Analysis Of Flowers For Algernon

There are several differences and similarities in the book Flowers for Algernon versus the movie. Some of the many similarities are, Charlie’s co-workers are extremely rude to him, tease him, and play tricks on him while they’re at work. His co-workers also made a petition to fire Charlie when they found out that Charlie is no longer “dumb” and is getting smarter and won’t fall for their tricks anymore. Another similarity is that in the movie just like the book, Charlie also mentions that, “why is it that people think it’s okay to laugh at people with mental disabilities yet they don’t laugh at people with physical disabilities. He got this conclusion because when he was at a bar he noticed a dishwasher, who had a mental disability, dop and

In Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, there are many motifs and symbols. According to Dictionary.com (2013), a motif is:

Flowers for Algernon is a story with hope, humor, defeat, sadness, and disappointment. Charlie is your average joe with a mental disability. He writes through a series of journal entries about his journey of coming out of the darkness of ignorance and into the bright light of intelligence. At the beginning of his trek, he was working hard to become smarter on his own but was chosen for a experimental surgery that makes people smarter. He underwent the operation and gradually his intelligence surpassed his teachers. Unfortunately the effects were not permanent and Charlie digressed into the person that he once was, knowing he was going to die like his mouse friend Algernon. He moved to New York and It is assumed that

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

“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.

Imagine growing up and being told you will never amount to anything, by your parents, your friends, or people who see you on the street. The book Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes is a story from the point of view of Charlie Gordon a 32 year old man with an extremely low IQ. He is given an opportunity to become smart and takes it in order to fit in. He becomes the first human test subject for a surgery that raises intelligence. He navigates troubles of family, relationships, work and bad news in a journey to find the real Charlie Gordon. Through “progris riports” Charlie documents his life before and after surgery and the charge that happen when he is shown a little kindness.

“Flowers for Algernon” contains numerous themes throughout Charlie Gordon’s journey. Charlie Gordon the story’s protagonist is a 32-year-old mentally disabled man who has the opportunity of a lifetime to undergo very special surgeries which will most likely change his life for the better, hopefully. This operation has already been performed on a laboratory mouse named Algernon, who received astonishing and outstanding results, so the doctor is convinced it can alter a human’s disability and help millions of people. The reason Charlie was chosen for this operation is his teacher Miss. Kinnian, who said he was a very hard worker and valuable asset. After the operation, Charlie’s intelligence increased rapidly and soon became a genius. Charlie was asked to keep progress reports of his personal experiences and as he gets smarter he improves in grammar, spelling, and wordplay. However, all actions have consequences, the first side effect are flashbacks to Charlie’s childhood, which contain emotional and depressing events, the second side effect is a lack of social skills this could be the operation or not, but it certainly increased after the surgery, this shows when Charlie tries to make new friends or keep old ones but no one understands him and when people don’t understand something they get scared and destroy it or back off. The only true friend Charlie had was Miss. K, which soon became his girlfriend. After a few weeks Charlie

In this essay I am writing of intelligence and how it is in correlates to the book Flowers for Algernon. My main points of this essay are to identify the effects if knowledge. I believe that our society today we do not put enough importance on intelligence. Learning can both benefit and harm us mentally. With intelligence, we can be a genius but happy at the same time.

After reading the first short story, “Flowers for Algernon”, we notice that the main character lives in his own childlike world. He has his own wishes and dreams, especially those of becoming a normal man. Later on in the story, he achieves his dream of becoming an ordinary person, eventually progressing to the mental level of a genius. It is clear that Charlie is unreliable both before his surgery and once his mental abilities surpass that of a normal person. He transforms from a man with an immature vision of the world into a genius with a complicated vision for society. The only time we can consider Charlie somewhat reliable is when he is in between the stages of mental disability and genius. It is during this time that he is what he

In the story, Flowers for Algernon, Charlie and his teachers hope for the best while they travel on the rocky road of life. To start off with, Charlie Gordon is a young man that takes a literacy class for retarded adults from Alice Kinnian. He is a bright man that undergoes an experimental surgery to increase his intelligence. Charlie has hoped of being smart for a while now and hopes this surgery just might do the trick. After the surgery Charlie’s IQ skyrockets to the level of genius and he begins to gain happiness.

A central theme in “Flowers For Algernon” is that you don’t have to change who you are to fit in with others. You can be yourself and still fit in with the crowd. In the text, Charlie wrote “Maybe if I ask him he will tell me how I can think now that Im suppose to get smart. What do smart people think about. Fancy things I suppose. I wish I knew some fancy things alredy” (Keyes 225-226). From the text, I can infer that he wishes he was intelligent already so that he could think about fancy things, such as smart people do. Also, in the text Charlie stated “I said I asked pepul and sumbody told me where I shud go to lern to read and spell good. They said why did you want to. I told them becaus all my life I wantid to be smart and not dumb”(pg.

Imagine a young adult who is struggling in school and they can’t get their grades up. Their scraping the bottom of the bucket C’s and D’s all thee way. They have stopped believing that they can change that but they don't realize that if they only believe that they can change their intelligence they can. My question for this essay is intelligence is changeable and I believe that you can change your IQ level completely. You can change and manipulate your intelligence if you believe that you can you will be able to do it.

I do not think Charlie should have had the surgery because his life got worse and his life got way harder after the surgery. The book flower of Algernon is about a 37-year-old named charlie who is super kind who is special ed and he then got to become smart by taking a surgery and he would get paid and so everything sounded good because he could spell words right but then when he found out that he would be losing this smartness and found out he will be back to the same part but he will be weaker and angrier. I think that charlie should not have taken this surgery because he became angrier, he became weaker and even though he got smart he still lost how to spell later in his life.

“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education.” This quote means that you don’t have to be intelligence to think, and unintelligence people can always learn. Charlie, who is a 37-year-old man, is convinced that happiness is to be intelligent. Intelligence does not explain what kind of a person somebody is, but it shows people's ability to solve problems, and all sorts of skills how they learn from experience. To become intelligent it takes a lot of time, practice, and study new things to the best of your ability. However, I think it’s not necessary to have intelligence to lead a happy and productive life because everyone learns differently in their own imagination.

The first main character in Flowers for Algernon is the protagonist, Charlie Gordon. Charlie narrates the entire novel by writing progress reports. He is a 32-year-old man who is mentally disabled with an IQ of 68, but has an extreme motivation to become intelligent. Charlie states in his eighth progress report, “I wish it woud [sic] reely [sic] work alredy [sic] so I coud [sic] get smart like evrybody [sic] else” (24). Charlie is a very dynamic character; he is initially very kind, sweet, and naïve, but develops into an arrogant genius. Charlie’s teacher at the Beekman College Center for Retarded Adults, Alice Kinnian, is the second main character. She is a young, intelligent woman with soft brown eyes and medium-length brown hair. Charlie describes her in his eleventh progress report by saying, “When she smiles, her full lips look as if she’s pouting” (76). Alice is very kind and honest, and deeply cares about Charlie, as well as his well-being. She recommends him for an experimental surgery to artificially increase his intelligence, and represents emotional stability for Charlie. The scientist in charge of Charlie’s operation, Professor Nemur, is the third major character. He is an egotistical, selfish older man who treats Charlie as a test subject rather than a person. He is very insecure, and resents Charlie for his intelligence surpassing his own. Dr. Strauss, who works with Nemur, tells Charlie, “‘You’re making him feel inferior and he can’t take it’” (149). This shows that even the man who works with Nemur can tell he feels insecure and inferior to Charlie. Nemur is also quite intelligent, but very cold and lacks empathy and compassion for others.