Flower For Algernon Intellectual Growth

Journal Entry 1, Pages 1-15 Starting off, I can already predict this book is going to be very controversial with the whole topic of whether or not science should be allowed to “play the role of God”. So far I believe Charlie is a very likable and friendly character. I also believe due to his mental state he is very vulnerable. I agree strongly with Prof Nemur when he said, “We will use Charlie.

he did whatever was possible to stay that way, but it was no use. Charlie went back to the way he was (unlike Miss D who got worse), same job, same Apartment, same almost everything. Charlie was now know that he was a human too and had feeling and cares, his old friends now protected him and were nice to him. So it wasn all bad for charlie or Miss D but neither of them

His frustration grows after his friends start heading off to college and has a constant stressor from all the flashbacks he’s having, believing that he himself killed his Aunt. Charlie was close to his aunt as a child and it is obvious that aunt Helen was playing favoritism when it came to charlie. Aunt Helen gave him a special attention and she was kind to him, she told him that she understood him and he was special but this in a way was a ruse. Charlie repressed his memories of aunt Helen 's sexual assault but started realizing eventually, Charlie has a mental breakdown during his first sexual encounter with Sam and the realization of his past comes flooding in after she touched his leg similar to the way his aunt Helen did to him. He was sexually assaulted by his aunt and he tried forgot all of this and he tried to move on with his life but he saw memories that haunted him. This could be the possible reason and explanation as to why he said to her sister that he wished their aunt to die. Afterward, charlie is in a hospital after trying to commit suicide and must start accepting the truth to get past what happened. Charlie is often trying to please people and is always worried about how other people feel but never truly worries about himself, it could be that charlie is very caring but it is possible that charlie has had this way of thinking instilled in his mind: aunt help was very disturbed as charlie knew this and because of this he was constantly

He realized that he had feelings for Miss Kinnian, his teacher. For instance, “I think from the beginning I had the feeling that she was an unreachable genius-and very, very old. Now, every time I see her she grows younger and more lovely.” (Keyes 37). Before the operation, Charlie did not realize how beautiful Miss Kinnian was. After the operation, Charlie realized this. His hope for a better life increased. On the other hand, his newfound intelligence divided him from his friends. In the text it states, “This intelligence has driven a wedge between me and all the people I once knew and loved.” (Keyes 39). Charlie’s friends kept teasing and making fun of him. He felt very lonely. As well as affecting his social life, the operation also affected Charlie emotionally. A few months after the operation, Charlie’s emotions changed negatively. He became touchy and irritable. In short, Charlie’s emotions were negatively affected after a little while, however, he got to know what love felt like and he got to know his true

Charlie had a chance to learn and do things that most people wouldn't have a chance to do in a lifetime, even if it was for a short time. After Charlie's regression he continued to try to become intelligent again, however, Charlie had said himself that he was grateful when he said, "Im glad I got a second chanse to be smart becaus I lerned a lot of things that I never even new were in this world and Im grateful that I saw it all for a little bit (Keyes 245) [Sic]." You have to understand that, with a mindset like this, you know you have done the right thing. Charlie was grateful for his chance to be smart and was thoroughly pleased with his decision. Nothing can be more favorable than the joyous feeling of gratitude. It can be compared to getting the gift you always wanted for Christmas, or when someone gives you a sincere smile that will brighten any bad day. This must have been what Charlie had been feeling in order to be this grateful. Another piece of evidence to prove this point is when Dr Nermur had said that Charlie was, "trying to cram a lifetime of research and thought into a few weeks (Keyes 238)." Both Charlie and Dr. Nemur both know that he was capable of this, and so much more. After the operation Charlie was super intelligent and grew the ability to understand more things socially, which is what he wanted the most, to be able to understand his friends and be smart like them, two of his greatest desires in one stone.

The more obvious ways he had changed was his intelligence, and the memories that slowly came flooding back to him after the surgery. He had went from an IQ of 70, to an IQ of 185 and counting. It had a tremendous impact on Charlie, for he was like a sponge, absorbing as much knowledge as possible, refusing to stop. He had exceeded the expectations, surpassing the IQ of the doctors that worked at Beekman University, and even the ones that constructed the experiment that changed Charlie’s life. He had managed to learn French, German, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Russian, Portuguese, Chinese, Hindi, and Japanese in an extremely short period of time. Before the surgery, Charlie wanted to partake in conversations with the college students about politics,

