“Flowers for Algernon” Persuasive Essay
Did you know that one in every five american adults suffer from being mentally challenged? Charlie Gordon was one of those adults. In this science fiction book called “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes Charlie Gordon is a mentally challenged man with an I.Q. of just sixty-eight. Charlie has always wanted to be intelligent, so he undergoes an artificial intelligence surgery to hopefully triple is I.Q. Charlie had made the right decision to go through with the surgery. After the artificial intelligence surgery Charlie had realized that he had good friends, he has helped contributing to science, and Charlie now know what love feels like.
After the A.I. surgery Charlie had realized that he had good friends. Once Charlie got his job back at Donnegan’s Plastic Company one of the new workers there was making fun of Charlie, but Joe Carp and Frank Reilly were there for Charlie, they helped comfort him. An example of this in the text is “later Frank Reilly came over and said to Charlie if anybody bothers you or tries to take advantage of you call me or Joe and we will set em straight.” (Keyes 243) This shows that Charlie has people who care about him and don’t want to seem him get hurt or feel bad about himself. This shows
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that Charlie has good friends that care strongly about him. During the A.I. surgery Charlie had contributed to science. In Charlie’s letter to Dr. Strauss he was saying how he had helped science. For instance in the text Charlie says ‘Yet for the sake of science, I am grateful for the little bit that I here add to the knowledge of the function of human mind and the laws of governing the artificial increase of human intelligence.” (Keyes 239) Charlie is basically saying that he is very happy that he had the opportunity of having the surgery and that he was glad that he got to increase the amount of knowledge they know about the human mind. That quote clearly explains how Charlie had contributed to science and that he was grateful he did. After the A.I. surgery Charlie Gordon got to know what love feels like. Charlie had always thought good of Ms.Kinnian before and after the surgery however, Charlie felt something different towards Ms. Kinnian after the surgery. For example Charlie states, “I don’t understand why i never noticed how beautiful Ms. Kinnian is.” (Keyes 233) This shows that Charlie’s emotions are changing towards Ms. Kinnian.Another example of this in the text is that Charlie says, “I'm in love with Ms. Kinnian.” (Keyes 234) This shows again that Charlie’s emotions are changing more drastically towards Ms. Kinnian. He has these feelings towards her that he has never felt before. All this evidence shows that Charlie now understands what love feels like. Some people may argue that Charlie was better off without getting the surgery.
They might argue that Charlie had more friends before the surgery, however, Charlie might have lost some friends after he had the surgery but, the ones that he kept Charlie got to see their good side. He even got to love one of them. Readers may also argue that Charlie regressed rapidly causing him to forget the ability of learning. Although he did regress quickly he once had the ability to learn, he was the smartest man on earth at one point. Now that would be quite a title to hold! Charlie was glad that he had the ability to learn. He even stated that he would do the whole thing over again and that he would not change a
thing. Now that you have learned about Charlie Gordon’s story, he was still better off by having the surgery. He realized that he had good friends that care about him. He helped contribute to science and increase what they know about the human mind. Charlie also got to know what love feels like. Now if you see a mentally challenged person help them out, you have no clue what decisions they have to make.
In this novel, Flowers for Algernon, written by Daniel Keyes, a man named Charlie Gordon has an operation done to increase his intelligence. He started as a mentally retarded man and slowly became a genius. He seemed to soak up information like a sponge and he was able to figure out the most complex scientific formulas. The only problem with the operation is that it does not last for ever and in his remaining time he tries to figure out why it is not permanent. He will eventually lose everything he learned and become worse off than when he started, so Charlie was better off before he had the operation.
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 ...
The societal problems became a reality for Charlie as he overtook the brain of a genius. Every day, Charlie woke up thinking he was best friends with Joe and Frank; nonetheless, after the operation, Charlie’s brilliance knew Frank and Joe were not his legitimate cohorts. All the mocking was assumed to be friendly until Charlie was able to comprehend the actuality. Charlie’s acquaintances turned around
He was able to see the world through the new eyes that he had gained from the operation learning new things about the world and being able to talk and interact with the people around him as a normal person. For a moment in time Charlie was normal ,and even after he had lost everything Charlie still learns in the end that even though he may have lost everything he was still happy to be able to finally fulfill his dream of being normal. In conclusion I still think Charlie should have undergone the operation for these reasons ,because in the end if he hadn’t he would have experience these many great things and finally fulfilled his lifelong dream of becoming smart and
In the story "Flowers for Algernon", the main character, Charlie Gordon is a mentally retarded 37 year-old man with an IQ of sixty-eight. Although he might not have been smart, I believe that Charlie was the definition of happiness. He worked happily as a janitor, was motivated to learn, and had a great time with his so called ?friends.? After Charlie undergoes an experiment that triples his IQ, his life changes for the worse. With intelligence does not come happiness.
