The stories of Awakenings and “Flowers for Algernon” were both similar and different in their own unique ways. In “Flowers for Algernon,” the main character, Charlie, has always been challenged academically. Charlie is tested many times, and is offered an operation that claims it will make him three times smarter. He gains tons of knowledge and makes many scientific discoveries, but his intelligence level returns to where it was before, and he dies as an effect of the operation. In Awakenings, Dr. Sayer begins a new job at a chronic hospital, and finds an odd disorder where patients are in a catatonic state, but have amazing reflexes. Dr. Sayer then discovers a drug that he gives to a patient, Leonard, and eventually the other patients. Everything starts out amazing, and everyone learns and forms friendships. However, Leonard becomes agitated and starts twitching, along with all the other patients, and they soon return to their catatonic state. Leonard’s journey is Awakenings was worth it, but Charlie’s journey was not worth it. …show more content…
At the end of the story, Charlie moves away from his home because he can’t relate to people or go back to his normal life. “I forgot I wasn’t in Miss Kinnian’s class at the adult center...She started to cry and run out of the room and everybody looked at me and I saw they weren’t the same people who used to be in my class….That’s why I’m going away from New York for good” (Keyes 379). He has to move away from his hometown and friends because he can’t function normally, so obviously, not much is gained. It is also implied that Charlie dies at the end of the story because of the operation. Algernon also dies and Charlie says “Goodbye Miss Kinnian and Dr. Strauss and everybody” (Keyes 380). Dying because of an operation and losing all of the intelligence he had does not make his journey worth it. In Awakenings, however, the journey is different, and that makes it worth
The Awakenings was originally a non-fiction book written by Dr. Oliver Sacks, a British neurologist who spent years working in the United States. It served as one of his memoir in his life’s work. Later on the book entitled “Awakenings” published during 1973 was given a film adaptation. The screenplay for the film was then tasked to Steve Zillian, an American screenwriter who has gained multiple awards and nominations for his work.
To start off, Leonard was a smart student and had friends, before he got the harsh disease that ruined his whole life. On the other hand, Charlie had the mental retardation since he was born, never really had friends, and never got to experience what it felt like to think the way everyone else did and comprehend the things surrounding him. Furthermore, in Flowers for Algernon Charlie had Algernon who had the same operation as him, that foreshadowed his fate. He explains, "Algernon died two days ago. His brain had decreased in weight, and there was a general soothing out of cerebral convolutions as well as a deepening and broadening of brain fissures. I guess that the same thing is or will soon be happening to me" (pg.533). In Awakenings, viewers were lead to believe the drug would be permanent and cure the disease. The doctors had no idea whether or not it would work, but after it had worked we were most likely convinced that L-Dopa had worked. Also the patients would stay that way forever, but sadly they just had to face the truth when the drug wore off. The third difference contrasting Flowers for Algernon and Awakenings is how after their doctors did whatever they did on them and was normals, they had different interest. Leonard wanted to explore and interact with society and nature and Charlie isolated himself the outside the world. Something to support this is that in the movie, Leonard tried to get out of the
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
There were many similarities between the short story “Flowers for Algernon” and the movie Awakenings. “Flowers for Algernon”, by Daniel Keyes, is about a man named Charlie, who has a very low IQ. Charlie gets an operation to make him smarter. It is a story about what happens to him during that period of time. The movie, Awakenings, directed by Penny Marshall, starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro, is about how some people, including Leonard Lowe, the main character, developed a disease and are now catatonic. Dr. Malcolm Sayer finds a drug that seems like a miracle drug. The movie is about what happens during the time that the catatonic patients are on the drug.
He was much happier before the operation. The situations were the same before. But, after the operation, he had started noticing the obstacles. Joe and Frank used to tease Charlie before, but now he was ashamed and realized that they had befriended him to make fun of him. He now started noticing the wicked incidents in his surrounding and started to compare them to his life. He became lonely after he got fired from his job. His life had become a track lane with obstacles all along the way after he became intelligent. Intelligence does not always lead to happiness. The story “Flowers for Algernon” proves that ignorance is
He was able to see the world through the new eyes that he had gained from the operation learning new things about the world and being able to talk and interact with the people around him as a normal person. For a moment in time Charlie was normal ,and even after he had lost everything Charlie still learns in the end that even though he may have lost everything he was still happy to be able to finally fulfill his dream of being normal. In conclusion I still think Charlie should have undergone the operation for these reasons ,because in the end if he hadn’t he would have experience these many great things and finally fulfilled his lifelong dream of becoming smart and
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
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.
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.
Ranging from caged parrots to the meadow in Kentucky, symbols and settings in The Awakening are prominent and provide a deeper meaning than the text does alone. Throughout The Awakening by Kate Chopin, symbols and setting recur representing Edna’s current progress in her awakening. The reader can interpret these and see a timeline of Edna’s changes and turmoil as she undergoes her changes and awakening.
Many popular novels are often converted into television movies. The brilliant fiction novel, Flowers for Algernon written by Daniel Keyes, was developed into a dramatic television film. Flowers for Algernon is about a mentally retarded man who is given the opportunity to become intelligent through the advancements of medical science. This emotionally touching novel was adapted to television so it could appeal to a wider, more general audience. Although the novel and film are similar in terms of plot and theme, they are different in terms of characters.
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.
In comparison to other works such as Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn wherein the title succinctly tells what the story shall contain, Kate Chopin’s The Awakening represents a work whose title can only be fully understood after the incorporation of the themes and content into the reader’s mind, which can only be incorporated by reading the novel itself. The title, The Awakening, paints a vague mental picture for the reader at first and does not fully portray what content the novel will possess. After thorough reading of the novel, one can understand that the title represents the main character, Edna Pontellier’s, sexual awakening and metaphorical resurrection that takes place in the plot as opposed to not having a clue on what the plot will be about.