Analysis Of Charlie Gordon

Before the operation, Charlie Gordon, from Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes, is happy. He may have a simple, pitiful existence, but he thinks his friends like him, and enjoys being with them and Miss Kinnian at the Learning Center for Slow Adults. However, Charlie wants to be smart, the one dark cloud in his sunny sky of life. Because of this, Charlie volunteers for an operation to triple his IQ of 68. With a high IQ comes awareness of the world around him, so Charlie suddenly becomes conscious of his previously pitiful existence which leads to a slew of feelings such as embarrassment, shame, and superiority. Charlie thinks that becoming smart will make him happy and well-liked, but the operation works the opposite effect. Charlie starts to look down on everyone, and cannot socialize with others because of his IQ. As a result, Charlie becomes almost depressed. His depression deepens when Charlie discovers that his intelligence will not be permanent. Soon, Charlie regresses to his former childlike mentality. Although at the end of the novel, Charlie does not find himself any worse off after the operation, the few months he spent smarter are not terribly enjoyable for him, and his changing mentality negatively impacts those he is close to, namely Miss Kinnian. Because the effects are not permanent, Charlie would be far better off without the operation.

Charlie Gordon has faced isolation his entire life. His family had given up attempting to increase his intelligence. His coworkers laugh at him, but Charlie doesn’t understand that he is

Charlie Gordon’s doctors acted ethically when they performed the surgery to make him smarter. In the beginning Charlie took a Rorschach test to test his personality. When he took the test, he said he saw nothing in the inkblots. Charlie Gordon is in his 30’s; his IQ was 68, despite this fact, Charlie spends time with his teacher Miss Kinnian to get smarter. Miss Kinnian teaches at a school for slow adults.

“The measure of intelligence is the ability to change,” (Einstein) . Change is what Charlie Gordon wanted in “Flowers for Algernon” written by Daniel Keyes. Charlie Gordon is a mentally impaired human being with an I.Q. of sixty eight that was living in New York. He wanted to be as smart as everybody else to be able to talk to them normally. He had a operation done on him that would make his I.Q. triple into a 204 but this operation had more costs than benefits.

Although he got to experience emotions, the surgery Charlie Gordon had worsened his quality of life because he realized his friends were making fun of him, he could no longer conversate, and he became depressed.

“I hope they use me. Miss Kinnian says maybe they can make me smart. I want to be smart” (Keyes 221). When given the opportunity to a life-changing operation, Charlie Gordon, Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes, was able to experience his life with his own self-worth. Throughout his 37 years of life, there has been the consistent struggle with his intellectual disability. With artificial intelligence, the events Gordon went through were positive. Most people could only dream of having the accessibility to artificial intelligence and experience just what Charlie did, even if it wasn’t forever. In comparison to society around this individual Charlie was viewed as dumb. That viewpoint drove a barrier between him and those around him. The experiment

In the science fiction novel, Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes, Charlie Gordon should not have had the option to have the operation to make him intelligent. Charlie was better off before the operation because at the end of the book, he returned to his old self. For example, “I dont know why Im dumb agen or what I did wrong maybe its becaus I dint try hard enuff.” This shows that Charlie’s grammar has regressed. This proves that the operation was not needed because Charlie returned to his normal self. Charlie was better off before the operation because he was fired from his job. When Charlie became intelligent, all the workers signed a petition, to get Charlie fired, because he was too smart. This shows that the operation was not needed because he lost his job and his

Charlie Gordon is a 37 year old man who has a learning disability. But Charlie is a little different from other people who have liabilities. He wants to learn. He wants to be smart. “I told him thank you doc you wont be sorry for giving me a second chance. And I mean it like I told him. After the operashun Im gonna try to be smart. Im gonna try awful hard.” Charlie was very excited when he got the proposal to do the operation. That’s why when both the doctors agreed to use him he was so excited. He will do anything to try and