Before the operation, he exhibited some clear strengths such as determination, a positive attitude, friendly with people and some weaknesses such as education and inability to understand the adult world. After the operation, he begun to change in numerous ways. Charlie started out as being not really intelligent. Being around with “smart” people made him want to change and became “intelligent” just like his “friends.” I think its all crazy. If you can get smart when your sleeping why do people go to school. That thing I don't think will work. I use to watch the late show and the late late show on TV all the time and it never made me smart (Keyes 118). This part of the book led Charlie’s flashbacks takes place of how he was raised or nurtured through his childhood, Of how he wanted to try to become smart. However Dr. Strauss believes that his sleep would help Charlie be able to learn. However in his nature, his disability cannot help him at all, doesn’t matter how much he tries to watch TV and tries to go to sleep, I wouldn’t allow him to learn anything at all. The nurture of this is having the doctor recommend Charlie to do this. His disability also not just affects him but his family as well. His disability kind of makes his sister miserable as well, jealous over how the parents focus on Charlie due to his disability, despite the successes the sister achieves in school. Thus Charlie’s nature towards others has a negative effect which is towards his sister. Charlie was raised by his parents but through a condition that would then follow him probably for the rest of his life as well as being mainly raised through this experiment, which possibly wouldn’t help him at all in the near
Charlie Gordon has all his life been mental disabled, but for just as long time wanted to be a geni-ass. One day he is given that opportunity and he agrees to let the doctors operate his brain. Before the operation Charlie is a very friendly man, who only sees the good things in life and trusts everybody. His lack of intelligence makes it impossible for him to see that his best friends are in fact victimizing him. (Report 8, page 117) He can’t imagine things. “I tryed hard but I still…” (Report 2, page 112) Another important quality he hasn’t got, besides intelligence and imagination, is: Feeling. He is only able to be happy, he can not feel anger and love. One of Charlie’s best qualities is his motivation and what seems like his eternal strive for normal intelligence.
Joe Carp and Frank Reilly are Charlie’s coworkers who often make fun of Charlie because of his low IQ. Charlie figured he could resolve this by becoming smarter, so he undergoes an experiment and becomes smarter. Instead of them liking him more, they feared him. Charlie thinks that if he changes and tries to become someone new that he will have lots of friends. He thinks he will have a normal life, like everyone that he works with at Donegan's plastic box company. In the story, the text states “Then Frank Reilly said what did you do Charlie forget your key and open your door the hard way. That made me laff. Their really my friends and they like me” (Keyes page 354). This shows that his coworkers are mean to him but he doesn’t notice and he just wants to be their friends. The story also said, “All the rest demanded I be fired” (Keyes page 336) and this means that his coworkers didn’t want to work
With his simple minded approach to life, he was able to live happily without problems or difficulties that we face in relationships today. Although he was never smart, Charlie was a good person before the surgery.
Everyone knows that every story has two sides, but the tricky part is figuring out which side to believe. In the short story “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keys, Charlie Gordon, a 37-year-old man with a mental handicap, has an operation performed on him to artificially increase his intelligence. Before and after the operation, there were drastic changes in the lives of Charlie and all those around him. While the operation caused many twists and turns for Charlie and his peers, the pros far outweighed the cons.
Firstly, Charlie grows emotionally and physically as a human being: growing and becoming more complete with every experience. Starting off, Charlie grows physically as he develops into a more of a complete man. Joe and Frank invite Charlie to a party, during the party he is forced to dance with a girl named Ellen. After waking up the next morning, Charlie says, “I dreamed about the girl Ellen dancing and rubbing up against me and when I woke up the sheets were wet and messy” (Keyes 43). Charlie has his first wet dream, he is slowly going through puberty after the operation and becoming a more complete man. Adding on, Charlie is always happy and thinks all is good in the world, before the operation everything seems fine to him. He is like a child: naive. After the operation, Charlie has therapy sessions with the doctor, where they do tests to measure growth. During one of these therapy sessions, Charlie says, “I had reached a new level and anger and suspicion were my reactions to the world around me” (Keyes 57-58). Charlie grows emotionally, he adds another aspect to his cha...
As a result of the operations, Charlie gains the experience of what it is like to be intelligent. Therefore, he sees the world as it is. “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. This hurts most of all” (76.) He can now truly understand how the outside world functions and how he is truly treated.
Flowers for Algernon Flowers for Algernon, written by Daniel Keyes, is a book that is an emotional roller coaster. This book includes science that one day might not be fictional but may come true and will be able to be used by people who have intellectual disabilities in today's world. The book starts with a man, who is mentally retarded, writing in a journal about them using him in a surgery used to change him for the better. This mans name is Charlie Gordon. He is the kind of man who works hard to achieve only little accomplishments and never gives up.
One reason is that he was only intelligent for a little while, but then he was back to being how he was before within three or four months. I don’t know about you, but if that happened to me, it would lower my self-esteem by a ton. I am inferring that Charlie’s self-esteem hit rock bottom and that is why he left. He thought that he was disappointing everyone. Another reason that the operation was more costly than beneficial is that he most likely ruined his relationship with Miss Kinnian. At first Miss Kinnian just seemed like a teacher to him, but once he became smarter, he realized that he loved her. But after he figured out what was going to happen to him, he ruined his relationship by being rude to her. After he goes back to how he used to be, he forgets that he is not in her class anymore and goes. This makes Miss Kinnian even more sad, because this proves that Charlie is back to how he was and it didn’t work. Finally, another reason why the operation was not good was because Charlie had to find out that everyone was making fun of him. At first, he was living a happy life, or at least what he thought was a happy life. When people laughed at him, he took it as laughing with him. When he went to school, it was all just a game. But then he realizes that everything he thought was wrong. And now he has to live with that
If Charlie didn’t have the operation he would not be able to realize that Joe and Frank were making fun of him. Joe and Frank would just keep making fun of him and he would not be able to stick up for himself. Once in the story Charlie said,“It's a funny thing I never knew that Joe and Frank and the others liked to have me around all the time to make fun of me. Now I know what it means when they say "to pull a Charlie Gordon.” I'm ashamed” (page 524). Somebody who has been made fun of before should know that anybody would want to stick up for themselves. This shows that it was a blessing for Charlie to have this operation because now he can stick up for