Comparing and Contrasting Characters
There are numerous major similarities and differences concerning the characters in “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes, Charlie Gordon, and The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Liesel Meminger. These two characters are very similar in many ways, but they also have their differences.
In The Book Thief, Liesel realizes quickly that people around her have a huge lack of intolerance. Liesel believes that what Hitler and the Nazis are doing is wrong and she notices their actions quickly. For example when she hides Max Vandenburg in her basement she realizes that punishing Jewish people for their religion is wrong.
Also, Liesel is strong-willed and stubborn. Being strong-willed is being determined to do as one wants even if other people advise against it. An example of Liesel being strong-willed is expressed when she hides Max Vandenburg from the Nazis. Liesel was one to always take
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responsibility for her action and responsibilities. Once she gave Max bread and she got whipped. Instead of hiding from her cruel punishment, she took responsibility for her actions and dealt with her punishment. On the other hand, Charlie Gordon had very different behaviors, considering he was going through his own struggles in a separate time period.
Throughout “Flowers for Algernon” Charlie goes through with an operation. Even though the operation went downhill after just a couple months, he hoped he had made a contribution to science. Charlie wanted to help other mentally challenged people like him. Just a couple of months after the operation, Charlie began to lose his intelligence and his memory. He felt sick and depressed for quite a while but still continued with studies, experiments, and progress reports. Charlie is also obedient and friendly. For example, “I wanted to take Joe Carp and Frank Reilly out to lunch to celebrate”(Keyes 46). That shows Charlie is friendly. Also, “They said it was better I shud go back to work but I can't tell anyone what the operashun was for and I have to come to the hospitil for an hour evry night after work”(Keyes 39). Charlie continues to do this and that shows
obedience. There are some things that both Liesel and Charlie have in common. They both can get angry at times but can be very helpful and kind to others. When Liesel and Charlie see someone clueless or someone in need they are quick to act. Sometimes when Charlie or Liesel are having trouble understanding things they get angry. For example, Liesel beat up a student in her class because he was making fun of her for not being able to read. Charlie and Liesel’s want to be more intelligent shows that they are determined and hardworking. Both characters tried hard to gain intelligence but while Liesel’s knowledge began to grow, Charlie’s began to shrink. In both books we see characters upset by lack of tolerance and acceptance. Charlie gets upset with others eating in a restaurant when they laugh and tease a mentally challenged kid working there. Liesel gets upset with Hitler and the Nazi party when they force Max into awful times at a concentration camp. In conclusion, it is easy to see many differences between Liesel and Charlie. On the other hand in “Flowers for Algernon” and The Book Thief you can also see many similarities. This is one of the many things you see when you read books from other people's point of views. Just like in real life, if you take a walk in someone else’s shoes you see a completely different story. Both of these stories may have different settings, but they are the same story. The characters have the same traits, just different names. This shows that even though times can be very different people can have the same personalities and similar struggles.
The Book Thief and The Devil’s Arithmetic both focus on the prejudice Hitler had on different types of people during World War II. Liesel and Hannah both lost someone they had dearly loved. Liesel lost Rudy and Hannah lost many members of her family. In a time of fearfulness, both had told stories to the people surrounding them. Although both were not seen as equal in the eyes of many during their time, I see them as courageous and brave heroes after what they underwent.
On that day he picked up Algernon like normal but got bit. Charlie watched afterward for some time and saw that he was disturbed and vicious. Burt tells me that Algernon is changing. He is less cooperative, he refuses to run the maze any more, and he hasn't been eating. Burt and others have to feed Algernon because he refuses to do the shifting lock. This a indication that the procedure isn't permanent and Charlie may start to lose intelligence. On May 25 Dr.Nemur and I told Charlie not to come to the lab anymore. Then on May 29 we gave him permission to start a lab and he worked all day and all night on the reason he is losing intelligence. On june 5th he is forgetting stuff which leads up to him becoming absent minded on June 10th. The other indications the procedure wasn’t permanent was once they dissected Algernon who died on June 8th Charlie predictions were correct. Charlie also can’t read or remember books he already read. Soon Charlie can’t remember where he put stuff, forgets punctuation, and spelling reverts back to before. These indications are clear that the procedure wasn’t
When Liesel and Rudy steal books and food it is a small way of defying Hitler, empowering themselves, and building their identities. This is particularly true for Liesel, as the books she steals help form her own story, but for both children stealing becomes a way of taking some control over a world gone mad. Rudy has his own unique relationship with stealing and giving. He wants to be a thief, and stealing things cheers him up when something bad has happened, but he ends up being better at leaving things behind. At first it is Liesel's shoes, but then he purposefully leaves the teddy bear for the dying pilot and bread for the starving Jews. Ilsa Hermann's books also symbolize the complicated nature of this theme. First she offers Liesel her
Strong feelings towards another can lead to imprudent actions. Throughout The Book Thief Liesel, Rudy, and Hans make impetuous decisions due to their strong emotions towards another. From reading this novel one can conclude that there is a very fine line between irrationality and bravery. Most of the decisions and subsequent actions made in the story could be regarded as brave but in truth many of these decisions were impetuous and ill thought out. In fact many of the characters subsequently came to this conclusion as well. The characters could have achieved more by executing logically planed actions instead of acting on the spur of the moment and jeopardizing their lives or the lives of others. It is amazing that even polar opposites emotions like love and hate result in the same irrational consequences as exemplified by Rudy, Hans and Liesel.
