There is a vast variety of characters in the book, Flowers for Algernon. For instance, Charlie Gordon is the main character and narrator. He is a 37 - year - old man that is mentally retarded since he was a child. He lacks numerous intellectual skills and is very oblivious in everyday situations. Charlie has a great amount of confidence and is determined to become intelligent no matter what it takes. Although, sometimes his low self - esteem plummets his determination and would rather give up. His mental disability also makes him oblivious to how his so called “friends” treat him at work, in which he later discovers that they are making fun of him. Charlie undergoes a procedure to cure his mental issue, that solves his problem but not long term. During the time …show more content…
She was his teacher at the Beekman College Center for retarded adults. Alice has a strong belief that her students’ disabilities don’t make them any more different than everyone else and that they deserve a chance to learn the same things as others. She is also Charlie's first real love interest and develops a personal relationship with him. This relationship makes Alice question her decisions to be with Charlie and being in a serious relationship with him, but with Charlie’s big change in intellectual skills makes her stay with him. Professor Nemur is the man that is in charge for Charlie for his procedure. He is arrogant and is obsessed with his job, making him treat Charlie as a science experiment than a real person. Nemur tends to imply he “created” Charlie, leading him to boss him over and give him demands and rules for Charlie’s life. Though, he may have done all of that to Charlie because of the stress and tormenting of his wife. The pressure that she gives off to him makes it seem as if his career is on the line for the both of them. Her actions affect his work ethic and his attitude with his colleagues, such as Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” One must accept that they might be disappointed, however, one should always hope for the best. In the story, “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes, Charlie Gordon never lost hope. Daniel Keyes was an American writer. He was born on August 9th, 1927. He died on June 15th, 2014. Daniel Keyes also wrote Algernon, Charlie and I: A Writer’s Journey. In this book, Daniel Keyes describes how he wrote “Flowers for Algernon”. The story “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes is an emotional story about a “dumb” 37 year old man named Charlie Gordon. Charlie had a mental health problem that made him less intelligent than other people. His reading speed was slow, his spelling was bad and he did not understand when someone teased him or made fun of him. Dr. Strauss and Dr.
“Eagar, Determined, and Motivated:” these three words describe Charlie Gordon in Daniel Keyes’s story “Flowers for Algernon”. Daniel Keyes writes about a thirty two year old man with a low IQ (Charlie Gordon) who strives to become “normal”. Charlie will do anything to become smarter even letting two doctors preform brain surgery to enhance his learning capability. Charlie evolves throughout the novel and by the end of his journey although his IQ is low he is a more complete person. He learns the true meaning of friendship and demonstrates intellectual growth as a person by overcoming obstacles and understanding various lessons.
This entire book highlights both the high and low points in Charlie’s life, and how he changed and has not changed all from his constant value of friendship to his many realizations, based on the one experimental surgery that gave him insight on what life would be like if he was “normal”.
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.
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
Initially, Charlie was not aware of what was going on around him. He thought that everyone liked him and was his friend. He also was not very intelligent, which is why he was oblivious to what was happening around him. After Charlie had the surgery he was able to now notice that the people he worked with at the factory were not actually his friends. He found out April 20, “I never knew that Joe and Frank and the others liked to have me around all the time to make fun of me” (33-34). Now that he got the procedure he can now tell that his so-called friends, just liked him because they could make fun of him. Another example of him noticing things for the first time is when the doctors were arguing Charlie felt that he know saw them for the first time. He realizes about their personal life, how one has a wife that wants him to be successful and the other wants some of the glory to. Once again, due to his intelligence, he notices more about the people he interacts with almost every day. He noticed things that he has never realized, let alone thought about.
He begins to realize that his “friends” have always picked on him. Charlie says, “It’s a funny thing that I never knew that Joe and Frank and the others liked to have me around all the time to make fun of me” (55). Before the experiment, Charlie thought that they were making jokes and he didn’t even realize that his “friends” were making rude jokes about him. He also begins to have feelings for someone, Miss Kinnian. Charlie says, “I don’t understand why I never noticed how beautiful Miss Kinnian really is”
Charlie Gordon was a mentally challenged adult who got surgery because he believed that the surgery would make him smarter, but after the surgery, his quality of life worsened. Before surgery, Charlie was happy, nice and a funny human being. Then, after surgery, he became an irritable and angry. He is rude to his teacher, Alice, when the only thing she does is help him. For instance, in progress report 17 October 18, Charlie said, “But why am I so irritable?
Flowers for Algernon the two main characters a mouse named Algernon and a young man named Charlie Gordon a thirty-two year old who has a very low I.Q. of sixty-eight from any other thirty-two year old man. Charlie Gordon works at Donner’s Bakery Charlie isn’t just any oh employer Charlie has very poor Intelligence Quotient. And he knows that he is different from everybody else, that’s why he has being seeing Dr.Strauss about is condition. What can he do to make his I.Q the same as everyone else? Charlie’s intelligence is an important role of Dr.Strauss and Prof.Nemur to, be able to perform this important surgery on him. He writes seventeen progress reports. Charlie Gordon is not just a thirty-two year old man that works at Donner’s bakery.
All of what Charlie desires does seem positive, but with Charlie’s new knowledge his personality begins to change. Charlie is not as kind and has an inflated ego, and tends to be a bit entitled at times. This is a drastic change in character, and every character around him seems to notice, a colleague of his states, “You’ve become cynical. That’s all this opportunity has meant to you. Your genius has destroyed your faith in the world and fellow men.”
Daniel Keyes, in the story “Flowers for Algernon”, portrayed hope for a mentally disabled man, Charlie Gordon. The operation that had the intention of helping Charlie to become a normal person had quite the opposite effect. After the operation, Charlie became much smarter, at which point he realized how different socially he was from his peers. His “friends” make fun of him, his coworkers want him to be fired, made a saying that belittles him, and seeing a mentally impaired waiter at a restaurant leads him to comprehend that he would never be the same as his peers. Another effect of Charlie’s increase in intelligence is that he knows how little Dr.Nemur and Dr.Strauss care about him.
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
"...all my life I wantid to be smart and not dumb and my mom always tolld me to try and lern just like Miss Kinnian tells me but it’s very hard to be smart and even when I lern something in Miss Kinnians class at the school I ferget a lot" (Keyes 4). Flowers for Algernon is an outstanding novel written by Daniel Keyes. The story is based on a mentally challenged man named Charlie Gordon and a fluffy white mouse named Algernon, who goes and becomes two super geniuses. Charlie Gordon faces many challenges, whether it was finding out that most of his early life was an entire lie or making decisions on whether or not the surgery was ethical. Charlie Gordon’s will-power helped him conquer the task that was thrown at him.
When a person has impairment, they are often seen by society as defective. In “Flowers for Algernon”, Charlie realizes he is seen by humanity as inadequate. Charlie has the surgery to fix what is wrong with him in an attempt for the doctors to be able to fix other mentally impaired people. The surgery to fix Charlie was initially considered a success; notwithstanding, Charlie quickly learned that the surgery was a failure. While Daniel Keyes in “Flowers for Algernon” portrayed hope for a mentally impaired man, Charlie Gordon, the operation failed with devastating consequences.
In Daniel Keyes’ compelling novel, Flowers for Algernon, the main character undergoes both important emotional and physical changes. The book has an interesting twist, as it is described in the characters “progress reports”. This book has a science fiction undertone, and takes place in exciting New York City. As the novel begins, the main character, Charlie Jordan is thirty-two years old, but cannot remember anything from his childhood.