Skylar Lukito Mrs. Carew Honors English 8 Period 4 15 March 2024 The Perceptive Truth of Intelligence Twenty-six percent of Americans suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder. In the 1959 novel by Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon, we are introduced to Charlie Gordon, a mentally challenged man living in New York City. Charlie works at a bakery and attends special education classes in the hopes of improving his intelligence. Charlie Gordon undergoes a groundbreaking surgery that significantly increases his intelligence. However, after this process of tripling his IQ, Charlie realizes that the happiness he once had as a mentally challenged man has instead been replaced with confusion, despair, and detachment from his prior life. Many individuals, …show more content…
For one, Charlie Gordon had a reasonably invariable life standing in front of him. Charlie Gordon worked at a box company with supportive coworkers, which made his life undoubtedly better because of his joyful and steady work. Unlike after the operation when he lost his job due to his unveiling personality surrounding his intelligence, Charlie had a passive source of income that allowed him to live comfortably in a small apartment, allowing him to pursue his learning in his spare time. During this time, he also believed he was also surrounded by a tight-knit group of friends. “We had a lot of fun at the factory today. Their really my friends and they like me.” However, following the surgery, Charlie Gordon ends up completely isolated and feeling incredibly lonely after his friends leave him, claiming to the doctors that Algernon is his only friend who supports him. This detail proves that Charlie didn’t benefit from the surgery because he realizes his friends made fun of him, forcing him into a lonely and miserable …show more content…
On the other hand, it’s evident to consider the benefits of his life after the operation, and his acceptance of his mental regression at the end of the story. Charlie Gordon had huge opportunities he had yet to experience before the operation, such as his educational advancements. With his increased intelligence, Charlie had the opportunity to engage in concepts and ideas and document his progress, which gave him a sense of accomplishment. He also contributed to science as a participant in a groundbreaking scientific experiment. His experiences and research helped his doctors. He is also able to accept his regression after all of the events of the story. “dont be sorry for me, I’m glad I got a second chance to be smart” which confirms he never had a problem with dealing with stress that Charlie had to take in after the operation. However, Charlie had a carved path ahead of him to be happy and outgoing to many of his friends and colleagues. Because of this, I still strongly believe Charlie was better before the operation. Overall, Charlie Gordon had an assured life ahead of
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.
The fact is that Charlie Gordon just wanted to be smart & to be able to fit in.The main character is Charlie Gordon from “Flowers for Algernon” & Charlie’s life was a lot better after the A.I surgery in his image & i agree.Charlie should have had took the A.I surgery. The 3 reasons are he proved the operation was a failure Algernon-Gordon effect,He would never experienced love, & earned more money than before.
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
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
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
After the operation, in the bakery, he used to have friends. Friends that would talk to him and care about him. Charlie then realized that he had no friends but merely knew people that made fun of him. The bakery employees just liked him because they could blame their mistakes on Charlie. Then, they could not do this after the operation, so they all turned against Charlie. Charlie also found out about Nemur and Strauss, the men who preformed the operation. He realized they were not professionals, but two men that were taking a shot in the dark. Charlie felt like an expendable lab specimen. Thus, Charlie had lost his friends and knew now he was just a like a lab rat.
After the surgery, Charlie learned that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side, and that many of his old friends wouldn’t see the same person in him. Charlie suddenly had to experience drastic changes in his lifestyle, and the story revolves around these complications. Charlie’s story began with the surgery, the biggest decision he made in his life. Although he was a guinea pig during 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.
“Ignorance is bliss,” is an old saying used throughout time and can be applied to the tragic yet inspiring (5) story know as Flowers for Algernon. Avid writer and author, Daniel Keyes creates a mentally challenged character, Charlie Gordon, who has gone through his life completely unaware of his disability is given an opportunity to change everything. As the story progress Charlie is faced with a constant battle between intellect and emotion or happiness, which leads to some dire situations and choices he may not be ready to make.
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
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.
Flowers for Algernon Flowers for Algernon, written by Daniel Keyes, is a book that is an emotional roller coaster. This book includes science that one day might not be fictional but may come true and will be able to be used by people who have intellectual disabilities in today's world. The book starts with a man, who is mentally retarded, writing in a journal about them using him in a surgery used to change him for the better. This mans name is Charlie Gordon. He is the kind of man who works hard to achieve only little accomplishments and never gives up.
It succeeded, but the outcome was not what they were expecting. When Charlie started to die, he also got dumber and dumber. He said he wishes he could have another chance to be smart again, and he “doesn't know why im dumb agen,” (Pg 18). If he have never did this surgery, he would not have to deal with this pain and suffering of missing to be smart again. Even if he was going to be forever smart, he was going to die very soon. Is a few weeks of joy worth dying early and not living a fulfilled life? Due to this operation, he wasn’t able to do many things that he could have accomplished. Charlie also said, “ Please let me not forget how to read and write…” (Pg 17). Charlie would never be this sad if he never learned how to read and write. Charlie was already happy with his jobs, his friends, and life was easier when he was not smart. To conclude, Charlie’s life was clearly better off before the
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
Even though people do not accept faith healing for children, after falling sick, some children in the United State are only offered prayers by their parents and some states allow it. It is heartless. There are some stories about faith healing for kids. According to article “Faith Healing: Religious Freedom vs. Child Protection”, the author wrote that: “Children's Healthcare Is a Legal Duty (CHILD) was founded in 1983 by Rita and Douglas Swan. They were Christian Scientists who firmly believed that disease was an illusion, and that the most dangerous thing they could do was to show lack of faith in God by relying on medical treatment.” Matthew was their child. When Matthew developed a fever, they paid a Christian Science practitioner to come