'"What's wrong with a man becoming intelligent and wanting to acquire knowledge and understanding of the world around him"' (pg.528). This quote comes from the Short story, Flowers for Algernon. The quote shows how all Charlie wanted was to be normal and smart, like everyone else on planet earth, and wanted to understand what was happening around him. Also to make the most out of the things around him and make himself and others proud of what he can do, but people are not understanding him. Flowers for Algernon the novel and the film Awakenings can be studied together because of their important similarities along with some notable differences regarding Lenard and Charlie, making it difficult for the reader and viewer to refrain from
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.
In the novel The Book Thief by Markus Zusak the narrator is Death, who shows itself as sympathetic and sensitive towards the suffering of the world and the cruel human nature, through its eyes, we can get to know the heartbreaking story of Liesel Meminger an ordinary, but very lucky nine-year old German girl; living in the midst of World War II in Germany. In this book the author provides a different insight and observation about humanity during this time period from a German view and not an Allied perspective, as we are used to.
The irony behind Liesel stealing books is that, Ilsa Hermann, the mayor’s wife intentionally leaves the window unlocked for her to climb in and take books while Liesel is oblivious to what Ilsa is doing. Ilsa allows Liesel to use her expansive library because if Liesel does not take and read the books they would just sit on the shelf wasting away. “Lately it’s you that gets the most use out of this room.” (Zusak 461) Another point of irony in Liesel stealing books is that while many people are starving for food Liesel is starving for words. Hitler builds the foundation of his mind-controlled country on poisonous manipulative words and
Even though Liesel is just a kid and is going through some tough times, it still doesn’t give her the right to steal. Besides, Death claims that you could argue that others have it harder during this time and I agree. If you were a Jew during this time, that was bad news. They were persecuted, hunted, and killed by the Nazis. Liesel, on the other hand, although have lost her brother and may never see her mother again, is not living in constant fear for her life. The novel even states, “anything is better than being a Jew.” (Zusak
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
With his simple minded approach to life, he was able to live happily without problems or difficulties that we face in relationships today. Although he was never smart, Charlie was a good person before the surgery.
In the Book Thief, both Liesel and Hans have very altruistic personalities. When the Jew’s march through Himmel Street to get to Dachau, everyone knows where they are going. They watch them march by, walking around them and staring. 75 percent of Hungary’s 600,000 Jews were killed by the Nazis, and only a few brave people tried to save just one Jew. (We Are All Bystanders page 4) These people risked their lives to shelter Jews, much like Rosa and Hans Hubermann. As the Jews march to Dachau, and the residents of Himmel Street stand and watch the Jews marching towards their death at the concentration camps, Death writes, “The book thief could do nothing but watch them back in a long, incurable moment before they were gone again. She could only hope they could read the depth of sorrow in her face, to recognize that it was true, and not fleeting.” ( ) Liesel feels helpless, like she can’t do anything. She longs to call out to them and help but knows that it would be worthless. A few minutes later, however, Papa takes action. Papa quickly grabs something from his paint cart and helps an old man who was struggling to walk and gives him some bread. Papa took action when no one else would. Papa pays the consequence, but in that moment, Papa displayed moral courage. Papa’s selfless personality let him reach out to help the man, even
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.
A theme in flowers for algernon is that always be prepared for change . one event that shows this theme is when started to become smart . this shows this theme because charlie has alway wanted to be smart and he has always been mentally retarded since he was a child another place in the story that shows this theme is when charlie started to become depressed and started to have thought of suicide . it was all because is intelligence came in too much too fast so he couldn’t handle it. In the story the theme is shown because if only people didn’t doubt him he would have been able to handle it .the most important thing of all is to never be scared to express feeling this is shown when he was talking to fay and miss