What if you were to change your IQ surgically? This is the question that Daniel Keyes answers in the story, “Flowers for Algernon.” Charlie Gordon is the main character who wants to be smart, so he has his experimental brain surgery. After the surgery, Charlie learns how to read and write with Miss Kinnian’s help. Charlie's intelligence continues to grow as he learns new languages from listening to the T.V. at night, showing how he can absorb intelligence quickly after the surgery. Charlie learns emotionally, he loves Miss Kinnian. He also discovers his friends are fake friends and they’re really mean to him, beating him up and making fun of him at the same time. At the end of the story, Algernon bites Charlie and ultimately dies from all the …show more content…
He was right to have the surgery because he gained better reading skills and is still a little more emotionally intelligent even after the surgery because he understands that he had fake friends, and still doesn't want to be laughed at because of his intelligence. Although Charlie lost a lot like Miss Kinnian, who he loved but couldn’t keep because of the different worlds they were in, Charlie also lost some of his ability to read and write as well. In spite of the fact that Charlie lost these things, he can still read and write slightly better than before, and at least he got the experience of love before losing it. Still, he fulfilled his life much more than before, also he learned more than before the surgery; and he remembers some of the knowledge of how to read or write too. Lastly, Charlie should have had surgery because ignorance is not bliss. After the surgery, we can see this event in the story when Charlie laughed at the dishwasher boy in the restaurant for dropping plates and getting teased because of the lower IQ he possessed. Charlie declares, “And I had been laughing too” (Pg. 1). 8). The syllable of the
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 was better off after the surgery. After the surgery, he had real friends, loved Miss Kinnian, and beat Algernon. After all what happened after the surgery, at least he knew what it felt like to be
The very same subject is explored in Daniel Keyes novel, Flowers for Algernon. Charlie Gordon, a 32 years old man who suffers from phenylketonuria and has an IQ of 68, undergoes a surgery that researchers hope will increase his intelligence. After the surgery not only does the protagonist, Charlie, have a higher IQ, but he also poses a difficult task of coping up and sustaining from a variety of character changes that gives him a new face as
I think Charlie should not have had the operation because Charlie got to be smart for a short period of time and got to feel what it was like but now he will never be smart again. He has to live knowing all about what smart people get to live life like. In “Flowers for Algernon,” on page 223, at the end of the short story Charlie said, “So I gess it's like I did it for all the dumb pepul like me.” When Charlie said this he was almost regretting the operation. He was saying how it he did it for everyone out there like him that isn’t as smart. As you may be able to
Charlie Gordon was fighting, working hard, and struggling for being smart. Charlie had a once in a lifetime to increase his I.Q. three times as much. In the story “Flowers for Algernon,” written by Daniel Keyes, the genre is Science Fiction. Charlie has a low I.Q. of sixty eight, and wants to be a genius. Charlie Gordon’s life is better with the A.I. Surgery.
However, Charlie regresses because Algernon dies, he breaks up with Miss Kinian and writes the Algernon-Gordon effect. He also ends up moving out of New York so he does not cause any emotional damage to anyone affected by his changes. Ultimately, this
Strauss and Dr. Nemur read Charlie’s progress reports and saw how he did on the test, he took they decided to due the same surgery for Charlie as they did Algernon. After having the surgery, Charlie went through a series of a test with Mrs. Kinnian, Charlie’s night teacher, and he began to realize he was getting smarter and he re-read his old [progris riport] and realize he was spelling [progris riport] wrong and noticed that he had poor grammar punctuations, and wants to go back and change things, but Dr. Nemur says no. On April 20 Charlie starts to figure out what “pulling a Charlie Gordon” means and he doesn’t take it very well also, the people that Charlie calls his friends at work Charlie is figuring out that they are not his true friends and they just laugh at
This quote informs us that Charlie has found consequences in his intelligence by surgical means. He has lost all of his innocence, and has lost all of his happiness. Before the operation, his ignorance made him not worry about the world and he was blissfully
One reason Charlie isn't better off in result of the surgery because of the changes in his relationships. The main example used in the story is Charlie's relationship with his coworkers at Donnegan's Plastic Box Company, specifically Frank and Joe. At first, he believes that the two men are his friends, which Keyes shows on page 289, "We had a lot of fun at the factery today. Joe Carp said hey Charlie had his operashun what did they do Charlie put some brains in... Then Frank Reilly said what did you do Charlie forget your key and open the door the hard way. That made me laff. They really are my friends and they like me." In this quote, it's clear that the men are making fun of his intelligence level, as they make jokes at expense of his mental handicaps.
surgery. Other viewers may say that more people liked Charlie after the surgery and I argue that it is not true. Although he might have been happy after the surgery, he had many other emotions than he did have before the surgery. For example before the surgery he only felt happiness, excitement, and motivation, but after the surgery he had sadness, depression, lonely, and he could also feel ashamed. The quote “Now I’m more alone than ever before…” (Keyes 235). This shows he had depression. People often think that since Charlie was smarter and could accomplish more after the surgery that he was more liked previously, but most people didn't like him and were uncomfortable with him. For example, he even lost his job because people didn’t want him there because they were uncomfortable with him. “Dr. Nemur appears to be uncomfortable around me. Sometimes when I try to talk to him, he just looks at me strangely and turns away” (Keyes 236). This is why Charlie was better off before the
He also managed to change his perspective of people and the world around him. For example, previously with Miss Kinnian, he viewed her unreachable genius and very old. Although, after Charlie has become much more intelligent, he see Miss Kinnian as beautiful, unlike before. “I don’t understand why I never noticed how beautiful Miss Kinnian is...Now everytime I see her she grows younger and more lovely.”(Page 47) This shows how the surgery has impacted his view of people positively. Another example is how he experiences new things. For inference, when he read an in depth book that he couldn’t understand before.”We are reading a very hard book. I never read such a hard book before. Its called Robinson Crusoe about a man who gets merooned on a dessert Iland.”(Page 41) Charlie, because he is now not mentally retarded anymore, is able to understand more difficult books that we read everyday on a daily basis. It is all owed to the procedure that Charlie is able to change his viewpoints and experience things that formerly was impossible to
Suddenly he jumped up and shouted at everyone, saying that everyone should leave him alone because it is not his fault that the boy is what he is but he is still human. This is an extreme act of kindness because few people would have the courage to defend a complete stranger as Charlie did. Near the end of the story, after Algernon (a white mouse that has gone through the same surgery as
Charlie Shouldn’t have had that surgery. It’s not natural. He may not have known how to read or even write well, but he didn't feel the hurt of knowing the truth. “I don’t know what’s worse: to not know what you are and be happy, or to become what you’ve always wanted to be, and feel alone.”
In conclusion, Charlie was better off before his surgery. He had friends, though they weren’t the greatest. He was just generally happy. Charlie really did get what he wished for, and didn’t like
He had the operation and it would not be permanent, it will make people not expect him to be the Charlie he was, and he then had no friends, or jobs, and he put his life in danger. Will Charlie ever change his mine? . I think that it's hard to do things, or pick something that may be a dream at first, and then have it become something that wasnt expecting. When Charlie thought that the operation was going to make him smarter, it turned out that everything he cared about, or was close to him,all slipped through his