Daniel Keys wrote “Flowers for Algernon,” a story where Charlie gets something good and it turns out being bad. He gets intelligence and becomes very smart then he starts to lose it. I think the story suggests that too much of anything is a bad thing.
Charlie Gordan is a 37 year old man who is mentally handicapped. He works at a factory and his “friends” that work there make fun of him and treat him like dirt. “...We sent him off for the newspaper that one night at Muggsy’s and ditched him.” (Flowers for Algernon Pg. 200) This shows that since he lacks so much intelligence, he does not realize they are mistreating him.
Since Charlie does not know they are doing this he goes along with it. He laughs with them and does anything
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they tell him to. They try to get him drunk so he does stupid stuff. This shows that they are not his friends that are just taking advantage of him. Then two scientists would like to try and make him smarter,but first they have to test him. He was given an inkblot test, but could not see any images. “I couldn't see any pictures. I really tried to see.” (Flowers for Algernon Pg. 190) They gave him test after test, but he kept on getting the same results. This frustrated Charlie and he started to get sad. This suggests that since he was given so many tests, it made him sad. After this the scientists want him to race a rat, Algernon, at a maze. Again and again he failed and lost to the rat. This was because the scientists performed an operation that made the rat smarter. Soon after that, the scientist performed the same operation on Charlie.
Although he started to get smarter, he also started to decrease in happiness. Algernon then started to get worse and do worse in the maze. In result of this Charlie beat him in the race. Next, Algernon started to eat less and eventually died. He had so much intelligence, that he passed away.
Some people might say that it wasn't the intelligence that killed him. They can argue that a rat's life span is not that long. He might have died of natural causes. I think this is wrong because it showed that the rat was treated properly and was in good condition.
Charlie then starts to lose happiness and intelligence. He finds out that the people at the factory were in fact not being nice to him. “...Unknowingly I joined with them in laughing at myself. That hurts most of all.” (Flowers for Algernon Pg. 208) A result of this is he gets angry at himself. He gained common sense and that made him realize they were being mean to him, making him angry.
Finally, Charlie starts to lose intelligence. He also starts to forget the things he wrote down in his notebook and how to spell. He starts to eat less and people get worried. Charlie starts to miss Mrs. Kinnian, his teacher. In result of all this, he writes a letter and it hints that he is going to
die. Some people think that he is not in fact dying.They might say that he is just moving to a different place.They think that he doesn't feel he belongs in that town anymore. “I'm going to have lots of friends where I go.” (Flowers for Algernon Pg.215) Others think that he is going to take his own life away. I also believe this. People say that since he got so much intelligence, it made him sad. Then he had too much sadness that he decided he wanted to die. This illustrates that if you have too much of anything, it can turn out bad.
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.
He doesn’t lack of encourage anymore, he has overcome his fear and despair. “I have to go. I have to disobey every impulse and leave her for Jasper Jones, for Jack Lionel, for this horrible mess.” We see a different Charlie from his determination. From escape to face up, he shows us more responsible. From helpless to assertive, he comes to realize what he really wants. He knows the dark side of human nature and this unfair and cold world. His innocent, his perfect world has been destroyed by those horrible things; because of these, he knows the part of real world, he knows how the ‘dark’ actually changes this world, his friends, his family, included
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 ...
Charlie lived in a paradise-like world, he though he had many "friends". The only thing he felt he was missing was brains. When he was offered the chance to become 'smart' he jumped at the chance to be like everyone else. Unprepared for the changes intelligence would bring, Charlie lost his innocence. When he realizes his 'friends' don't actually like him they just liked to make fun of him.
Algernon is a super genius. He can complete difficult tests and also happens to be a mouse. Algernon’s character develops in three stages. His peak in intelligence after an experimental operation defines him in the beginning. Later, Algernon is frustrated when this new intelligence begins to wear off. His brain continues to regress to a level even lower than it was prior to the operation, ultimately ending in his death. These stages are not only important for the character development of Algernon but for Charlie’s too.
