“Flowers for Algernon,” by Daniel Keyes, is a story I was discussing with my mother. “I just feel really bad for Charlie. Throughout the whole story, he was searching for his identity, and lost it before he found it.” She nodded her head in agreement with me. “And what they did to that poor man was awful. Operations like that shouldn’t be allowed.” When she finished her sentence, I began thinking about the rights and wrongs of the world, and how the intellectually disabled do not have respect. When first reading “Flowers for Algernon,” Charlie’s search for identity began when he was attempting to fit in and make people laugh, when he was trying really hard for his first test, and when he was racing the mouse. Foremost, Charlie was attempting …show more content…
Society has always made ignorance bad. But in these instances, ignorance has proven to be blissful. Lastly, Charlie was searching for his identity, he did not need to have an operation to find it. The operation was bad because Algernon died, his friends made fun of him, and he ended up all alone. First, the operation was bad because Algernon died towards the end of the story, greatly foreshadowing Charlie's future. On page 218, Keyes writes, “Deterioration progresses. I have become absent-minded. Algernon died two days ago.” Not only did Algernon die, but Charlie knew what was about to happen to him. The operation was also bad when Charlie’s friends left him. This is seen on page 205, where Keyes writes, “Then Frank Reilly said what did you do Charlie? Forget your key and open your door the hard way. That made me laff. They really are my friends and they like me.” This was after his operation, where he was in a stage where he couldn’t put it together. If he had never had the operation, he never would’ve known that his friends were jerks. And finally, the operation was bad because Charlie ended up alone. “Good-by Miss Kinnian and Dr. Strauss and everybody.” Charlie writes on page
In the story, Charlie stated in his journal entry: “Anyway I bet Im the first dumb person in the world who ever found out somthing importent for sience” (Keyes 209). The quote clearly demonstrates that Charlie’s hopes have been brought down along with his motivation as he refers to himself as a “dumb person”. Another thing that Charlie states in his journal entry is: “Its easy to make frends if you let pepul laff at you” (Keyes 210). The sentence expresses Charlie’s thoughts and shows what he really learned from the surgery and all the experience. Now the opposing side may state that the surgery increased Charlie’s confidence and taught him how to coorperate with others around him, but they are incorrect as his confidence was only increased temporarily when he had high intelligence and he learned to cooperate with others by letting them treat him unfairly. Once his IQ came back down, he was unhappy, demotivated, and eventually decided to leave the city so people don’t fell bad for him. In the story, Charlie said towards the end: “...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” (Keyes 209). After considering Charlie’s thoughts and statements after the operation, it is easy to say that the result of the operation on Charlie had reduced his morale and taught him the wrong
In the text it says “Dr. Strauss came to see me again. I wouldn't open the door and told him to go away. ”(Pg 80) This shows that Charlie is angry, and does not want anyone to see him in his current condition. Charlie even acknowledges it himself, as it states in the text “ I have become touchy and irritable”
To begin with, Before Charlie got the surgery he had many friends. After the surgery he made people feel stupid. He scared them with how different he was from everybody else. Charlie has always wanted to be smart and to fit in with every body else. When he got the chance he was over joyed. He got overwhelmed with how much and how fast he was learning. All this achieved was hurting
One may argue that the positives outweigh the negatives in this situation. After all, at the end, Charlie writes, “It’s a good feeling to know things and be smart”(Keyes 28). However, this is not the case. While Charlie is in his room, trying to make new discoveries, Algernon is slowly dying. Charlie is not informed of this until Algernon has passed. He is very upset and writes, “I guess the same thing will be happening to me. Now that it’s definite. I don’t want it to happen. I put Algernon’s body in a cheese box and buried him in the backyard. I cried”(Keyes 23). Charlie is destroyed by Algernon’s death. Charlie says, “I cried,” which shows significant sadness, especially for Charlie, whose emotions are stunted at this point. When he says, “I guess the same thing will be happening to me”, he is predicting his death. Earlier in the book, Algernon started acting strange, disturbed, and vicious. Eventually, Charlie starts to have these symptoms, too. When Algernon’s intelligence begins to decrease, Charlie is not far behind. So when Algernon dies, “It’s definite”, as Charlie says, that he will die, as well. No matter the amazing times Charlie had while he was intelligent, the cost, his life, makes the surgery not worth
You may view being intelligent as an amazing thing, but it was not a good thing for Charlie. Charlie lost all of his friends and the only friend he did have has a mouse named Algernon. Once Charlie died, he became depressed and could not get the thoughts of suicide out of his head. After so long Charlie lost his intelligence which is around the time Algernon died, he was at the lowest of his lows at that point.
