Flowers For Algernon Quotes

To begin with, Charlie Gordon experiences pain throughout the novel. “Those who want to reap the benefits of this great nation must bear the fatigue of supporting it,” (Paine). In the novel Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes Charlie Gordon is a thirty-seven year old man who is mentally impaired and has a I.Q. of sixty-eight. This quote relates to the novel because it is saying that if anyone wants the benefits they have to go through some bumps to get there. Even though Charlie did get his feelings hurt throughout the journey, his operation had more benefits than costs. To start, it is a good feeling to feel normal and everyone should feel that way. In the story, Charlie wants to be smarter and Dr. Strauss can do that for him. Charlie wants to be smarter so he can just be normal like other people. The thought of his I.Q. being tripled was amazing to him. At one point in the story Dr. Nemur said,“remember he will be the first human being ever to have his intelligence tripled by surgical means” (page 518). Anyone who has wanted just to be normal would understand what Charlie was feeling. If Charlie didn’t have the operation he would not be able to experience the benefit of being normal.

If Charlie didn’t have the operation he would not be able to realize that Joe and Frank were making fun of him. Joe and Frank would just keep making fun of him and he would not be able to stick up for himself. Once in the story Charlie said,“It's a funny thing I never knew that Joe and Frank and the others liked to have me around all the time to make fun of me. Now I know what it means when they say "to pull a Charlie Gordon.” I'm ashamed” (page 524). Somebody who has been made fun of before should know that anybody would want to stick up for themselves. This shows that it was a blessing for Charlie to have this operation because now he can stick up for