Flowers For Algernon: 700 word Essay
In the novel Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes, Charlie, a mentally disabled adult, has brain surgery to increase intelligence.The scientists do not have a right to surgically change his brain.Rather than think about/believe Charlie's quality of life, the scientists think about/believe their own fame.Ultimately, with the death of Algernon and Charlie's research, the operation did not yield success.
Before Charlie performs the operation he enjoyed the mockery of his friends.For Example; when Charlie gets taunted by his "friends" he always responds in a calm gesture. The reason why Charlie enjoys people mocking him is because in the novel he states: “Its
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Charlie also notices that they do not have the role of god and he states: "It may sound like ingratitude, but that is one of the things I hate here - the attitude that I am a guinea pig. Nemur's constant references to having made me what I am, or that someday there will be others like me who will become real human beings. How can I make him understand that he did not create me?" PR 13, pg. 101. Although the scientists did increase Charlie's intelligence it was not enough to be called a quality of life. Charlie was intelligent for only 6 months. The problem with Charlie is that he was not socially or mentally mature which he also needed time for in the operation and that's another reason why this is not a quality of life. Another reason is that the scientists only tested the operation on one mouse which was not enough to test it on a human being. The scientists should have tested the operation on more than one mouse so they can be more confident about the operation. Not only does this operation contain more than one flaw but it is also an impossible operation. Before Charlie lost his intelligence he did some research and he found out that it is impossible. The operation is impossible because if god wanted him to be intelligent he would have done
The first step of the five steps to being ethical is to make an ethical decision to gather facts. Charlie's doctors did not gather enough facts before the operation. An example is when they gave Charlie the operation after they tested on animals, especially the mouse, Algernon. The problem for this is that after a while, Algernon, and all the other animals tested, was losing their intelligence. Soon after this happened, Charlie lost his own. The doctors should've waited after they tested on animals
First of all, why Charlie shouldn’t have gotten the surgery is because he started understanding everyone and how they felt. This stressed him out a lot. He felt like he didn't belong with others. “Now I know what it means when they say “to pull a Charlie Gordon.” I'm ashamed.” (209). In this sentence, Charlie recognizes why his friends liked having him around so much. It was so that they could make fun of him and play tricks on him for their own fun. Also Charlie had felt bad about a kid at a restaurant. “I jumped up and shouted, “Shut up! Leave him alone! It's not his fault he can't understand! He can't help what he is! But for
One of the reasons Charlie is better off after the experiment is because he becomes more self-aware. One part of the story that shows this is when Charlie goes to a party with his friends Joe and Frank, and everyone laughs at Charlie trying to dance. Charlie is now smart enough from the experiment to realize Joe and Frank just keeps him around for some entertainment, and not as real friends, so now he knows “what it means when they say ‘to pull a Charlie Gordon’” (7). Here, Charlie is benefiting from the surgery because he is now intelligent enough to be able to tell whether he has real friends or not. He realizes that they are just making fun of him, because he knows he used to be very unintelligent, which is why they say he can pull a Charlie Gordon. Now, Charlie can be more aware of who he chooses to be with, and know whether or not they are actually caring of him. He has become more self-aware in his choice of friends, and by doing so, improve his emotional situation. Another
After the operation, in only a couple of months, Charlie starts showing signs of new intelligence. His grammar, improved, and he is able to reflect on what his does in the past something he wasn’t able to do before. He had finally gotten something use had always desired. Then, everything and everyone turned on him. In “PROGRESS REPORT 12” April 30th (pg. 60) Charlie writes: “now, they hate me for my knowledge and understanding. What in the name of god do they want of me? They’ve driven me out of the factory. Now I more alone than ever before…” Charlie got what he always wanted, and now he lost everything he had. It was a sacrifice it sounded like he didn’t want to make. I can tell just be the tone of his writing. This shows that we should embrace everything that we have. Charlie didn’t embrace everything, although he appreciated most of the thing he never became happy not being able to just enjoy life as it is.