Author Daniel Keyes published “Flowers for Algernon” in 1959. Of course this was the short story version, later the novel was published in 1966. Daniel considered “It would be wonderful if it were possible to help the mentally retarded using artificial intelligence”. He thought, “What would happen if you were able to increase intelligence artificially?” He deeply considered all the pros and cons about testing his ideas on a human subject. There were very many pros, but also very many cons, just like the atomic bomb built by Robert Oppenheimer. For example a pro is that the atomic bomb ended the war on Japan. A con would be the loss of lives and buildings in Japan. Another pro would be that it showed how strong the U.S. military is. A con would

After Charlie has surpassed his peers mentally, he fell into a deep depression where he wouldn't leave his home and wouldn't go to the lab where he was tested on before. One day Charlie saw a young boy being teased for his mental disability and he decided he wanted to help people who were disabled, just like how Charlie used to be. “This day was good for me. Seeing the past more clearly, I have decided to use my knowledge and skills to work in the field of increasing human intelligence levels. Who is better equipped for this work? Who else has lived in both worlds? These are my people. Let me use my gift to do something for them.” (Keyes 238) In the quote, it shows Charlie realizing his true potential and coming out of his depression and suing his abilities to help others. Later in the story Charlie gets his own lab to do research and does equations and experiments to further his contribution to helping others be able to get a successful life and

One thing Charlie repeated many times before the surgery was “I want to be smart” (Keyes 225) also that he would do whatever it takes to become smart he would work really hard so he could be smart and fit in. That is why Charlie should have had the A.I. to give him what he really wanted even if it wasn’t permanent. A common argument against this position is that the surgery wasn't permanent and that it is not worth being smart for a few weeks. But i argue that Charlie was very grateful for being smart even for just a little while. While he was smart he was able to make scientific advances that most people could not od in a lifetime And he did it in a few weeks and he was grateful to give back to the people who made him

Charlie's emotions swing throughout the story. At the beginning he is just a happy guy living life. Although his one desire is to become very smart. He is still just an average person that may not be as intelligent as the rest. I believe that Charlie is in fact more happy at the beginning of the book than after the operation.For example, in the text Charlie Gordon is upset after the operation because he does not see a significant difference in his intelligence level, he says, "Nothing is happening. I had lots of races and different kinds of tests with Algernon. I hate that mouse." This shows that Charlie is upset about Algernon and all the tests he has to go through, he feels as if he is not making any progress. Although he reaches his goal

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),

His mother had taught him to not look at girls, and after the operation when he started to develop more feelings, he had a hard time talking to Alice Kinnian because he had the thought that he liked her, and that he shouldn’t. Due to the hard nature of his mother, Charlie’s emotional life was not maturing with his new-found intelligence. Emotionally, he was still a little kid. “I knew she would give herself to me, and I wanted her, but what about Charlie?” Whenever he would get near Alice, he would start to panic because he felt that there was still a part of his old self within him, keeping him from taking his relationship further with

The author uses communication style as a method of character development, which the author utilized to build Charlie Gordon’s character. Throughout the book, Charlie’s communication changes from when his IQ is merely 68 to when the surgical procedure raises his IQ to 125. Initially, his grammar is full of errors and simple vocabulary but later improved drastically, after the procedure, by use of complex wordings (Allan 31). The communication style is different between the two phases especially through differentiated personalities and speech between two periods. Daniel Keyes also endeavors to capture the character’s history to enable the audience to understand the events that shape Charlie’s personality.

Daniel Keyes point of view of improving intelligence by artificial means, is that he is against it. In the end he told through Charlie in an odd way that he had wished he never would have had the operation because he now people will have seen how he was once mentally challenged, then became smart and then became slower again. He was afraid that society wouldn’t accept him. "I dont want Miss. Kinnian to feel sorry for me. Evry body feels sorry at the factery and I dont want that eather so Im going someplace where nobody knows that Charlie Gordon was once a genus and now he cant even reed a book or rite good." When Charlie went back to work he was confronted by a man who made a rude comment, but a CO-worker who used to make fun of him and set him up to fail stuck up for him. But later Charlie said that he wishes to go to New York to get away from everyone. That is where Daniel Keyes states that he wouldn’t want the operation to be done. This is the statement Charlie made: "…Im going someplace where nobody knows that Charlie Gordon was once a genus…" I think that where Daniel Keyes point was made because if he (Charlie) had never had the operation, he wouldn’t be trying to get away from society, he would have never known what being a "genius" even meant. Daniel Keyes stated in the story, " It was evil when Eve listened to the snake and ate from the tree of knowledge. It was evil when she saw

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