Book Review Of Flowers Of Algernon

Intellectual growth is the development of one’s ability to process information and form your own conclusions. We see Charlie’s intellectual growth throughout the book. He eventually surpasses everyone around him and starts viewing them with a more critical eye. On April first Charlie surprises his workmates by demonstrating that he can operate the dough mixer and the on April twenty first he redesigns the whole dough mixing process. Charlie makes tremendous psychological leap with his realization. When Charlie says “’Gimpy stealing from Mr.Donner … I wanted to hit him” (Keyes, 88) this statement reveals that Charlie is capable of solving moral predicaments, such as Gimpy’s theft all by himself due to that fact all his coworkers want him fired and Charlie is disappointed by their insecurity. When Charlie was on the same intellectual level as everyone around him he says that he once looked up to them intellect people he once thought. Charlie’s greatest leap towards

This is a good way to show how Charlie thought his coworkers were his friends. Second, Charlie has now realized that his work associates were just making fun of him. This could be proven by Keyes on page 209, “It’s a funny thing I never knew that Joe and Frank and the others liked to have me around all the time to make fun of me.” This is a good example of how Charlie realized his coworkers were not his friends. Lastly, Charlie has found out that his work associate felt really bad about what they did, so they decided to be nice to him.

Estimated 26% of people 18 or older are diagnosable with a mental disability. Charlie Gordon, a 37 year old man, has a mental disability and undergoes an operation to make him smart, but the result is that he becomes too smart and then hostile and eventually dies. Daniel Keyes portrays a theme in Flowers for Algernon that since some situation can come back and bite a person, be careful what you wish for.

When Charlie was intelligent he often got irritated at the doctors because they weren’t as smart as him. He had also dealt with a lot of emotion with Miss Kinnian, Charlie was in love with Miss Kinnian. When he regressed, he was embarrassed to see her because he thought she would think he was dumb. When Charlie was at a diner, he saw a kid with disabilities, and everyone was laughing at him and so was Charlie. He was upset with himself that he laughed at him because that kid was him before he had the surgery to make him smart.

The award-winning short science fiction, Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, digs deep in how society reacts to different levels of intelligence. The book covers a wide variety of society from the creative minds to world-renowned scientists. When a retarded adult becomes one of those brain maniacs through a scientific operation, you get the full spectrum of what it is like personally as a handicapped person and through the minds of a genius. In the reports, you can see the progress and comparison of Charlie’s realization towards other people’s capability of intelligence.

His old friends didn’t like how smart he was, and his intelligence caused a social disconnect between him and his old buddies. “This intelligence has driven a wedge between me and all the people I once knew and loved.” Mr. Donnegan, the owner of Donnegan’s Plastic Box Company and Charlie’s old boss, and his old co-workers, sign a petition that states Charlie has to be fired. Everyone signs it but Fanny Girden, but even she doesn’t like the new Charlie; she finds it strange how he got so smart. Charlie, after being fired, realizes that his intelligence caused people to not like him. This made him feel very alone because he now had no friends that were not included at school and in the lab. “Now I’m more alone than ever before…”

Charlie’s psychological adulteration caused him to falsely assess interactions. Truthfully, Charlie believed Joe and Frank were his friends when in fact they could be considered anything but friends. Prior to the corrective surgical procedure, Charlie perceived Joe and Frank’s laughter erroneously; it was his belief that it was in companionable style. The procedure permitted him to finally see that they were laughing at his actions. A few weeks following his return to work after the surgery, Charlie was greeted with a petition requesting his removal from the workplace. This was a direct result of the uneasiness people had due to his operation. At Charlie’s work, idiotic deeds were referred to as “Charlie Gordon’s.” It was under his impression this was complimentary. However, after the drastic increase his IQ, Charlie could, at that point, see it was an insult. Subsequently following the corrections to his flaw-a low intelligence quotient-Charlie at long last saw the improper treatment of the intellectually disabled. While at a restaurant, Charlie observed the mistreatment of a teenaged boy. The boy was unaware of the destructive comments and was enjoying the glory of attention. Upon seeing this, Charlie visualized his previous struggle with verbal abuse. This interaction pained Charlie emotionally. Enduring the operation’s after-effects was mentally harmful for

