flowers for Algernon was written during this time period. He later wrote the novel version of t...

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