Charlie Gordon In Daniel Keyes Flowers For Algernon

Have you ever thought about being smart? Well, Charlie Gordon did. Charlie Gordon is a 37 year old male with an I.Q. that is not very high. In the Science FIction story “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel keyes. Charlie Gordon wasn’t very smart, he has a low I.Q. of 68. Charlie wanted to be smart so he would be liked by people. Charlie had the opportunity to have the A.I. surgery to triple his I.Q. Charlie Gordon should have had the A.I. surgery.

Before Charlie had the operation preformed on him, he had friends at the bakery he worked at. They were not really his friends because

In the novel, Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, it is focused around the ironically unforgettable journey of Charlie Gordon. He is a 32 year old man who has an extremely low IQ, that qualified him to be a subject for an experimental surgery to help him raise his IQ, by a lot. Before the surgery, he had very little memories of his childhood, was very forgetful, and his inability to read or write made his want for knowledge even stronger. I picked this character because not only was he the main focus throughout the book, he has changed and has not changed at the same time and I found that rather unusual.Charlie has changed because after the surgery he got what he wanted, to be smart. But by the end of the book he lost his intelligence, along

Charlie wanted to be left alone because he is not a “guinea pig any more. I 've done enough. I want to be left alone now.” (Keyes 288). Charlie is fed up with how he has been treated by the doctors. He wants to be left alone, so he can do whatever he pleases. He “can’t afford to spend my time with anyone-there’s only enough left for myself” (Keyes 292). Charlie is beginning to shun his peers, and the people that love him. He has become devoured by his work, and is not able to give up any of his time to spend with loved ones. Charlie does not value the importance of having his loved ones around him, but prior to the operation, he had a strong motivation to have friends, and to be loved by his peers.

One of the Doctors names was Dr. Strauss ,and Dr. Nemur. Dr. Strauss was nice to Charlie and he wanted to use him for the operation. Dr. Nemur didn’t want to use him. Somehow Dr. Strauss talked Dr. Nemur into using Charlie. So Dr. Strauss was thought of a friend by Charlie. Because Strauss was nice and friendly to Charlie. But towards the end after Charlie had the operation Strauss was becoming mean to Charlie because Charlie was way smarter than him. Charlie started to notice this and no longer liked him. Charlie was kinda mad at

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.

One of the reasons Charlie is better off after the experiment is because he becomes more self-aware. One part of the story that shows this is when Charlie goes to a party with his friends Joe and Frank, and everyone laughs at Charlie trying to dance. Charlie is now smart enough from the experiment to realize Joe and Frank just keeps him around for some entertainment, and not as real friends, so now he knows “what it means when they say ‘to pull a Charlie Gordon’” (7). Here, Charlie is benefiting from the surgery because he is now intelligent enough to be able to tell whether he has real friends or not. He realizes that they are just making fun of him, because he knows he used to be very unintelligent, which is why they say he can pull a Charlie Gordon. Now, Charlie can be more aware of who he chooses to be with, and know whether or not they are actually caring of him. He has become more self-aware in his choice of friends, and by doing so, improve his emotional situation. Another

After the surgery, Charlie’s mind thought completely different than what it had before the A.I. surgery, obviously,

Before the surgery Charlie's “friends” could laugh at him without him even realizing it. “Joe Carp said I should show the girls how I mop out the toilet in the factory and he got me a mop.” (Keyes 290). This quote shows his “friends” being able to make fun of him without him even realizing it. After the surgery he learned his “friends” where not really his friends.

Charlie had a chance to learn and do things that most people wouldn't have a chance to do in a lifetime, even if it was for a short time. After Charlie's regression he continued to try to become intelligent again, however, Charlie had said himself that he was grateful when he said, "Im glad I got a second chanse to be smart becaus I lerned a lot of things that I never even new were in this world and Im grateful that I saw it all for a little bit (Keyes 245) [Sic]." You have to understand that, with a mindset like this, you know you have done the right thing. Charlie was grateful for his chance to be smart and was thoroughly pleased with his decision. Nothing can be more favorable than the joyous feeling of gratitude. It can be compared to getting the gift you always wanted for Christmas, or when someone gives you a sincere smile that will brighten any bad day. This must have been what Charlie had been feeling in order to be this grateful. Another piece of evidence to prove this point is when Dr Nermur had said that Charlie was, "trying to cram a lifetime of research and thought into a few weeks (Keyes 238)." Both Charlie and Dr. Nemur both know that he was capable of this, and so much more. After the operation Charlie was super intelligent and grew the ability to understand more things socially, which is what he wanted the most, to be able to understand his friends and be smart like them, two of his greatest desires in one stone.

Charlie was very happy that he was becoming smart, "Anyway, now I know I'm getting smarter every day. I know punctuation and I can spell good. I like to look up all the hard words in the dictionary and I remember them" (Keyes 231). All of his life, he had wanted to be smart, and now he finally is. Not only did the operation make him smarter, it also made him much smarter. This was new for everyone, "You're accomplishing in days and weeks what it takes normal people to do in half a lifetime. That's what makes it so amazing" (Keyes 233). He was doing things that no one else had ever done, which is amazing for him. This made Charlie finally feel like he was a normal person, which he had never felt before. Charlie had everything he had ever want for a short period of time, which the operation gifted to

However, that's still not acceptable for doctors to do, especially with experimenting certain tests and operations on the patient. Also, Doctor Nemur and Strauss did proceed with the operation, but later gave him an unstable limbic system and failure in the nervous system. Which shows that the doctors weren't thinking of any future conflicts that would put Charlie in a harmful state of mind. They also kept Algernon dying confidential to Charlie since they both got the same operation, and the doctors weren't thinking ethically if they couldn't even share it to Charlie (Dobrin). Overall, Doctor Nemur and Strauss did motivate him to start making himself smart again in the end, but they should've thought about future conflicts that the operation would put on Charlie that would effect his mental health.

My First reason was that Charlie found out things that he was better off not knowing. My evidence is “I feel sick inside, Not sick for like a doctor, but inside my chest, it feels empty like getting punched and a heartburn the same time”. This is how Charlie felt when he found out aboutFrnak and JOe. This Supports my Claim that the operation made his life worse because he found out that Joe and Frank were really his friends.

To start off, living a life with no friends can be extremely lonesome, and definitely something that no human should be put through. A few weeks after Charlie went through with the operation, he was already becoming aware of his surroundings. That being said, he had come to realize that his “friends” were never actually friends at all. This made him shameful.

“The physician should not treat the disease but the patient who is suffering from it” (Maimonides). Determined and motivated. These words describe the power of a dangerous thing. Daniel Keyes writes about Charlie Gordon, a disabled man with low intelligence who tries to become the most intelligent man that he can be by getting surgery to enhance his capability of learning. In the novel, Flower for Algernon, Charlie gets an operation to increase his intelligence, which has negative effects.