Due to experience with technological advancements, we have learned that there can be several drawbacks to something that may seem like a way to make our daily lives easier. This is especially true in the case of Charlie, as the operation did not give him the exact results he was expecting. Although he did get everything he wanted out of the procedure, Charlie's intelligence was not permanent like everyone had hoped. Instead, he lost all the knowledge he had gained which returned him back to square one. However, we know for certain that much thought was put into deciding whether Charlie should undergo the operation and the pros and cons of the procedure.
One important idea the doctors had to consider was whether or not Charlie was a suitable candidate to use for the experiment. Even before the operation was confirmed, the doctors had performed tests on Charlie such as the inkblot tests and the maze races against Algernon. Charlie eventually won the two doctors over by expressing his motivation to learn and become smart. The doctors knew that other patients with Charlie's mentality were uncooperative, which was unlike this candidate they were considering. This decision was especially important for the doctors because if they did not choose a fitting candidate, their experiment may not have been as easy to analyze.
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If they had picked someone who was less motivated than Charlie was, gathering data and observing the results of the experiment would have been a much harder task. If Charlie had chosen not to take part in the experiment, he would have missed out on a rare opportunity for someone like him to gain so much knowledge. In addition, he never would have learned the truth about how his so called friends were just making a fool out of him. However, he would have been saved the trouble of becoming a genius and then watching as his intelligence slipped out of his grasp. On the other hand, by choosing to have the operation, Charlie would have a second chance to learn everything about the world. He would, however, be burdened by the truth about all the people he once considered to be his friends. The operation did have several positive outcomes that benefited Charlie's life for the better. One obvious example is that Charlie became extremely intelligent at a very rapid pace. He was able to learn things that people spent their entire lives trying to understand in a matter of weeks. Due to this, Charlie was even able to write an essay about what went wrong with Dr. Strauss and Dr. Nemur's experiment, which he called the Algernon-Gordon Effect. A third positive aspect of the procedure was that Charlie was able to fluently communicate his feelings, especially with Miss Kinnian. It seems that for each positive outcome, there is also a corresponding drawback.
One such example is that after Charlie became smart, he learned that people made fun of him. This resulted in Charlie isolating himself and became more irritable. By writing the paper on the Algernon-Gordon Effect, Charlie understood that his intelligence would not last permanently, which is another negative result of the operation. Lastly, by telling Miss Kinnian about his feelings for her, Charlie's teacher felt the need to distance herself from him. She did not spend as much time with him as she had before, and she was forced to reconsider her feelings for Charlie as
well. Throughout our lives, we are forced to make decisions that can change our lives completely. Whether the effect is beneficial or harmful can only be determined by the choice you make. Charlie's decision granted him a life-changing opportunity to learn and grow, but it still had its drawbacks.
I Dr. Strauss, chose Charlie for the surgery, it got me a lot of grief from Dr.Nemur but I knew it was the right choice. Charlie is a man of low intellect but he is very cooperate, motivated, and not hostile. These traits are exceptionally rare in a man of 68 IQ. Another reason that Dr. Nemur and I chose Charlie was that he worked extremely hard in Miss Kinnians class. Working hard got him to be the best because he picked up spelling and writing faster than others in the class. Some other reasons I chose Charlie was because he did all the tests without much complaint. We almost lost Charlie when he tested against Algernon in the maze and didn't write the progress reports for 2 weeks. When the tests were to
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.
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.
He proved the operation was a failure Algernon-Gordon effect. The quote is saying (which is next)that Charlie is telling the doctors that their experiment was a failure.The quote is “I recall your once saying to me that an experimental failure or disproving of a theory was important to the advancement of learning as a success would
After weeks of testing Charlie is selected and has the procedure performed. There are no noticeable changes immediately, however after some time Charlie begins to have flashbacks and mixed emotions of his childhood for example, Charlie’s first flashback begins with him standing in front of the bakery as a child and it goes blurry and cuts out. (2) As Charlies intellect increases so does his perception of the world around him and the way people act toward him. Charlie finally begins to realize guilt and shame along with all other natural human
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
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. This sends Charlie into a short depression. His life was better before the experiment because he had a job he looked forward to and ?friends?.
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 begins to learn how society treats the mentally retarded. He realizes his old friends at the bakery just made fun of him. After watching the audience laugh at video of him before the operation, Charlie runs away from a mental health conference with Algernon after learning that his operation went wrong. Charlie does research on himself and learns that intelligence without the ability to give and receive affection leads to mental and moral breakdown. In many ways Charlie was better before the operation.
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.
Charlie Gaines lives with his single mother in L.A. because his father abandoned him when he was an infant. Charlie is now 12 years old. Charlie’s friends call him Brain and for a good reason to.
Ben Sherwood’s piece titled Charlie St. Cloud originally published as “The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud” explains about his brother’s death. Charlie’s brother, Sam, was killed in a car accident, blaming himself for the incident. Charlie begins to work in the graveyard to take care of his brother and feels connected. In the novel, it states that Charlie is about to see his brother in spirit to play ball with him every day. Thirteen years after Sam’s death, Charlie meets a girl named Tess Carroll, helps him to comp with the lost his brother. He learns to experience his life now that Tess appears giving him hope and joy after many years of doubt. Tess makes an impact in Charlie’s life which no one has been able to accomplish. The use of “loss” in Charlie St. Cloud illustrates the character’s difficulty to cope with seen throughout the novel.
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...
The Mosquito Coast, by Paul Theroux, tells the tale of Allie Fox, a brilliant, innovative inventor with “nine patents, six pending”, who disdains all of modern American culture, and who believes that there is an inevitable war on the horizon for America. Allie has very critical of his view on American, the American Dream, and American consumerism. Allie was outspoken about his negative attitudes towards the modern style of life that have developed in the United States. He believed the concept of religion to be useless, and the government system to be corrupt. He is an unstable, antisocial individual whose paranoia causes him to drastically alter his stable family and move them from Hatfield (America) to the Mosquito Coast in Honduras. At Honduras, Allie buys a clearing of land known as Jeronimo and even though at the beginning it is a simple clearing of land, it is soon transformed a fully functioning and self-sufficient village. The novel is written in first person narration, from the perspective of Charlie Fox, Allie’s thirteen year old son. Charlie was ignorant to the aspects of modern society because of his father’s continuous and intentional sheltering from these evils. As he matured emotionally and intellectually, Charlie’s new gained knowledge led to a change in opinion of his father from an admiring to fearful standpoint. Theroux uses diction, foreshadowing, and flashbacks to depict this coming of age all through Charlie’s first person narration.
The casts for this film entailed Meryl Streep, who played Violet as the psychotic mother; Sam Shepard, who played as Beverly, an alcoholic father; Julia Roberts, who was the oldest sister named Barbara; Ewan McGregor, who played Bill as Barbara’s husband; Abigail Breslin, played Jean, Barbara’s 14-year-old daughter; Violet's middle daughter, Julianne Nicholson, who played as Ivy; Violet’s youngest daughter Juliette Lewis, played as Karen; Margo Martindale, played Violet’s sister as Mattie Fae; Chris Cooper, who played Charles as Mattie Fae’s husband; and Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays “little Charles” is Mattie and Charles’s son. The film takes place during the hottest month of August in a rural area outside Pawhuska, Oklahoma. The movie