Flowers For Algernon Innocence Quotes

It has happened to each and every one of us. Some younger and some older, but it happens. The day we see the world a little clearer is the day we lose our innocence. The world we live in is a very cruel world. One might argue that it is a safe and loving place but it is not. Losing your innocence is shown in several ways in Daniel Keyes; Flowers for Algernon. Charlie Gordon embarks on a journey to undergo an experimental operation to increase his intelligence. Charlie’s innocence is slowly lost through gaining knowledge. As his intelligence grew, he started to realize the truth about reality. Charlie loses his innocence by being curious which leads him wanting to gain knowledge, fearing reality, and realizing what place the world is and what

people around him are capable of.

After the surgery, Charlie slowly started to lose his innocence by wanted the need to gain more knowledge. Charlie was warned several times that by going through the surgery he will have to pay the price by losing his innocence. The first time where he is warned is when Dr. Strauss says, “The more intelligent you become the more problems you’ll have, Charlie. Your intellectual growth is going to outstrip your emotional growth.” (47). This quote clearly gives a hint to the readers that the more knowledge Charlie will be receiving the more his innocence will disappear. This is the first warning Charlie gets. Another example is when Fanny the female bakery worker, warns Charlie not to try to surpass what god has planned for him. “If you’d read your Bible, Charlie you’d know that it’s not meant for man to know more than what was given to him to know by the Lord in the first place.” She then goes on to foreshadow his future by saying, “Maybe you can go back to being the good simple man you was before.” (107). She means that if god had in store for him to gain more knowledge then he would’ve had it already, but god has not, so Charlie is defying him. Fanny is clearly against him and wants him to just be the same man he is. Another crucial quote is when Fanny says, “It was evil when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge. It was evil when they saw they was naked, and learned about lust and shame.” (107). Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit from the tree, so this is similar to Charlie taking the “forbidden” operation. Adam and Eve were innocent but their innocence was snatched away from them as soon as they ate from the tree. These few quotes are very important, since they let us know that by wanted to learn more by being curious it ultimately leads you to lose your innocence.
When a person feels fear they have lost their innocence.

As a kid no one is immune to the emotion fear; since kids are innocent, but as they grow up and learn, fear becomes one of the strongest emotions a person can carry. At the beginning of the book Charlie is a fearless guy that trusts everyone around him, but as the story evolves he starts fearing and worrying about the people he trusted. “What matters is that before I got involved in this experience I had friends, people who cared for me. Now I’m afraid. Fear is a normal reaction.” (110). He starts to feel afraid and vulnerable as well as betrayed which is a big sign of him losing his innocence. Kids don’t feel fear at all because they are practically clueless, so when Charlie explains how he’s scared he is, it clearly explains that he has lost his innocence. A memory that haunts him from his past is when young Charlie saw that his mother wanted to hurt him. “Charlie sees on the kitchen table the long carving knife she cuts roasts with, and he senses vaguely that she wanted to hurt him.”(185). This memory is very important because this was the first type of fear Charlie felt as a child and the fact that somebody wanted to hurt him makes him start to lose his innocence. At the time young Charlie felt his first sense of fear because he saw his mother and the knife. Additionally, Charlie has a break down and says “Oh, God, please don’t take it all away” (109). Charlie is referring to to his knowledge as well as his

innocence. He fears that all of his knowledge he had received would all be taken away and he would go to his regular innocent self. Lastly, throughout the book Charlie meets new people whom he shares new experiences with, but one of the most important people he meets is Fay. Fay has introduced him to many new and wild things that are so foreign to him though his fear gets the best of him. “Well, you were like a scared little kid.” (196). The prospect of having a sexual relationship with Fay sends Charlie into fear mode. This is due to his past because his mom always abused him whenever he was too close to a girl. Charlie has thoughts of getting close to Fay, but his fear always stops him. This type of fear has really affected his innocence. Overall, the above examples determined Charlie’s fear to his loss of innocence.
The third way a person’s innocence can be lost is when they realize what people and the world are capable of. The world is a cruel place and people in it are far worse. For a child, their minds don’t work that way because all they think is that the world is a magical place, since they are innocent. The day their innocence is lost is the day a lot of perspectives change on how they perceive the world. Charlie realized how the people he called “friends” were actually the ones that hurt him the most. “I never knew before that Joe and Frank and the others liked to have me around just to make fun of me. Now I know what they mean when they say to pull a Charlie Gordon.” (42). Before the operation he thought they were his friends, but since the operation as his innocence slowly started to fade away he realized they weren’t. He felt absolutely betrayed and hurt that they would take advantage of his innocence and make fun of him. In addition, Charlie realizes how stupid and oblivious his old self was.“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. That hurts the most.” (199). He was devastated that the people he thought were his friends were only making a fool out of him and he was there to help them. Charlie is finally able to see the true colours of the people around him. Lastly the most important quote is, “Everything but treat me as a human being. You’ve boasted time and again that I was nothing before the experiment. (247). Charlie eventually realizes Dr. Struss and Professor Nemur never considered him as a human being, rather an experiment to test a theory. They used Charlie’s mental state to use him as an object to test on because they knew he did not have any family that was close to him, so if something went wrong they would be safe. Charlie started with a lot of people that he thought were there for him, but after getting the operation he realized there was no one. “What has happened to me? Why am I so alone in the world.” (253). Charlie finally understands what the people around him are capable of and how unfairly they treated him because he was innocent. He now perceives the people and the world as cruel and selfish. His innocence was lost as he begun to realize how the world worked as well as the people living inside it.
Charlie has faced many difficulties throughout his life.

People would take advantage of his innocence and use him. Everybody around him felt bad for him, but because of Charlie’s innocence he never let himself down. He always tried his best and was always a happy person. All he wanted was to gain knowledge, but little did he know that came with a price; his innocence. As being curious and wanting to gain knowledge were one of the ways he lost his innocence, fearing reality and realizing what the people he trusted are capable of. Charlie was excited to gain more knowledge despite the several warnings he had received from the people around him. After receiving knowledge the innocence losing away finally started to kick in. Charlie started to feel fear as the memories of his past were coming as well as when he met Fay and she was introducing to him to new things. As the story develops he slowly realizes that the people around him did not care about him and only used him for their own good. When Charlie sees this he can’t believe how his old self trusted them. Therefore this clearly explains his loss of innocence. Despite being warned, Charlie wanted to go through the surgery which led him to all these problems ultimately making him lose his

innocence.