When he regresses back to his pristine state with incipient understandings of the involutions of human nature. As he loses did recollections he still recollects some edifications that he learned when he was perspicacious one of them was. “It’s because I'm so dumb and I didn't know when I'm doing something dumb. People think it's funny when a dumb person can't do it the same way they can,” page 67. Another situation was when Charlie wanted to return back to work and when he went back his former colleagues that were trepidacious of him afore auricularly discerned what transpired and felt sympathy for him. “Mr. Donnegan was very nice when I came back and asked him for my old job of janitor. First he was very suspicious but I told him what happened

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

Throughout the novel Charlie’s personality and intelligence level changes a lot. In the beginning Charlie is happy, has friends, he’s retarded, and can’t remember a lot of things. “I fergot his last name because I dont remebir so good.” (Keyes 2),

The operation on Algernon, the lab mouse, fades and he soon become a regular mouse with no great intelligence. Charlie’s intelligence deteriorates and like the mouse, Charlie goes back to the way he was before. Mr. Donnor, offered him his job back and he was glad to accept. Now that all the men at the Bakery knew why Charlie suddenly became smart, they treated him differently than before, with more respect. When Charlie went back to work there was a man, Meyer Klaus, who was very mean to him. His friends did not tolerate this well. “Joe Carp came in and grabbed Klaus by the shirt and said leave him alone you lousy bastard or Ill brake your neck. Charlie is a good guy and nobodys gonna start up with him without answering for it.” (Keyes 308) Charlie’s friends treated him poorly before, but once they knew the truth, they corrected their wrongs and made them right. Not only did Charlie’s friends change but when Charlie and his sister, Norma, reunited she no longer hated him, but loved him. Once most people know the truth, and come to accept it, they usually change for the better, but in this case Fay changed for the worse. Fay Lilliman was a woman who lived next door to Charlie’s apartment. Charlie and Fay became friends. Fay was unaware of Charlie’s operation and believed he had always been of normal intelligence. When Charlie’s operation declined so did their friendship. Fay no longer wanted to see Charlie because he was not a normal man, but a mentally challenged man. When the truth comes out society almost always changes. Sometimes it changes for the better and sometimes it changes for the

He wears glasses but only for watching T.V. and movies. Charlie has a great motive because all he wants is to be smart for example, "After the operashun I'm gonna try to be smart. I'm gonna try awful hard. (p.11)". Charlie, being intellectually disabled, doesn't understand things, making him constantly happy. This is because he doesn't think about life. Charlie gets bullied but thinks they're being nice to him when they do things like "He really pulled a Charlie Gordon that time. I don't know why they say it but they always laff and I laff too. (p.23)". After the operation, he had a different outlook on life. He wanted to become smart so that he could talk with his coworkers about intelligent things like politics. Although, the operation made him too smart. His way of thinking was based on facts and intelligence, rather than emotion, feelings and instinct. Charlie was a genius and they weren't. He didn't know how to control his emotion because he never knew he had them, often making him go into depression and be

Living in a sense, is immensely blunt. As cliché as this sounds, in life you get what you

The Glorious Revolution was primarily completed when King James II of England was overthrown due to the mutiny of selected English Parliamentarians. The revolution was completed under the leadership of William III of Orange-Nassau from Denmark. The primary reason for the need of this revolution was King James' religious policies in the mid-1680s. His approach was receiving severe opposition from the leaders involved in his government as well as neighbouring governments. The main concern for most political leaders was King James' strong Catholic roots and his close-knit relations with France. This crisis further escalated with the birth of King James' son (James Francis Edward Stuart) which led to the probability of the Roman Catholic Empire even stronger. Also, the birth of his son set array the present line of succession which was for his daughter Mary who was married to William III of Orange. Many of the opposition parties joined hands including the leaders of Tories and invited William III to the region to initiate a military intervention (Pincus, 2009).

There were many innovations during the civil war. Many of them are still used today. Among these I have chosen the Telegraph as a innovation that is still relevant today. The popularization of this invention is what made it successful and made it last this long. It may have changed a bit over time but still has the same long distance communication idea in mind.