Who is Charlie Gordon? Charlie Gordon is a 37 year old that has a disability. He is an adult but his mind and how he acts is like he is a child still. He shows that he wants to get smart and want to develop in his life. He doesn 't have the common sense to know when his own friends pick on because of his disability. Charlie wants to fit in and not be left out just because he 's not smart and he cant do anything. It is clearly stated on page 190 line 4-6. Author Daniel Keyes. Charlie is a very nice person it 's just that he doesn 't know better or doesn 't think the right way. Charlie wants to actually learn and have the same mind set as people here today. He doesn 't want to be known as dumb he wants to be known as a well work hard person and super smart. This is why Charlie goes and gets help.

Imagine being 37 years old, and being told that you couldn 't do things that other people could just because you had one thing that was "wrong" about you – being "mentally retarded". This was Charlie Gordon 's reality. He was an innocent, responsible man that did anything that he could to survive with his special need. One day, this all changed for him when he was told that a special surgery would be performed on him, and that he would become smarter. Unfortunately, Charlie learns a few things that he wished he hadn 't, and his ability to cooperate with the outside world starts to decline, along with his intelligence. Unfortunately, during this operation, Charlie Gordon 's doctors did not perform ethically when they performed surgery to make him smarter.

Charlie Gordon, a middle aged man that has an original I.Q. of 68 and is asked to be tested on to see if this experiment works. Mr. Gordon works at a factory and he always has a positive attitude at work. He attends a school for adults that don’t work quickly mentally. Mr. Gordon wants to become smart so he can know what he is doing in situations.

started at 68 he struggled he whole life because the only thing he wanted to do was to be smart like other people. He wanted to be a normal person, but he didn’t have any adult mentalities. He was always thinking like a kid but he was a fully grown man. When Charlie enrolled in the classes, it helped his ability to read and write. Charlie gradually changed and so did his I.Q.

While reading “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes, many thoughts about the story were going through my head. Certain parts of the story caught my attention but none more than when Charlie falls into the same trap as everyone else by laughing at the mentally disabled dish-washer until he suddenly remembers that this used to be him once. This story enters the debate on the treatment of people with below and above the average intelligence. By being part of society, we all fall victim to judging people based on their intelligence even though we should be treating them based on who they are as a person and their personalities. Within my class many people believed the main problem of the story of Charlie was his trying to improve his way of

In this book there was an interesting character that went through a dramatic change. Charlie Gordon is a thirty-five year old mentally challenged man who works at a bakery, lives in New York, and dedicates his all to become smarter. “I want to be smart.” (Keyes 1). Charlie makes the statement he wants knowledge. He doesn’t have the same feelings like an average person. Charlie wants to be able to experience real life. He wants to be able to have conversations, and have fun with people. Charlie wants to be able to remember everything because he doesn’t remember anything about his past life like his mother, father, or siblings. He was told about an experiment that can make him smarter, but it has never been tested on a human and was not proven to be successful. After the experiment it changed more than just his knowledge. It changed his personality.

Learning about the world is hard enough, but to unlearn it knowing what is being lost is even harder. Charlie Gordon is a man that learned the world and lost it all. Is knowledge is good while it can be retained or is ignorance bliss when it can’t? Knowledge is really good, even if it is only for a little while, even if it is retained for a short period because people know what the world is, even when that knowledge is lost, people will retain a certain understanding of the world before they “unlearned” it. Some say “ Knowledge is a wonderful tool in life, but if a man acquires knowledge, but soon “unlearns” the knowledge yet understands how the world should be, and then loses it, ignorance is bliss so the man does not know how people treat them in bad ways, and it shall stay that way for his/her benefit.”. All people deserve to acquire Knowledge, so they have the experience of how life should be. Charlie Gordon acquires knowledge of how the world is and how people treat people who have mental setbacks. To come from a position where he is made fun of, to know this, and then back to being treated as a person that has a mental disability, knowing how he is treated has multiple pros and some cons.