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Flowers for algernon summary essay
Characteristics of charlie gordon in flowers for algernon
Flower for Algernon
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I think you are better off being dumb because you already know how to deal with being dumb, and everyone already knows how to help you understand stuff. In the story Flowers for Algernon, Charlie got a surgery to make him smarter but being smarter isn't always good. Your friends before you get the surgery will most likely not be your friends if you're smart because they might be dumb too and they probably don't want to be friends with someone who's smart. They may feel this way because they might feel like they're going to correct them or feel intimidated. Charlie had rose-colored glasses when it came to seeing people's personality. Rose-colored glasses are when you see stuff in a positive way and often thinking about it better than it actually is. ¨I said Miss Kinnian always said Charlie be proud of your job because you do it well. Everybody laughed, and we had a good time and they gave me lots of drinks and Joe said Charlie was a card when he's potted,¨ (228) That means he’s fun to laugh at and make fun of. While all this was happening Charlie was having fun because he didn't see what they were doing until he started getting smarter and didn't have …show more content…
One way they were making fun of him they would say ¨you pulled a Charlie Gordon.¨ That means that you did something dumb. Later in the story, Charlie figures out later in the story what they're talking about. ¨Now I know what it means to pull a Charlie Gordon.¨ (231) This quote tells me that he is starting to realize that they are just hanging around with so they can make fun of him. By Charlie getting smarter he started to realize that his ¨friends¨ weren't really his friends. When he figured out that his friends weren't really his friends he starts becoming unhappy. When he was dumb, he was happy because he thought they were his friends but at least he was
Before Charlie had the operation preformed on him, he had friends at the bakery he worked at. They were not really his friends because they always made jokes about Charlie, but he was not smart enough to realize it. As he gets smarter he loses his friends because they think he is just trying to act smart.
Throughout the entire movie, Charlie doesn 't live in ‘good faith’. He lets everyone take control of him, such as Mary Elizabeth getting what she wants from him, Patrick taking advantage of him and letting his aunt ruin his childhood. Charlie gets bossed around in school and never shares is own opinions because they don 't matter to him. He never made his own choices in life, he always made sure that everyone else around him was happy. At parties he was played with and he had is innocence taken away. He never bothered with his own feelings, which makes him not live his own life. Because of this he lived in bad
Charlie wants to be smart because he works as a janitor in a factory where he has many friends, but even as he goes along with their hijinks, he suspects his friends mock him. The opportunity to be made smart--really smart--is irresistible, even though there's a chance that the results of the operation will only be temporary. Because Charlie wants his co-workers to accept him.
For Charlie, Ignorance is bliss. He realizes that his so called ? friends? were just using him to entertain their perverse humor. Also, he was also fired from the job that he loved so much because his new intelligence made those around him feel inferior and scared.
Many popular novels are often converted into television movies. The brilliant fiction novel, Flowers for Algernon written by Daniel Keyes, was developed into a dramatic television film. Flowers for Algernon is about a mentally retarded man who is given the opportunity to become intelligent through the advancements of medical science. This emotionally touching novel was adapted to television so it could appeal to a wider, more general audience. Although the novel and film are similar in terms of plot and theme, they are different in terms of characters.
Charlie’s intelligence started to fall. Slowly he lost it all, from foreign languages to math equations to reading and writing.
To begin with, as Charlie matured mentally, he started seeing the world in a whole new aspect. After the operation, Charlie lost his positive outlook on life. He was oblivious of most negative things in life because as a mentally challenged person, they think laughing is laughing and dispute is dispute but they never know why. He was so oblivious because he couldn’t infer different people’s emotions. Charlie also started to realize that there is a difference between laughing and mocking. Before, Charlie always thought that his “friends” were always laughing with him, now that he understands human nature and sees the cruelty in our world; he understands that his “friends” were actually laughing AT him. After seeing a mentally challenged dishwasher at a local restaurant dropping dishes and making a mess, he saw people...
“Flowers for Algernon, first published in 1959, is considered a landmark work on both science fiction and disability literature,” (Werlock 2009). The American Library Association reports that this novel was banned as an obscene for its love scenes. When the main character, Charlie Gordon, increases his IQ from 68 to a level that makes him a genius (after received experimental brain surgery), his maturity leads him to fall in love with his teacher, and a sexual encounter ensues. This caused Flowers for Algernon to be banned and challenged in many places (Plant City, Florida- 1976, Emporium, Pennsylvania- 1977, Oberlin High School (Ohio) - 1983, among others). Most people consider the sexual scenes fairly mild, but there are those who consider any mention of sexual behavior inappropriate for teens or pre-teens, hence the attempts at censorship. Many of the challenges have proved unsuccessful, but the book has occasionally been banned from school libraries including some in Pennsylvania and Texas. Flowers for Algernon has won numerous awards, even for the film, and it is regularly taught in schools around the world; therefore, it should remain on shelves.
Charlie also shows a lot of cleverness.... ... middle of paper ... ... This shows that Charlie realizes that his friends like him for whom he is, not for how smart he is.
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
At this time, Charlie is thinking to himself whether his friends are really his friends after they start to laugh and make everyone else laugh at him and that they were just using him to be popular. “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.(Keyes
One thing that positively affects Charlie’s life is that he finds out his “ friends” aren’t his actual “friends”. (April 20 progress report 9) “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”. Charlie understood how others felt and how they treated other people. He could better connect with citizens. Now that
While not intelligent enough to understand why they’re using his name as the pun, Charlie can emotionally feel the negative sentiment, leading to changes to his friendships with those at the bakery. This major change occurs during a party Charlie attends with his coworkers. Joe Carp is needlessly tormenting Charlie, causing him to fall by “sticking his foot out” and everytime Charlie would try to stand, Joe “would push him down again” (Keyes, 41). They even trick him into eating a fake apple, and the men go back and forth with terrible words about Charlie: “Can you imagine anyone dumb enough to eat wax fruit?” and “I ain’t laughed so hard since we ditched him at Halloran’s”
Charlie goes through an intense emotional episode of crying upon learning of the death of his friend. The effects of Charlie’s loss can be seen in his personality, in his docile nature and his extreme sensitivity. While Holden is brash and critical, Charlie is introverted and consolatory. Charlie even becomes dismissive of his own ostracization, thinking that “…other people have it a lot worse.” (Chbosky, 4-5). He tries to put things in perspective in relation to the bigger picture. This is where the “wallflower” tendencies of Charlie become apparent. He is a spectator of his own life, rather than a participant. Rather than acknowledging what causes his personal issues, he instead tries to interpret how other people see
Charlie is being spontaneous, at least he thinks he is, and falling in “love” for attention. Charlie always wants to be popular. He does anything he can to try to be a “cool” kid. If that includes bullying a girl, he will do it. He does not realize the damage he is going to do later on by bullying this girl.