Evolution is great phenomenon as long as one does not end up back to where they start from. Sometimes even ending up back at square one can offer the individual a lot to learn from. In the novel, Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, the protagonist Charlie Gordon undergoes an experiment to increase his IQ. It is illustrated that Charlie becomes a whole, complete individual only after becoming mentally retarded again by the end of the novel. Charlie develops and learns a lot throughout his journey. He matures as he grows in his intellectual capacity, and he gets an opportunity to learn valuable life lesson; and realizes that he is better off being mentally retarded rather than being a genius.
Firstly, Charlie's operation turns him into an extremely intelligent person. Charlie becomes much smarter as the novel unfolds. A little after his operation Charlie's IQ slowly starts to increase. He finally beats Algernon after losing to him in a race repeatedly. After the victory Charlie says, " I beet Algernon. I dint even know I beet him until Burt Selden told me…But after I beet him 8 more times. I must be getting smart to beat a smart mouse like Algernon."(Keyes 30). Algernon is a smart mouse, who has undergone the same operation as Charlie. Charlie victory shows his increase of knowledgeable. This also shows that his brain is developing. Charlie then gains more knowledge. After writing a few more progress reports one can see a huge change in Charlie's writing, especially in his grammar. While having a conversation with Joe, Charlie says, "Everybody on the floor came around and they were laff laughing…you been here long enuff enough."(Keyes 34). By correcting his own mistakes, Charlie shows that he is progressing towards a more educate...
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...ve frends…"(Keyes 309). This shows that Charlie realizes that his friend like him for whom he is not for how smart he is. After all of this Charlie becomes a more complete person because he realizes that he is better off being mentally disabled rather than being very intelligence since he understands what he is turning into, he finally makes true love to Alice and gets his true friends.
Therefore, Even though Charlie becomes mentally retarded by the end, he becomes a more complete person. Charlie undergoes a lot of changes during his journey. He matures which contributes to his intelligence growth, learns significant life lesson, and realizes that he is better of being mentally retarded rather than a genius. Charlie does not realize the fact that after becoming a genius, he is as far away from his goal of being normal and fitting in as he is being mentally retarded.
In this novel, Flowers for Algernon, written by Daniel Keyes, a man named Charlie Gordon has an operation done to increase his intelligence. He started as a mentally retarded man and slowly became a genius. He seemed to soak up information like a sponge and he was able to figure out the most complex scientific formulas. The only problem with the operation is that it does not last for ever and in his remaining time he tries to figure out why it is not permanent. He will eventually lose everything he learned and become worse off than when he started, so Charlie was better off before he had the operation.
Charlie lived in a paradise-like world, he though he had many "friends". The only thing he felt he was missing was brains. When he was offered the chance to become 'smart' he jumped at the chance to be like everyone else. Unprepared for the changes intelligence would bring, Charlie lost his innocence. When he realizes his 'friends' don't actually like him they just liked to make fun of him.
Charlie is chosen for an operation(after taking many tests) that could increase his intelligence level. Algernon(a white mouse) had the same operation done on him. The first test Algernon has to run through a maze while Charlie does one on paper. After Charlie has his operation he becomes insanely smart and can beat Algernon without even trying. Months after the operation things start to go downhill for Charlie and Algernon. They both experience a decrease in their intelligence level and show aggressive actions. Weeks later Algernon dies because of a brain shrinkage. Charlie is now worried about his fate so he publishes the experiment(The Algernon-Gordon effect) which shows how the operation fails. After the publication, Charlie moves to New Nork and is never seen again. Daniel Keyes uses point of view to reveal Charlie's transformation using his mental ability and emotional
The societal problems became a reality for Charlie as he overtook the brain of a genius. Every day, Charlie woke up thinking he was best friends with Joe and Frank; nonetheless, after the operation, Charlie’s brilliance knew Frank and Joe were not his legitimate cohorts. All the mocking was assumed to be friendly until Charlie was able to comprehend the actuality. Charlie’s acquaintances turned around
To begin, the novel Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes reveals the evolution of a being. The protagonist, Charlie Gordon is a thirty-two year old man, studying at a school for the mentally challenged and working as janitor in a bakery. He goes through an operation to make him into an intelligent human being. Throughout the novel, Charlie evolves and learns from many experiences, each situation he deals with leads him into becoming a more complete person. He overcomes various obstacles and grasps a greater understanding of the meaning of life. He experiences: emotional and physical growth, intellectual development and learns of the cruelty in the world.
