Comparing The Banning Of Books In Daniel Keyes Flowers For Algernon

Throughout history, many books have been banned that should not have been. “An attack upon our ability to tell stories is not just censorship – it is a crime against our nature as human beings.” (Censorship) Salman Rushdie explains that taking away peoples right to read is a punishment to the human. He believes that we should not be punished to stop reading books that we can learn from. An example of a book that teaches well, is the book Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. Flowers for Algernon is a novel about a man who had an I.Q. of 70 and goes through surgery that had been conducted first on a mouse, to improve his intelligence. The book is a bunch of progress reports in Charlie’s perspective explaining how he feels going through surgery, and how it changed his life. Flowers for Algernon was banned due to sexual content, which was a wrong decision. It was wrong to ban Flowers for Algernon because, despite some

sexual content, it offers a great explanation of how disabled people feel in society.
Just like Flowers for Algernon many books can be both challenged or banned.

Challenged books are, literature that is attempted to be removed or restricted based upon objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of materials based upon objections of a person or group. (“About”) Banning and Challenging books are similar, but banning is a stronger move in getting rid of a book. A challenge of books is the attempt to remove books that offend, or people think not suitable. Where’s banning is getting rid of the book entirely at schools or libraries that dislike it. Books get both challenged and banned all the time. When a person feels they don’t like something about the book that affects them, or they think will affect someone else, they just file a complaint to the library regarding what they felt offensive about the book. Once the complaint it sent, the committee will look over it and determine if it is worth banning or not. Depending on the decision of the committee, the book is removed, or left on the shelf of the library or school.

(How)
Among many books that have been banned, is Flowers for Algernon. Flowers for Algernon is a novel that explains in detail through progress reports, the life of a 33-year-old man named Charlie, who goes through surgery to help improve his brain. Once the experiment was tested on Algernon (the mouse) the scientists were ready to test it on Charlie. Charlie was a man who was not smart, and once the surgery was conducted, he lives his adulthood just like any normal person. Throughout his experience he takes notes, writing progress reports explaining what events he has experience, and how is feeling about them. In addition to writing progress reports for Dr. Nemur to examine, Charlie takes classes learning information he had missed. (Sova 91-92)
As time goes by, Charlie’s intelligence increases as well as his emotions. He starts falling in love with Alice, his teacher, and Fay, a neighbor of his. At the same time, Algernon was acting strange which caught Dr. Nemur’s attention, giving him the hypothesis that the same effect would occur on Charlie. Eventually Charlie starts loosing his intelligence and is returned back to where he started with an I.Q. of 70. (Sova 91-92)
Yet this book is well written through the perspective of Charlie, it was banned in many places. Flower for Algernon was banned in Emporium, PA, Glen Rosh, AR, and Aledo TX. It was challenged in Oberlin, OH, Glenrock, WY, and Plant City, FL. Specifically, in Emporium PA, it was banned “due to sexual explicit passages that parents feared would awaken their children’s ‘natural impulses”. (Doyle 203) Whereas Glen Rose, AR. banned it because of “language”, and “sexually explicit passages”. (Doyle 203) Some places thought the book was unacceptable so they challenged it trying to get rid of it but not completely getting rid of it. For example, Oberlin OH. Oberlin challenged Flowers for Algernon, in 1984 because of clear wordings of sexual scenes. Plant City, FL also challenged Flowers for Algernon but for “Adult themes” and “Profanity”. (Doyle 203) There are many reasons why Flowers for Algernon got banned, but still the book teaches the public a lesson on how the disabled feel.
Flowers For Algernon should not have been banned. Through out the book, they are scenes where Charlie has sex with two women. For example, when he gets close to Fay. “ She leaned forward and the kimono open at the neck revealed her bosom. She slipped her arms around me, waiting for me to do something”. (Keyes 177) Charlie is unsure about this for a moment thinking what to do, but then decides to follow along. “’I care,’ I whispered, kissing her throat. But as I did it, I saw the two of us, as if I were a third person standing in the doorway. I was watching a man and woman in each others arms”. (Keyes 177) Keyes puts detail in the passage when this occurs, but they happen so quickly that it’s briefly remembered through out the rest of book.
Although some people believe it was ok to have some sexual passages, many thought differently, feeling so unhappy about the book. Just like how the society felt about banning Flowers for Algernon, in the Supreme Court case Island Trees School District Board of Education v. Pico, The Island Trees Union Free School District’s Board of Education felt, based on parents and school staff complain, that certain books in the district’s libraries should be removed. Francis Pico, on the other hand disagreed with this, and he put forth to the federal district court objecting The Island Trees Union Free School District Boards opinions. So the question that the judges were considering was, “Did the Board of Education's decision to ban certain books from its junior high and high school libraries, based on their content, violate the First Amendment's freedom of speech protections?” (“Island”) In a 5 to 4 vote, the Supreme Court decided yes, the banning of specific books violated the First Amendment rights to free speech. (“Island”)
Despite some of the sexuality that occurred in Flowers for Algernon, it still teaches the reader not to let past experiences affect decisions through the point of view of a disabled person who feels different about life. For instance when Charlie is at a diner for dinner view what he felt before the surgery.
“There was anew dishwasher, a boy of about sixteen, and there was something familiar about him, his movements, the look in his eyes. And then, clearing away the table behind me, he dropped some dishes. They crashed to the floor, shattering and sending bits of white china under the tables. He stood there, dazed and frightened, holding the empty tray in his hand. The whistles and catcalls from the customers (cries of ‘Hey, there go the profits!’…’Mazel tov!’… And ‘well he didn’t work here very long…’ which invariably seem to follow the breaking of dishware in a public restaurant) confused him.” (Keyes 182)
The next minute the manager comes over and is unhappy with the boy, but the boy is lucky not getting in trouble. Seeing this angered Charlie, because that was when he realized that boy was just like him, retarded. “I jumped up and shouted: ‘Shut up! Leave him alone! He can’t understand. He can’t help what he is… but for God’s sake, have some respect! He’s a human being!” (Keyes 183) Most people in the society, like the people in the book, don’t know what its like being retarded, and throughout the progress reports Keyes does a good job to help the reader understand what disabled people feel and are going through.
Daniel Keyes was constantly a fan of reading and writing, but his parents were more focused on him becoming a doctor. Keyes always focused on school but what he really enjoyed, was when his mom would read him stories at night. That was when he started getting interested in literature, but he knew that he would never achieve my goal of being a writer because his parents wanted him to be a doctor. So eventually instead of becoming a doctor he joined the army for a few years, and in his free time he would go read and write. Eventually he left and decided to enroll into Brooklyn Collage with a psychology major. Even though Keyes never became a psychologist, he used his experience to help write his books.
Keyes soon discovered Stadium western magazines, where he became associate fiction editor. He wrote short stories for a while being published in the magazines, but soon the place was losing profit so Keyes had to leave. Eventually Keyes accepted a position teaching English literature at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. Then in 1966 the final version of Flowers for Algernon was published. (Cassedy 12-28)
With the amazing description of how disabled people feel in society, it was wrong to have banned Flowers for Algernon. Just like Daniel Keyes, some authors write books to understand the meaning of typical events that people might now know happens. Once reading how disabled people feel from a book is mind blowing, and taking that away by banning a book is wrong. Just as Salman Rushdie mentioned removing a book from our ability is a wrong decision affecting our capability to learn about other kinds people.