Operation In Daniel Keyes Flowers For Algernon

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If you had the chance to triple your I.Q, would you take it? Not knowing the consequences or how long this boost of intelligence will last? In the story “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes, the main character Charlie Gordon did. He took that chance. I agree that he should have had the operation. In my opinion the operation had both positive and negative effects. I think that Charlie should have had the operation because it benefited him. All Charlie wanted was to be smart, just like everyone else. When Charlie had the operation he became intelligent and that is what he wanted. Becoming intelligent is one advantage of having the operation. In the book Charlie got very excited when Dr. Nemur said they were going to use him for the operation. We can see this here, “When he said that I got so exited I jumped up and shook his hand for being so good to me.” (Keyes,58) After the operation Charlie started to see how he had changed and was …show more content…

All his co-workers voted for him to be fired. This made Charlie get very depressed and upset. He cried and thought t o himself the everyone hated him. Since he was so smart he also realized that the people who were hanging out with him weren’t really his friends at all. Charlie noticed this at a party he got invited to. Charlie realizes this in the story, “Everyone was looking at me and laughing and I felt naked….I’m ashamed.” (Keyes,66) A good thing about Charlie realizing this is that now he knows who not to hang out with. Another disadvantage of having the operation is that when Charlie's I.Q tripled he became too smart to communicate with people. He had lost his social skills and whenever he would try to have a conversation people would just look at him strange and walk away. The story tells us this, “Everybody seems to be frightened of me. When I went over to Amos Borg and tapped him on the shoulder, he jumped up in the air.”

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