What if it were possible to triple human intelligence by surgical means? This is the question that Daniel Keyes answers in the story “Flowers for Algernon.” Charlie Gordan is the main character who wants to be smart and has brain surgery. After the surgery Charlie improves, learning how to read many advanced books. He also learns to write better using punctuation, and grammar correctly and falls in love with Alice. With the result of the surgery, he has more emotion expressing affection, grief, and guilt. However, Charlie regresses and loses his best friend, Algernon, his relationship with Alice, and all the knowledge he gained from the surgery. Wanting a fresh start, Charlie moves away from New York, leaving his relationships behind. Ultimately, this story …show more content…
Charlie also loses relationships with things in his life after the surgery. For example, we can see that this event occurs in the story when, after the surgery, he says, “I'm forgetting things that I learned recently.” Charlie writes, “I dont know why im dumb agen or what I did wrong maybe its becaus i dint try hard enuff.” By looking at the quote, we can see that Charlie loses his knowledge and is also forgetting many things. Charlie regressed further than before the surgery, losing memories, knowledge, and relationships. However, some would say that Charlie should've had the surgery because he found love and learned new stuff. Irregularly, Charlie shouldn't have had the surgery because he forgets his relationships and loses the knowledge he gained from the surgery. Losing feelings for Alice, forgetting everyday things, and forgetting proper English. Second, Charlie is incorrect in having the surgery because he gained memories and experiences just to forget them, also likely bringing him a premature death. For instance, we can see Charlie is incorrect in undergoing the surgery when he realizes he will lose his memory and
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 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
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
Experiment Gone Bad in Flowers for Algernon & nbsp; One experiment was done on a mentally retarded person to try to raise his intelligence. The experiment worked, but after months, he came back to the state he originally was at. In the book, Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes, this intelligence operation was done, and the patient was Charlie Gordon. After the operation, Charlie was very bright, but experienced loneliness, and psychological distress. Charlie was emotionally upset because of his flashbacks from childhood, and because his intellegence grew faster then his emotional intellegence.
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.
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...
Before the operation Charlie was unaware of the way he was being treated or of how others viewed his disability throughout his whole life, but by the end of his progress reports he understands the way life is. The gift of intelligence was given to him, however this gift he was given was drawn away from him just as quickly. Many bad things occur to Charlie after the operation, but the war between his emotions and his mind stood above the rest of
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.
The other week after reading the story “Flowers For Algernon” by Daniel Keys in our English Language Arts class. After I got on the bus I rode to my house and walked up to the porch and went in and talked to my mother about how sad I felt about Charlie, She agreed and nodded her head and said, “I think that people who have disabilities shouldnt be used to experimenting on.” I said that a lot of people in my class agree and think that it's not right. This reminds me of when Charlie was searching for his identity. First, in the story “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keys, Charlie revealed his inner strength when he was willing to do the surgery and when he stood up for the kid that had the same condition as him, and when he asked Miss Kinnian to dinner.
What would you do if you had the chance to triple human intelligence? This is the question Daniel Keyes answered in the story “Flowers for Algernon.” Charlie Gordon had this chance. Charlie learns about the struggles of becoming smart. Charlie has always wanted to become smart, but since he has a disability, Charlie isn’t able to learn like a normal human being.
What would you do if you had the chance to triple human intelligence? This is the question Daniel Keyes answered in the story “Flowers for Algernon.” Charlie Gordon had this chance. Charlie learns about the struggles of becoming smart. Charlie has always wanted to become smart, but since he has a disability, Charlie isn’t able to learn like a normal human being.
To start, it is a good feeling to feel normal and everyone should feel that way. In the story, Charlie wants to be smarter and Dr. Strauss can do that for him. Charlie wants to be smarter so he can just be normal like other people. The thought of his I.Q. being tripled was amazing to him. At one point in the story Dr. Nemur said,“remember he will be the first human being ever to have his intelligence tripled by surgical means” (page 518). Anyone who has wanted just to be normal would understand what Charlie was feeling. If Charlie didn’t have the operation he would not be able to experience the benefit of being normal.
Rape is covered within the Sexual Offences Act 2003 which states that ‘a person commits an offence if he intentionally penetrates the vagina, anus or mouth of another person with his penis, the victim does not consent to the penetration, and the offender does not reasonably believe that the victim consents’ (Legislation. Gov, 2003). The act also clarifies the parameters of consent by stating that ‘a person consents if he agrees by choice, and has the freedom and capacity to make that choice’ (Reece, 2013) which is reflected in the fact that proving non-consent is essential in securing a conviction. Stern (2010) also supports this and argues that the absence of consent is the defining factor of whether an act is considered to be rape (Stern,