External And Internal Conflicts In Daniel Keyes Flowers For Algernon

The novel, Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes, is an incredible story about a developmentally disabled man named Charlie, chosen for an experiment that offers him the opportunity to become “smart”, his deepest wish in life. It is the story of how individuals labeled retarded, are treated with less concern than most people. It is the story of Charlie Gordon and the challenges he faces to fit in a society where his family, and friends find him either “too dumb” or “too smart” simply because he is different from them. Although there are several external and internal conflicts in the novel Flowers of Algernon, including the conflict between the new and the old Charlie, the conflict between Charlie and Alice as she is threatened by the new Charlie,

the main conflict in the story is between Charlie and society and how abusive the people he loves are towards him. In Charlie’s childhood, his abusive mother is determined to make him "normal," even with force. The meanness he receives from his sister as well as the cruelty that Charlie’s mother demonstrates such as not letting him hold his baby sister, or hiding him in the cellar when visitors call, is beyond belief. Charlie’s so-called friends do not treat him any better. His childhood friends call him names and exclude him from their games. When he is older, Charlie is constantly pushed around by his co-workers at the bakery. They have no understanding of his disability and show no respect for him as a human being. Finally, the researchers at the lab, especially Mr. Nemur, regard him as the material that they can "use" for their work. Nemur considers him an object, and congratulates himself on having "made" him a better citizen. He expects "gratitude" for what he has done, but he cannot understand Charlie’s suffering when he knows he is losing his intelligence.
In his childhood, Charlie’s mother makes his education her primary goal and is determined to make him "normal," even by force.

She wants to make him "smart." The episode with Guarino reveals the way dishonest people take advantage of desperate families with handicapped children. His comments on parents who want their ‘normal’ children transformed into geniuses reflect back on our society. Charlie’s father has less influence on the situation. His mother screams at his father, refusing to accept Charlie’s condition - "He’s not a dummy. He’s normal. He’ll be just like everyone else." (Keyes 73). His father objects to her "driving him as if he were an animal that could learn to do tricks." (Keyes 73). The loud voices frighten Charlie who takes refuge in a game with his bunch of beads. His mother flings them away, commanding him to play with his alphabet blocks. His mother’s sudden outburst scares him and by looking at him his mother realizes that he has to go to the toilet. She asks him to go the toilet alone but Charlie is too petrified to move and therefore spoils his clothes. She goes towards him to hit him and Charlie turns to his father for comfort. When Charlie’s mother becomes pregnant with his sister, Norma, she begins to pay less attention to him. "When she was holding me less, warming me less with her voice and touch, protecting me less against anyone who dared to say I was subnormal." (Keyes 130). When Norma is born, she becomes the focus of the mother’s attention. Her earlier obsessive concern for Charlie fades into indifference. She rejects him completely and turns her attention to the other child. Charlie tries to attract his mother attention by showing his love for his sister. He tries "to hold her to get quiet the way mom does." (Keyes 38). Thinking that he might hurt the baby, his mother rushes in screaming hysterically and hits him hard. The father is always shown struggling to be fair to his son, always kind, but having little influence on anyone in

the family. The scene with the young sister reveals a harshly convincing picture of the way a retarded child is regarded as a liability, even by another sibling. Norma also treats him with cruelty. She refuses to play with her brother, calling him a "dummy". Charlie remembers the time when Norma tells a friend, "He is not my real brother! He’s just a boy we took in because we felt sorry for him!" (Keyes 119). After the operation, Charlie begins to remember the way Norma treated him when they were children and he is filled with hate for her. "Norma flowered in our garden I became a weed, allowed to exist only where I would not be seen, in corners and dark places." (Keyes 168). A flash of memory reminds him of the painful incident; when her mother insists that he go the Warren State Home. His father resists, furious that "Now you’ve got her, you’ve decided you don’t want him anymore." (Keyes 170). She however remains unmoved saying that, she is "not going to sacrifice her daughter for him." (Keyes 170).
Charlie’s mental disability makes him an easy target at an early age. The kids in his childhood neighbourhood make him a victim for their cruel practical jokes. For instance, they allow him to play hide and seek, with him as IT. But, by the time he opens his eyes, they all vanish and then he has to go back home, alone. They also call him names such as, "Charlie! Charlie! ...fat head barley!" (Keyes 44). When he is older and starts working at the bakery, not only the tormenting does not go away, but it becomes more intense. Of the people at the bakery, Joe and Frank represent the most backward and insensitive attitude that some have towards a mentally disabled person. This is also stated in Robert Small Jr.’s criticism: “Charlie is retarded at the beginning of the story, and he is not aware that the friends he has are not real friends, that they treat him with disrespect, look down upon him, and enjoy a sense of superiority because they are not like him”. Only Gimpy, who is himself lame, protects Charlie from their crude practical jokes. At one instance, Joe Carp and Frank Reilly from the bakery invite Charlie to the party. They make him drink lots of whisky, and they make him dance on the bar with a lampshade on his head. Then Joe asks him to show the girls how he mops the toilets. Charlie had obliged and told them proudly how Donner and Miss Kinnian had praised him and told him to take pride in his work. Ironically, Charlie wishes his experiment is successful and he could get smart like his friends. After the experiment, he returns to the bakery to a chorus of jokes about the operation. Joe Carp asks him whether they "put any branes in." (Keyes 26). As his so-called friends at the bakery are threatened by his intelligence, they become increasingly hostile and suspicious. For example, Frank bursts out with - "you come pushing in here with your ideas and suggestions and make the rest of us all look like a bunch of dopes." (Keyes 106). While Gimpy plainly says - "you can go to hell!” (Keyes 106). Charlie begins to think that “before I got involved in this experiment, I had friends, people who cared for me... I’m like an animal who’s been locked out of his nice, safe cage." (Keyes 111). At last Charlie understands that Joe, Frank and the others only wanted him around to make fun of him. He also understands what they meant by "to pull a Charlie Gordon." (Keyes 42).