Flowers For Algernon Existentialism Analysis

Daniel Keyes’ short story, “Flowers for Algernon”, masterfully weaves a narrative addressing the then current fears of biological science while simultaneously pulling at the heartstrings of readers. This particular text addresses both existentialism as seen in Charlie Gordon’s rapid decline at the end of the story, as well as eugenics which can be found when taking a look at the whole of the experiment Charlie is participating in (eugenics is a term coming from Professor Westgate’s handout). By examining the emergence of existential thought and the consequences of such in the character of Charlie Gordon, the concern of moral practicality in the pursuit of eugenics is unearthed.
By examining Charlie’s character arc throughout the story the reader

has a chance to look at the question of existentialism in a new light. In his progress report number four for March 8th Charlie offhandedly reveals, “[Dr Strauss] said I had a good motor-vation … I felt proud when he said that not every body with an eye-q of 68 had that” (287). Keyes drops this emotionally charged nugget three pages into the story to help prime the reader for the drastic changes about to take place. What is learned from it? Three things: the first is that his IQ is 68 which is abnormally low, the second is that while Charlie is intellectually impaired he apparently has motivation which is what sets him apart from other candidates, and the third is that with such a low baseline, this experiment could potentially work just by increasing his intelligence to a “normal” range. At this stage in Charlie’s development, he has yet to see himself clearly and instead forms his perspective of himself solely on what others say “[Dr Strauss] said I have a good motor-vation … I felt proud” (287).
Charlie begins to form his own thoughts and becomes self-aware seven pages later when confronted with the Rorschach test for the second time. In his progress report for April 22nd, Charlie muses to himself that the man who gave him the test had tricked him the time before because now it was so simple to understand when before he thought he had failed- he writes, “I didn't believe it, and I still have the suspicion that he misled me at the time just for the fun of it. Unless-I don't know any more-could I have been that feeble-minded?” (294). A few paragraphs before this particular excerpt Charlie reveals that his IQ is projected to surpass 200, meaning that at this time of self-examination his IQ rests somewhere probably on the higher end of a 68 to 200 range.