Before the operation could occur, Charlie went through a series of tests to see what he knew and could think of. One of the tests involved a mouse named Algernon, who went through the same operation that Charlie was getting ready to go through. Algernon was a smart mouse, and Charlie had to try to beat him in a race through a maze. Algernon won every time, and Charlie began to hate the mouse. After all the tests, Professor Nemur and Dr. Strauss decided Charlie would be great to use in the experiment. The two scientists told Charlie to write everyone he could think of, and they called them progress reports. At the beginning of the book, Charlie’s progress reports have many misspelled words and improper grammar. After the
The story "Flowers for Algernon", by Daniel Keyes, that we read in English was about a mentally retarded person, named Charlie who had an operation to increase his intelligence, but the operation was a failure and Charlie is slow again. He wants to move now so society won’t ridicule him for being slow again. Daniel Keyes wrote this short story for good reasons. Daniel Keyes wrote "Flowers for Angernon" to show people from an outside look on how we treat mentally challenged people. When you treat people as you always do, you don’t see how mean or how cruel it really may be. It could just be your personality or the way you were brought up. By him writing a story on a mentally challenged person wanting to become smart to
Society has become a shallow place. If an individual does not fit into societies form of the normal person then they are treated differently. But does society treat those who are different in a negative or positive way? In the novel Flowers for Algernon, the author Daniel Keyes shows an in depth look at the treatment of individuals in today's society. Firstly society tends to discriminate against those whose IQ does not fit into the norms of our society. The physically handicapped in today's world are not considered to be "equal" as those who fit into the normal physical appearance, Keyes portrays this through Charlie's thoughts while in the café. Although animals are not technically humans society treats them in ways which no human would
surgery, Charlie became so smart he was able to make advancements in science. Charlie knew that the effects of the operation could only be temporary. So, he started working to learn more about this operation to figure out how to make the results permanent. Charlie tried different formulas and he found a partial solution. Even Dr. Strauss and Dr. Nemur, the doctors who performed the operation on Charlie, could not understand the things Charlie was trying to do. He sent them a letter telling them about it. “Under separate cover I am sending you a copy of my report entitled “The Algernon- Gordon Effect: A Study of Structure and Function of Increased Intelligence,” which I would like to have you read and have published” (Keyes 239). With Charlie’s discovery, there was the possibility that other scientists could go on to discover the next steps to make the operation permanent. It is an amazing thing that Charlie went from not being able to read a book, to making advancements in
“Evry body feels sorry at the factory 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.” These words were taken from a young man named Charlie Gordon who willingly decided to take an operation to triple his intelligence. This operation was performed by the doctors Dr. Nemur and Dr. Strauss, both found the operation successful through a test mouse named Algernon. I believe that this operation should not have been conducted because the operation worked for a short period of time and Charlie’s life was completely changed for the worse.
In the story, Flowers for Algernon, Charlie Gordon makes a decision to allow doctors to do an operation on his brain to ¨make him smarter¨. Because of Charlie being mentally handicapped, I think that most of the decision making for Charlie was based on hopes and dreams, and not medical arguments, therefore nobody made the right decision.
This was serious. Charlie was going to die. Charlie researched many ways to prevent his death but he had no luck. All his friends were supportive and continued to treat him the way they did when he was smart. This made Charlie feel a little better about the situation and let him know that he made a little bit of benefit out of it.
Achieving a lifetime dream is something many people work towards without considering the consequences that may befall them. In the story “Flowers For Algernon” by Daniel Keys this happened to the thirty seven year old protagonist named Charlie Gordon. Born with a mental disability, he had an abnormally low intelligence quotient (IQ) of sixty eight. Charlie attended a night school which was taught by his teacher Ms. Kinnian. Charlie was offered and agreed to have an operation that would drastically increase his IQ to an unusually high level that had never been achieved before. After many failures on lab mice, this surgery was finally performed successfully on a mouse named Algernon. Charlie should not have had the operation because it ruined his relationships with his friends, it was experimental, and it made him antisocial
When Charlie was little to before he noticed that people he thought were his friends made fun of him all the time. They laughed at Charlie and Charlie laughed along with them. For example, “ Joe Carp said hey look where Charlie had his operashun what did they do Charlie put some brains in. … Then Frank Reilly said what did you do Charlie open a door the hard way. That made me laff. Their my friends and I really like me.”(Keyes 22) This happens when he goes back to work at the bakery right after his operation. At this point in the book he is starting to realize how people are treating him. He is also absorbing knowledge like a sponge absorbs water.
In the modern day world, patients expect their doctors to aid them and to support them. In the short story, “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes, Dr. Strauss and Dr. Nemur conducts an intelligence enhancement experiment on a man named Charlie Gordon and changes his life. With an IQ of sixty-eight, the scientists alter him and triple his IQ. However, their decision to operate on him is not ethical because the procedure is abstruse to Charlie, the doctors act rashly, and Dr. Nemur and Dr. Strauss behaves selfishly throughout the experiment.
To begin, Charlie is still better off after the surgery because he now has E.Q, or emotional intelligence unlike he did before he got the operation. Before the operation, Charlie did not understand the emotions of people. For instance, the entry on April 15 (Keyes 291) tells us that when Charlie and Ms. Kinnian were talking, Ms. Kinnian got something in her eye and had to go into the ladies room, but we knew that she was actually crying, an example of dramatic irony. This displays that before the operation, Charlie does not know the emotional standpoint of people, but after the operation Charlie does. To demonstrate, after Charlie had the operation but lost his intelligence, Charlie went into Ms. Kinnians class acting like he used to before the operation. Then, he said, “She startid to cry