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
Background information:In the story of “Flowers For Algernon” charlie was abiviously not as itelligent as he should have been. What is trying to be said is that when someone did or said something to charlie he would do nothing but laugh because he didnt think for hmself or know what he was doing. The same concept goes with the story of “Adam And Eve”. In the story Adam and Eve, Eve was tricked by the snake of eating of the tree of knowledge. She also didnt know any better and could’t think for herself.Eve and Charlie both had bad the same differnce outcome.
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 Gordon is the main character of Flowers for Algernon. Charlie is a mentally retarded, 33 year old adult. He desperately wants to be smart, especially after a very troubled childhood in a family who had a hard time adapting to his illness. Charlie has a great attitude about changing his life, and was willing to do whatever it took to accomplish the task of becoming smart. Charlie partakes in a surgery to boost his intelligence that has only been tested on rats, specifically one named Algernon. 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.
Many popular novels are often converted into television movies. The brilliant fiction novel, Flowers for Algernon written by Daniel Keyes, was developed into a dramatic television film. Flowers for Algernon is about a mentally retarded man who is given the opportunity to become intelligent through the advancements of medical science. This emotionally touching novel was adapted to television so it could appeal to a wider, more general audience. Although the novel and film are similar in terms of plot and theme, they are different in terms of characters.
Between Shades of Grey is about a girl being taken by Joseph stalin to a labor camp while “Flowers For Algernon” is about a mentally handicapped man participating in an experiment to make him smarter. These two books sound different story wise, but they share and differ in a lot of themes.
Prior to the operation, Charlie saw Algernon as a rival, and wasn’t a fan of him. “If the operashun works Ill show that mouse I can be as smart as he is.” Before the operation, Charlie was forced to race against Algernon to see who could complete a maze faster, and Algernon always came out victorious. Since Charlie continued to lose, he became frustrated and saw the source of this frustration as Algernon, causing dislike. “I hate that mouse.” If there was 1 thing Charlie hated more than Algernon, it was taking those tests in general, and Algernon was always there. Because Algernon was always present during the time of the tests, Charlie associated the hatred for the tests with Algernon.
Imagine walking through the cafeteria and seeing a kid sitting alone and wondering if there is the possibility that they are just like you. Charlie Gordon in Daniel Keyes’ Flowers for Algernon, had an unusually low IQ and found himself without any friends. Nobody accepted him nor did they respect him. His peers made fun of him and laughed at him. As a citizen living in a free society, it is everyone’s responsibility to accept others, respect everyone, and to sacrifice your time and energy for anybody.
His hypothesis stated that “artificially increased intelligence deteriorates at a rate of time directly proportional to the quantity of increase” (pg. 13), meaning that if the subject learns an abundance of things, they would lose it all faster than they learned it. Moping around became a regular thing for Charles; he didn’t want to lose all his intelligence. The inevitable regression followed Charlie’s period of desperation to hold on to his intelligence, and he starts forgetting many things. To pay his overdue rent, Charlie gets his job back, and somehow his co-workers find out about the operation and its aftermath, and they try to show sympathy by helping him out and defending him, but Charlie doesn’t want them feeling bad for him. He desperately wants to maintain his ability to read, which is of great concern for him, but he is unfortunately unable to do so. One thing that Charlie still understood though is that he should not let people make fun of him, even if he had some episodes of amnesia. Not only will he remember to disallow people from ridiculing him, but even if he lost all of the abilities he has gained during the period of his temporary intelligence, and forgot many things, he will never forget Algernon. That is supported by Charlie’s request, “please if you get a chanse put flowers on Algernons grave in the bak yard” (pg.
Readers may say that charlie hurt his friends after the A.I surgery. Yes but even though he hurt them they still stayed by his side and continued to be his friend when they could’ve left him. For example he hurt Miss.Kinnian a lot, but she still continued to do things for him like pay his rent and stay his friend even though it hurt her. Readers may also argue that he was being negative about things, That’s proof that he is experiencing new emotions. That should be normal for him to become angry/negative or frustrated, he’s going to keep having those emotions throughout the