One reason Charlie was better with the surgery is that he understood what was happening around him. His friends weren’t really his friends, he even laughed at their jokes. He had no idea that what they were saying was about him. Even though, when Charlie found out, it hurt him. It was better for him to know what was happening. In the story Charlie
The seeds of of Macbeth’s downfall are first planted near the beginning of the play when the witches tell Macbeth that he shall be Thane of Cawdor and King (I.3.48-50). Next to Macbeth, the witches seem to hold the most responsibility for the eventual assassination of King Duncan. Had the witches not told him he would be either Thane of Cawdor or King he would not have believed that he was to become king. However, once he becomes Thane of Cawdor, he trusts that the other prophecy must also be true. The witches could have told Macbeth any forthcoming truth and that he would be king, and Macbeth still probably would have committed regicide to obtain the title of King. This is because he became confident that the witches were honest once one truth
Algernon was losing his intelligence and becoming very frustrated. He realizes that he himself will face a decline in intelligence and frustration on the way to losing his intelligence. The Resolution comes when Charlie Gordon finally loses all of his intelligence he had gained
Have you ever heard the expression, “be careful what you wish for”? The saying applies to Charlie in “Flowers for Algernon”. Some may think he was better off after his operation, others may think before. His IQ was way lower than an average person’s, but his life was better that way. He was happier, had friends and a job, and the world was a wonderful place to him.
One reason why I think the surgery was a bad idea was because, no one was expecting him as a friend. When Charlie got his surgery, some people at his work were realizing that Charlie had changed, and was starting to have feelings. “Look at him. His face is red.He's blushing. Charlie is blushing.Hey, Ellen, what'd you do to Charlie? I never saw him act like that before”. In this sentence Charlie's workmates realized that Charlie's operation was actually working, and that Charlie was
According to change in religion, 2006 to 2011 the analysis of the religious affiliation of the population of Australia in 2011 compared to Greater Capital Cities shows that there was a similar proportion of people who professed a religion as well as a similar proportion who stated they had no religion. It shows 68.3% of the population nominated a religion, and 22.3% said they had no religion, compared with 68.8% and 22.2% respectively for Greater Capital Cities. And largest single religion in Australia was Western (Roman) Catholic, with 25.1% of the population or 5,397,181 people as adherents.
To begin, one of the biggest reasons that Charlie would’ve been better off having never gotten the surgery is so he wouldn’t have to deal with knowing what great intelligence is like, but then having to go back to being naïve and dumb again. In the story Flowers for Algernon, Keyes says, “I learned so much so fast. Now my mind is deteriorating rapidly. I won’t let it happen. I’ll fight it. I can’t help thinking of the boy in the restaurant, the blank expression, the silly smile, the people laughing at him. No- please- not that again…” (303) This shows that Charlie realizes his mental capabilities are deteriorating and
The Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Reims, northeast of Paris near Champagne was the coronation church of the kings of France and was an educational and cultural center. Also built of limestone, the architecture of the Reims Cathedral features Gothic style. It symbolizes an Early Gothic, Radiant Gothic and Flamboyant Gothic. The Reims Cathedral depicts a classic harmonic facade containing four levels. Its interior is defined by its towering heights and narrow proportions, and elaborate sculptural works. Because of the high quality of workmanship and materials used, Reims Cathedral features some of the most beautiful gothic art in existence. Five different cathedrals have been on the site on which Reims cathedral now sits since 401 CE. The current cathedral was built in 1211, after the previous cathedral had burned down. The new building was almost entirely finished by the end of the thirteenth century. 88 gargoyles were counted on the Reims Cathedral and are mainly used to drain off rainwater and are exceptional pieces of work, but do show the slight difference between Gothic and Romanesque styles. The stained glass windows are a beautiful part of Reims despite being damaged or ruined several times in the 18th century; the cathedral still has many 13th century stained glass windows, in the upper parts of the nave, choir and transept. On the opposite side of the great western portal, the Great Rose Window, dating from the end of the 13th century, represents “the Crowning
A plantation economy is considered to be an economy that is founded on agricultural mass production normally of a few society crops grown on bigger farms termed as plantations. It is apparent that plantation economies usually depend on the export of cash crops which are the source of income (Foner, 2016). In American history, the plantation system remained significant for two main reasons. First, the plantation system was in existence in order to explain the economy and culture of the South. In this region, it is clear that plantations came to support the economy in many profitable ways.
As stated by former governor of New York, Mario M. Cuomo," Always I have concluded the death penalty is wrong because it lowers us all; it is a surrender to the worst that is in us; it uses a power- the official power to kill by execution- that has never brought back a life, need inspired anything but hate." (Cuomo 1) This is one of the main arguments against capital punishment (also known as the death sentence.) Capital punishment is the ability for a government to execute a person who has committed a crime. People that agree with using the death penalty, will argue that the death penalty is a way to bring justice to a murderer. But, nobody has the power to end the