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Charlie Gordon In Flowers For Algernon

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Daniel Keyes science fiction novel, Flowers for Algernon, is about a man, Charlie Gordon, who is the subject for an experimental surgery to help raise his intelligence. The operation was highly successful for a lab mouse, Algernon, until his intelligence starts to rapidly decline. Unfortunately, the operation ended up being ineffective for Charlie Gordon as well. His IQ drops again and he does not understand what happened and can not remember anything he learned before. Charlie Gordon’s journey started with a surprisingly low IQ with hopes to gain intelligence, surpassing his doctor's intelligence and learning about himself, and ending with the operation failing and him being back to his old self. First, Charlie started with a surprisingly …show more content…

After Charlie successfully went through the operation, his doctors, Professor Nemur and Dr. Strauss, require him to keep writing his progress reports and to come to the lab every day. Although the operation was not immediate, Charlie drastically raised his IQ in a short period of time. He spent his time reading, spending time at Beekman University pretending to be a student, and remembering childhood events. Charlie realizes exceeding everyone's intelligence has some downfalls. He got fired from his job at the bakery because he made his co-workers feel unintelligent and his relationship with Alice Kinnian failed. “Charlie, don’t push me. I don’t know. Already, you've gone beyond my intellectual reach. In a few months or even weeks, you'll be a different person” (Keyes 92). After spending a lot of time with Alice, Charlie tries to have a romantic relationship with her and because of his intellectual level, he makes her feel like she isn’t smart enough to be with him. As Charlie starts to realize more about himself and his past, he struggles with maturing emotionally. He tries to have intimate relationships with Alice and his neighbor, Fay, but imagines his older self looking at them and telling him that what he is doing his wrong because as a child he was told looking at women was a sin. “I jumped up and turned of the light. I almost expected to see him standing there. But of course not. We were alone. It was all in my mind. Alice was just lying there” (Keyes 205). Because of what Charlie was told as a child and he is still learning about himself as his intelligence increases, it is hard for him to have emotional relationships with people. As a part of his journey, Charlie Gordon soon surpassed his doctor's intelligence and learns about

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