Wisdom: Is it worth the consequences that might come with it? In the eye-opening short story, “Flowers For Algernon” by Daniel Keyes, Charlie Gordon is a mentally challenged man who is given the choice of a surgery which will assist him in becoming exceptionally smart. He takes the offer because the chance to gain knowledge is all he has ever wanted. Adam and Eve are people living in literal paradise. Although they have all of the resources needed to live a life that is free of misfortune, they eat the fruit of a tree, knowing it will open their eyes beyond their current conscious state. Because of Daniel Keyes’ allusion to Genesis Chapter 3 in his short story, “Flowers For Algernon”, it is made apparent that Charlie, an individual once unaware of his vulnerability, faces societal and mental repercussions due to his sudden attainment of knowledge, illustrating to the reader; with knowledge comes consequences. …show more content…
Their ignorance protects them from the anxiety that comes with life's misfortunes. Shortly after Charlie has the surgery to make him smart, he starts to discover problems that, beforehand, he was not aware he had, therefore, he did not worry about them. He soon learns, “the end of the maze holds death (something [he has] not always known...)”(Keyes 124). Similarly, Adam and Eve eat from the tree of knowledge and their eyes are opened to a problem they did not know existed; their nakedness. Both Adam and Eve and Charlie come out of their blissfully unaware state and realize how vulnerable, how “naked” they
Knowledge can be the key to success and can lead people to happier life. However, there are some instances that you can not gain any more knowledge because of how it would change your whole life. The drive of wanting more and more knowledge is best portrayed through two well -known books. In Mary Shelley’s, Frankenstein, and in Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon, both the creature and Charlie are ostracized by society because they are different from everyone else but this distinction gave way for distinct fallouts because of their quest for knowledge beyond their reach to achieve happiness.
This quote shows how Charlie is connected the the prisoner because he is trapped in a metaphorical cave of his mind, or in the books words a dark room, staring out at the amazing brightness outside of what he is used too. In Charlie’s scenario the brightness is the intelligence he does not have and the keyhole is almost like a window; he can see the intelligence but he can't reach it. While Charlie is in the cave and sees the light outside he doesn't fully understand what the light actually is before the surgery because that light is not apart of his reality. Charlie relates to the prisoner because the cave and the darkness of his mind is all they’ve known their whole life so when they are presented with something different from their reality it doesnt register that their world is not what it is. The connections between the allegory and the novel can help the world with questioning their reality and the world they know, if they even know it
In the short story “Flowers for Algernon” the whole was being told from Charlie’s point to view. In the short story “Flowers for Algernon” there are two types of characterization. There are direct and indirect, the short story has both of them. At some point he’ll talk about how nice Miss. Kinnian is and how nice his “friends” are.
In Platos’ “Allegory of the Cave”, he illustrates a hypothetical situation in which men are chained from birth in a dark cave and all they know is the shadows in front of them. That is until one of the men is freed and led out of the dark cave into the light which initially causes him great pain. After the pain subsides he is able to see the truth about what was real and what he had known to be true in the cave was only an illusion of reality. Plato tells such a story to implore us strive for knowledge, truth and enlightenment, no matter how painful the journey. Once we have become enlightened, Plato wants us to encourage others to become enlightened as well, even if they scoff and chide us.