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.
Firstly, Charlie grows emotionally and physically as a human being: growing and becoming more complete with every experience. Starting off, Charlie grows physically as he develops into a more of a complete man. Joe and Frank invite Charlie to a party, during the party he is forced to dance with a girl named Ellen. After waking up the next morning, Charlie says, “I dreamed about the girl Ellen dancing and rubbing up against me and when I woke up the sheets were wet and messy” (Keyes 43). Charlie has his first wet dream, he is slowly going through puberty after the operation and becoming a more complete man. Adding on, Charlie is always happy and thinks all is good in the world, before the operation everything seems fine to him. He is like a child: naive. After the operation, Charlie has therapy sessions with the doctor, where they do tests to measure growth. During one of these therapy sessions, Charlie says, “I had reached a new level and anger and suspicion were my reactions to the world around me” (Keyes 57-58). Charlie grows emotionally, he adds another aspect to his cha...
... middle of paper ...
...beginning, he becomes more complete by every situation he has to deal with and the way he handles it shows him developing into a complete person. With his evolution as a person and his better understanding of the world: Charlie Gordon is a complete person. Daniel Keyes exploits the many flaws in today’s society regarding the mentally challenged. He tells the reader: being smart is not everything and no matter what ones does, some people will never like them. One should always be themselves and do not try to change, we are all special the way we are. No matter how much we try to change ourselves, we will always we who are because that is the way nature intended us to be, changing it is trying to go against a much superior power in which we will fail in the end. Accept who you are and be happy with that you have because changing yourself will not make you happier.
Jane Yolen's use of structure in the novel Briar Rose is very clever. Her use of allegory and the technique of parallel narrative is very effective in conveying her story which she delivers in a superb fashion. Elements of the story are reveled at specific times to tie in with the theme of growth and development both personal and historical.
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
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.
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.
For example, some may argue that Charlie wanted to be smart so bad that he is willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish it. They may say that if one really wants something bad enough, then the negative side effects don’t really matter. However, one must consider how it will affect one’s life in the long run. Charlie ended up dieing- his life is so short that he most likely missed out on several great opportunities. Even if he did get those two months of bliss, it is not worth his life being cut short. Another point some may argue, is that after the surgery, Charlie is able to see people’s true intentions. He no longer just sees what he wanted to, but instead sees reality. This is true, but one must consider that when Charlie starts to see people as they really are, it is very upsetting to him. He is so much happier before, when he thought everyone is his friend. When Charlie is describing his work day in his journal he writes, “Then Frank Reilly said what did you do Charlie forget your key and open your door the hard way. That made me laff. Their really my friends and they like me” (272-273). Even if Charlie didn’t understand the truth, at least he is happy, and why would one want to sacrifice their happiness. One has to consider what is really valuable in life. One final point some may argue is that, Charlie knows what he is doing. He
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, written by Joanne Greenberg, has by far been the most difficult book to read and understand. With its difficulty aside, I couldn't set the book down. I found it so interesting to read what goes on inside a person's head who suffers from schizophrenia. It made me understand and appreciate why people with a mental illness behave the way they do. We can't see what goes on in their thoughts, or what they are feeling. So why are we so quick to judge? This book has taught me not to judge, or laugh at a person's behavior while suffering from an illness. It has made me have a greater sympathy and respect for the sufferers of mental illnesses. I can't imagine living in the mentality world as Deborah Blau. Her world was so real to her, the world of Yri. She couldn't escape. She couldn't betray her god Anterrabae. Imagine walking one day in her shoes. It's a scary thought.
In the movie “CHARLY” by Ralph Nelson and the story Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keys, one difference from both is how Charlie’s friends are rude to him to the beginning of the story to the end, one similarity is that Charlie feels accomplished after the operation and, another similarity is that Dr. Strauss and Dr. Nemur still have the same thoughts about Charlie from both sides of the story. A similarity between the two stories is that Charlie felt intelligent after the operation. Before the operation he was given tests from both sides like the raw shok test. Although he failed the tests, he managed to beat Algernon and succeed. After the operation he felt brand new and wanted to express his smartness and felt more emotions within this event.
Enduring Love by Ian McEwan How important are the Appendices in the novel? The opening of a novel is vital, as it sets the foundations for the story to come. In “Enduring Love” the ending (The appendices) is just as important. The appendices are important in many aspects. Together they are a conclusion to the story, the classic ‘happy ending’ that all readers desire.
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.
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
The Flowers By Alice Walker Written in the 1970's The Flowers is set in the deep south of America and is about Myop, a small 10-year old African American girl who explores the grounds in which she lives. Walker explores how Myop reacts in different situations. She writes from a third person perspective of Myop's exploration. In the first two paragraph Walker clearly emphasises Myop's purity and young innocence.
The cold tone of this story starts out right in the beginning and her mother and father are quite distraught because of the daughter’s illness and the fact that they must trust the doctors; they seem to not trust anyone. They even told their own family that Deborah is at convalescent school, not a mental institution. Of course the time period of the book is much earlier than now so it is more understandable why they were upset. Hopefully parents now are less ignorant and would try and be proud of their child to willingly get help. It would be too harsh however to say that Deborah’s parents did not do the best that they could, they just did not even realize that their daughter was mentally sick. They didn’t even know that her peeing herself was the result of a tumor. I can say that the way that they treated her for that was wrong. At least they feel bad or that it is their fault. I think that much more of the blame needs to be placed on the parents, contrary of what Dr. Fried stated. It is the responsibility of the parents to protect and nurture their children, not to physically punish what it not right.