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’s story began with the surgery, the biggest decision he made in his life. Although he was a guinea pig in the procedure, he wasn’t worried at all about the surgery, but rather on becoming smart as fast as he could. Supposedly these doctors were doing Charlie the greatest favor he would ever receive, and he was so eager to learn as much as he could. Soon however, Charlie would encounter challenges he never faced with the intelligence of a 6 year old. Before his surgery, Charlie had great friends in Miss Kinnian and the bakery workers. After the surgery the relationships between Charlie and everyone he knew would take a drastic turn.
1.One turning point in the passage is when Charlie started getting smarter and smarter. This made an impression on me because in the beginning Charlie wasn’t even able to write well, and now he is getting really smart. Now he can spell well, talk well, etc. In the passage it says “Now I want you to tell your mom how smart you feel, and she’ll bring you here twice a week for short-wave encephalo-reconditioning, and you’ll get smarter, and smarter, and smarter.” This proves that Charlie’s surgery was a success and now he can process like a normal person. Charlie now has the ability to do all the things he couldn’t do before.
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.
After the surgery Charlie slowly changes, then starts changing in a matter of days, with his intellect and starts fixing all the errors he was making. “After I figured out how punctuation worked, I read over all my old progress reports from the beginning. Boy did I have crazy spelling and punctuation”(Keyes 28). He starts understanding the tests and why they are doing the tests. He starts to speak with higher vocabulary too. Charlie beats Algernon in the race and everyone is starting to be aware that he’s getting smarter. Charlie started off with an IQ of 68 and started to raise his IQ which meant the project was working. As Charlie is getting smarter, he starting to understand that he was taken advantage of and made fun of. He recognizes that his “friends” were actually fake friends and made fun of his to laugh at him. “I never knew before that Joe and Frank and the others liked to have me around just to make fun of me”(Keyes 30). He starts recognizing who is actually good to him and does not take advantage of him. He starts to remember a lot of stuff from when he was little and in his past. He starts to remember all the things he learned and memories from his family and so on. Charlie is quickly becoming smart, and the experiment is working as how smoothly as how it went for
The scientists first try this experiment on a mouse to see if it might work. The mouse did improve on how fast he learned and was made smarter every time the scientists taught the mouse something new. Since the experiment was a success they decided to begin to test Charlie to see if he was the right type of person . They begin with tests such as inkblot, raw shok test, and they had him race the mouse named Algernon, by seeing who was able to complete the same maze first. 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 willing to care or learn. On the contrary of things, Charlie also experiences and learns a lot from this experiment. He experiences love, freedom, being able to read and write, and the ability to be able to remember what has happened to him all of these years.
We see Charlie's transformation from being mentally disabled person to becoming the most intelligent man. The story progress as a journal entry tracking Charlie's progress during the experiment. In the beginning it is quite evident by the writing style and thoughts of the narrator that Charlie had a very low intelligence level. But once the scientist performed the surgery, we started to notice a few changes, for example, his sentence becomes more and more easier to understand and his thoughts start becoming more complex, which
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
Charlie?s experiment was temporary, and overtime his IQ regressed. Algernon, a mouse that went through the same surgery as Charlie, died. If Charlie?s hypothesis proves correct, then he will die as well. Charlie?s life was better before the experiment because he was not exposed to the risks and consequences of the surgery. Without the experiment, Charlie would still be living his ignorant but happy life.
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.