Ignorance Is Bliss In Daniel Keyes Flowers For Algernon

“Ignorance is bliss,” is an old saying used throughout time and can be applied to the tragic yet inspiring (5) story know as Flowers for Algernon. Author Daniel Keyes creates a mentally challenged character, Charlie Gordon, who has went through his life completely unaware of his disability is given an opportunity to change everything. As the story progress Charlie is faced with a constant battle between intellect and emotion or happiness, which leads to some dire situations and choices he may not be ready to make. Charlie starts off as a grown man who was abandoned by his parents at an early age due to hid disability. Charlie maintains as job cleaning the bakery where he was basically raised by Mr. Donner, the man who owns the bakery, and all the other workers there. Considering Charlie is not conscious that everybody else makes fun of him he goes along with all the jokes and harassments they make toward him. Given Charlie was happy at this time, it raises the question would he have been content if he had known that he was being made fun of?

After weeks of testing Charlie is selected and has the procedure performed. There are no noticeable changes immediately, however after some time Charlie begins to have flashbacks and mixed emotions of his childhood for example, Charlie’s first flashback begins with him standing in front of the bakery as a child and it goes blurry and cuts out. (2) As Charlies intellect increases so does his perception of the world around him and the way people act toward him. Charlie finally begins to realize guilt and shame along with all other natural human