Relationships In Daniel Keyes's 'Flowers For Algernon'

Relationships between people are important to maintain. During one’s lifetime, these relationships will change for the better or worse. In the novel, Flowers for Algernon, the author, Daniel Keyes, presents a change in the main character’s relationship with many people. Charlie Gordon, a 32 years old man who is mentally disabled takes the risk of undergoing a surgery that will make him intelligent. As Charlie’s intelligence increases, he finds out a lot about himself and becomes a different person. He learns the meaning of love, and experiences this newfound feeling with Alice Kinnian. Charlie’s teacher at Beekman College for Retarded Adults, Miss Kinnian, is one of the only people who is concerned and genuinely cares about him. When they part

Before the operation it is Miss Kinnian who suggests the experiment to Charlie seeing that he is eager to learn. She is one of the only people who is concerned about him and wants to help him achieve his dream. Once Charlie 's intelligence starts increasing, he starts developing feelings for Alice and along the way falls in love with her. However, the old Charlie that is in his mind does not let him have sexual thoughts about her and make love to her: “ ‘I love you...’ the words chocked out of me, ‘but I can 't do it. Something I can 't explain, but if I hadn 't stopped, I would hate myself for the rest of my life. Don 't ask me to explain, or you 'll hate me too. It has to do with Charlie. For some reason, he won 't let me make love to you’ ” (Keyes 205). Charlie is about to make love to Fay but something is restricting him from doing so. He explains this to Alice but she still does not understand what is stopping him. This shows that Charlie does really care for her and does not want to use her. The experiment does not go as planned, a fatal flaw is found that kills Algernon the mouse who is used to test out the same research. When his intelligence starts regressing, Alice stays and takes care of him for a while until he drives her away. She agrees to leave and try to forget about him as she promised him earlier that she would

Throughout the novel, Charlie’s mother, Rose is portrayed as two people to him. Before Norma’s birth, Rose’s only wish is to make Charlie normal. She sends him to many doctors and tries to teach him how to act like he should. When Norma is born and Rose is sure that she is normal, she becomes abusive to Charlie and beats him if he does not act normal. Knowing that her son is abnormal, she starts reading books and magazines on the subject. She then believes that being tough on him and punishing him will help him improve and become like the others, and even better. When she gives up on trying to make him normal, she threatens to kill him if he does not get sent away. When gaining intelligence, Charlie is haunted by the memories: “It was Rose’s face that brought back the frightening memories. She was two people to me, and I never had a way of knowing which she would be” (Keyes 167). When he visits her, after being separated from his family for a long time, she is a different person. Charlie talks to Rose and tries to make her understand that he was the subject of an operation that made him intelligent. By saying this, Charlie wants her to be proud of him; however, she does not understand that. When Norma comes home, she is relieved and happy that her brother is back. She spends time talking to Charlie and catching up on the years they’ve