Flowers For Algernon Movie Comparison

“Flowers for Algernon” is a short story by Daniel Keyes and was made into a film by Mark Winemaker in 2000. It is about a low intelligence man, named Charlie Gordon, who had an operation to become smart. He is a genius but he faces many hardships because he is intelligent. He gradually becomes dumb again. The story and the motion picture can leave audiences with diverse views. In comparing and contrasting the “Flowers for Algernon” short story and film, there were many similarities and differences in the story elements. These include theme, characters and plot.
The themes are both very similar in the short story and film. But in the movie the theme of ethical boundaries is show directly during the convention in Chicago. Charlie points it

out while he is speaking. The theme bullying isn’t as direct as it is in the short story. The story has Charlie notice a boy in a restaurant getting mocked and gets angry. There is also a theme in both which is people can be highly intelligent but not have enough heart.
Not all of the characters are the same in the film and short story.

The characters that are similar are Charlie, Frank, Burt, Algernon, Mrs. Kinnian, and Dr. Strauss. Even though these are the same characters some of their roles are different in the film. There are also some new characters introduced in the film also. In the film Frank and Gimpy were Charlie’s so called friends but there was still bullying like there was in the story. In the film, they aren’t as dirty to Charlie. In the story, they ditch him and keep on tripping him in the bar. During the movie, Gimpy tries to trip Charlie with his cane but Charlie stands up for himself. Burt had a much larger role in the movie because Dr. Nemur was not in the film. He appeared much more and worked closely with Dr. Strauss. Mrs. Kinnian’s relationship with Charlie Gordon was much more romantic. They became close friends. In the short story, Charlie’s mother wasn’t acknowledged whereas in the movie it shows the relationship between them. She signed the paper allowing the procedure to be performed on him. She had abandoned him earlier in life and he went back to visit her after the operation. Dr. Strauss took on some of Dr. Nemurs’ traits in the story. He had much more of an ambition for

fame.
The plot in the short story and the film is alike but it differs also. In the beginning of the short story and the film before the operation the plot line is comparable to the film. A main difference is the setting. Charlie had worked and a plastic factory in the story and in a bakery in the film. After the operation bigger differences start occurring. In the film Charlie begins to remember the memories of bullying from his childhood. He liked a little girl named Harriet and he asked his cousin to write a letter to her saying he liked her. His cousin wrote an awful letter full of terrible words. After kids heard about it they came and beat him up. The story doesn’t tell of him receiving these childhood memories. A change that appeared in the movie is that Charlie is angrier than he was in the short story. He is very pleased with his life and loves being smart in the story but in the movie he gets very stressed with everything. Charlie uses a computer to learn in the film but in the story he has a sleep machine that he uses every night. Chicago was a turning point where a big difference occurred. In the short story, it just stated that Charlie and Algernon went to the Psychiatric convention. In the film, Charlie asks Dr. Strauss to speak. This reveals the theme. He talks about the thin line between ethical and unethical science at the convention. The experiment had been done by a Russian scientist and had a 100 percent chance of failure. Knowing this, the operation was still performed on Charlie. He mocked them for the unethical actions. Throughout the film it also shows that Charlie and Mrs. Kinnian had a romantic relationship. She came with him to Chicago, checked on him when he stopped coming to the doctors, and even spent a night with him. Towards the end of the film Charlie visits his mother and learns about some of his past. She sent him away when he was young because he was too much for her to handle. It was hard to keep everything similar to the film because the story was told in first person and it’s awfully tough to do in a movie. The producers had to add and change events so the feelings from the shorts story could be expressed in the movie.
In the short story and film, Flowers for Algernon, there are many similarities and differences in the theme, characters, and plot.