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What is the moral of flowers for algernon
What is the moral of flowers for algernon
Annotated bibliography on mental illness in literature
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In the short story, “Flowers for Algernon”, by Daniel Keyes, the main character, Charlie Gordon, is a mentally impaired thirty-seven-year-old man who undergoes an experimental surgery to improve his intelligence. He works happily as a janitor, appreciates the smallest pleasures in his life, and has an enjoyable time with his “friends” from the factory where he works. Charlie believes that if he becomes intelligent, he will live a happier life. When his teacher, Miss Kinnian, tells him of the opportunity to increase his intelligence, he leaps at it right away. However, he is unaware of the consequences that may follow afterwards. Therefore, even though Charlie is not mentally developed, he is happiest before his surgery. First, before his surgery, Charlie has secure employment at Donnegan’s Plastic Box Company and has always enjoyed his job. In addition, he believes that the factory workers are his friends. Charlie recalls that …show more content…
The factory workers at Donnegan's have always been able to get away with mistreating Charlie because they know that he does not understand the cruelty behind their words. However, as his IQ rises, he begins to realize that these men are not really his friends. Their callous behaviour varies from making fun of him to leaving him at a bar all by himself, not considering the consequences that may occur such as him being lost or dying on a street corner. As Charlie’s intelligence increases, he becomes aware of the true motivation of others. Charlie realizes that “[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” (17). He realizes that he has been an object of ridicule at the hands of his fellow workers, of whom he had previously thought as friends. As a result, he begins to feel isolated from the
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.
Firstly, Charlie's realizes that his co-workers aren't his true friends after all. When Joe Carp and Frank Reilly take him to a house party, they made him get drunk and started laughing at the way he was doing the dancing steps. Joe Carp says, "I ain't laughed so much since we sent him around the corner to see if it was raining that night we ditched him at Halloran's" (41), Charlie recalls his past memory of him being it and not finding his friends who also ditched him and immediately realizes that Joe Carp was relating to the same situation. Charlie felt ashamed and back-stabbed when he realized that he had no friends and that his co-workers use to have him around for their pure entertainment. It's after the operation, that he finds out he has no real friends, and in result feels lonely. Next, Charlie unwillingly had to leave his job from the bakery where he worked for more than fifteen years. Mr. Donner treated him as his son and took care of him, but even he had noticed an unusual behavior in Charlie, lately. Mr. Donner hesitatingly said, "But something happened to you, and I don't understand what it means... Charlie, I got to let you go" (104), Charlie couldn't believe it and kept denying the fact that he had been fired. The bakery and all the workers inside it were his family, and the increase of intelligence had ...
Others may say that charlie wouldn’t have been fired from his job but i argue that he still got his job back still. Another may say that he realized he was being bullied but i argue that his friends came back around and helped him out at the end for instance”the new men who came to work there after i went a way made a nasty crack he said hey charlie i hear you're a very smart fella a real quiz kid.Say something intelligent.I felt bad but joe carp came over and grabbed him by the shirt and said leave him alone you lousy cracker or I’ll break your neck…”. (keys,243) and that’s my
Is becoming smart always better than staying dumb? After considering Charlie’s situation, I have decided that the answer to this question is no. Charlie is the main character in the science fiction story Flowers for Algernon written by Daniel Keyes. In the book, Charlie is a 37 year old man who has an I.Q. of 68 and is on a mission to become smart. When the opportunity comes for him to participate in an experiment for an operation that can triple his I.Q., he willingly takes it. It turns out that the operation only grants a temporary intelligence boost, and Charlie experiences high intelligence only to have it start deteriorating. I think that Charlie was wrong to have the operation that temporarily made him smart.
The famous quote from Alfred Lord Tennyson, “'tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all” is particularly relevant to the story “Flowers for Algernon.” Charlie Gordon is a 37 year old man with an I.Q. of 68 his one goal in life was to become smarter so he could be normal. This chance comes to him as he is selected to undergo an operation that should in theory increase his intelligence. This procedure has already been performed on multiplies animals most notably on a mouse named Algernon. After undergoing the operation, Charlie rapidly gains intelligence until he reaches an Iq of about 200 or more. Then tragedy strikes when Algernon starts to mentally regress to his former state after which he dies. From this Charlie learns that soon the same will happen to him all of the things he’s learned will soon disappear soon Charlie finds himself in a downward spiral as he quickly forgets everything he’s learned after the operation. In the end
Many people in our society today change themselves to feel accepted by others. When in reality, they do not need to change themselves to be accepted. If one takes that chance, undesirable consequences can be a result. Losing crucial relationships, losing self esteem, and maybe even depression. In order for one to be happy, one must accept themselves for who they are. As George Orwell once said; “ Happiness can only exist in acceptance.” In the story, “ Flowers for Algernon,” written by Daniel Keyes, Charlie Gordon should not have gotten the operation to increase his Intelligence Quotient (IQ) because, it damaged his relationships, it damaged his self esteem, and it had life threatening symptoms.
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.
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.
Everyone knows that every story has two sides, but the tricky part is figuring out which side to believe. In the short story “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keys, Charlie Gordon, a 37-year-old man with a mental handicap, has an operation performed on him to artificially increase his intelligence. Before and after the operation, there were drastic changes in the lives of Charlie and all those around him. While the operation caused many twists and turns for Charlie and his peers, the pros far outweighed the cons.
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...
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.
Towards the end of the first paragraph we begin to get more of an insight into what Charlie’s father is really like. The first example of this is “I’d like to take you up to my club, but it’s in the Sixties, and if you have to catch an early train I guess we’d better get something around here”.
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
Charlie demonstrates a socially awkward freshman in high school who has always been a wallflower. Soon into his first year of high school, he meets two friends, Sam and Patrick who teach him how to live outside his comfort zone. What nobody knows about Charlie is that he was molested by his Aunt Helen. This caused a major mental damage that lasted throughout Charlie’s life. Thankfully, Patrick and Sam were always there to support Charlie in times that Charlie felt so alone in life with no hope. The movie demonstrates throughout Charlie’s first year in high school that true friends will always be there for one another, that child abuse can cause many mental illnesses, and that family is the number one support system.
Because of the parties he attends with his new friends he has tried using some drugs. These new friends help Charlie see things with a positive perspective, and to be confident in himself. When his friends move away, Charlie experience isolation and has a mental crisis that leads him to be internalized in a clinic.