Charlie Gordon In Flowers For Algernon

Flowers For Algernon Essay In Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes, the main character Charlie Gordon under goes in an operation to increase his intelligence as a mentally disabled person. Later on in the story he looses the intelligence he gained and could be on the road to dying. He is better off with the surgery because he gained so much such as, social cues and intelligence. Before the operation Charlie could barely say complete sentences let alone spell, but after the operation he was becoming smarter than his teacher, Mrs. Kinnian.

Estimated 26% of people 18 or older are diagnosable with a mental disability. Charlie Gordon, a 37 year old man, has a mental disability and undergoes an operation to make him smart, but the result is that he becomes too smart and then hostile and eventually dies. Daniel Keyes portrays a theme in Flowers for Algernon that since some situation can come back and bite a person, be careful what you wish for.

When Charlie was intelligent he often got irritated at the doctors because they weren’t as smart as him. He had also dealt with a lot of emotion with Miss Kinnian, Charlie was in love with Miss Kinnian. When he regressed, he was embarrassed to see her because he thought she would think he was dumb. When Charlie was at a diner, he saw a kid with disabilities, and everyone was laughing at him and so was Charlie. He was upset with himself that he laughed at him because that kid was him before he had the surgery to make him smart.

Now I know what it means “to pull a Charlie Gordon.’’ I’m ashamed.” (Keyes201). He always saw everyone as being his friend and everyone seeing him as an equal. At this moment he saw how people really saw him. For the first time in his life he saw his “friends” for what they really are. Even when Charlie became smart he started to be like everyone else, “I felt sick inside as I looked at his dull, vacuous smile, the wide, bright eyes of a child, uncertain but eager to please. They were laughing at him because he was mentally retarded, and I had been laughing at him too.” (Keyes207). He had been just like that boy once, and now he’s just like everyone who was laughing at him. He realized that he was becoming like the people who once laughed at him. This opened his eyes to how the world will treat people. It was worth the surgery because he got to experience the other side of

Charlie returns to his job at the factory following his surgery, when he begins to be treated differently than he was treated prior to the surgery. He becomes more aware of his surroundings and better at his job. He also notices that those who he thought were his friends who laughed at him are those who meant to laugh at him. Soon, everyone at the company notices that he has changed and wants him gone: "They've driven me out of the factory. Now I'm more alone than ever before"(12).

Charlie was better off before the surgery. The reason is because he was more happier than. It says, “It was like a race with a white mouse. They called him Algernon”(115). This makes him happy because he has never gotten the chance to race a mouse before.

Charlie Gordon is a neurodiverse man who desperately wants to get smarter and strives to achieve his goal, no matter what comes his way. In the story Flowers For Algernon, written by Daniel Keyes, Charlie is the main character. He is a student at Nights School, which is an institution for young adults. His IQ is measured to be about 68. As he is very determined, Charlie undergoes an operation provided by the doctors to enhance his intelligence.

When he beats the mouse, he ends up liking Algernon. Throughout the novel, Charlie’s attitude

Throughout the novel Charlie’s personality and intelligence level changes a lot. In the beginning Charlie is happy, has friends, he’s retarded, and can’t remember a lot of things. “I fergot his last name because I dont remebir so good.” (Keyes 2),

Charlie experiences drastic changes throughout the story. All of them are mentally due to the experimental operation he had. In the

Charlie is very far from what most people call normal: he is shy, introverted, awkward, independent, paranoid, confused, respectable and kind; showing many examples of this throughout the book. He keeps to himself for the most part and is constantly in his own head. Aside from the many negative traits he also has many attributes: he is a loyal friend and listens to the people he talks to, he is a caring person and comforts those in need. However he has his flaws as well: Charlie can get very angry and upset at others which causes him to lash out with violence or sadness, he is extremely sensitive, crying frequently and constantly questioning himself. Several of his peers labeled him as nerd or a weirdo, which damaged

Although, sometimes his low self - esteem plummets his determination and would rather give up. His mental disability also makes him oblivious to how his so called “friends” treat him at work, in which he later discovers that they are making fun of him. Charlie undergoes a procedure to cure his mental issue, that solves his problem but not long term. During the time

As Charlie's intelligence increases he thinks that he will be more liked the higher his intelligence climbs, but later Charlie discovers that whether you are of lower intelligence then most of the population or of higher intelligence you still will not quite fit in. "I've discovered that no one really cares for Charlie Gordon whether he is a moron or a genius. (Keyes 172) Charlie's relationship with Alice also shows how whether he is of extreme low extreme high intellect he still cannot communicate with her the way he needs to. " I'm just as far away from Alice with an I.Q of 185 then when I had an IQ of 70" (Keyes 88). In today's society if a persons thoughts slightly differ from those of the majority of the population then they will be scrutinized and shunned from the others. People are not willing to look at an idea through a different perspective and this is shown in Flowers For Algernon, when Charlie discovers the fault in Dr. Nemur's experiment and confronts him about it, Dr. Nemur treats him like the old Charlie who is to mentally challenged to be correct. It is repeated numerous times during the novel that Charlie was "created" by the experiment and was not a "human being" because of his below 100 IQ before the operation. "I'm a human being, a person- with parents and memories and a history- and I was before you ever wheeled me into that operating room." (Keyes 112). Society needs to learn that even those who are different then most of us still are humans and

In the beginning of the story, Charlie had just undergone the operation and was being tested frequently to check the progress he was making. Well, the doctors had a very out of the ordinary way of showing the changes in charlie's abilities, they decided to use a maze and mouse to observe. Charlie would race through a maze against algernon the mouse who had also received the operation. Charlie made it very plain that he was not a fan of the fact that Algernon always beat him, in these competitions. Which in my eyes struck Charlie to try harder and read more, just to beat the mouse. for the period of time that Algernon and Charlie had been together they had gotten closer, and towards the end of the book when Algernon dies, Charlie begins to lose his memory and go back to the way he was before the operation but through all the madness he does not forget his friend

Charlie’s friends even take advantage of how nice he is. They always make him the root of their jokes. When Charlie asks a barber shop owner to move his illegally parked car, the owner laughs at him and just throws him the keys to the car and tells him to move it himself. The whole town takes advantage of Charlie though, not only his friends. In the supermarket a woman asks to cut in front of him inline and then ends up having a cart full of groceries. This is Charlies breaking point. He starts tensing up, you can tell something is happening. All of a sudden he starts talking in a different voice, and finds vagaclean in the woman’s cart that cut in front of him. So to take his anger out on her he gets on the store microphone and announces she has vagaclean in her cart. We learn this new personalities name when he is drowning a young girl in the water fountain who disobeyed him earlier. When the girl says she is going to tell her father on him, he announces that he is Hank. After this change in personality he starts going