Charlie Gordon's Complications In Flowers For Algernon By Daniel Keyes

Many people believe that achieving great intelligence will bring them great happiness. This was what Charlie Gordon imagined for himself, that if he could only get the surgery that was supposed to make him smart, then he could finally fit in and be really happy. In the end, though, was Charlie really better off after he got the surgery? No, he wasn’t. Charlie was ultimately better off before he got the surgery to make him intelligent because if he had never done the surgery, then he would never have had to experience the trauma of having to go back to not being intelligent after knowing what intelligence felt like. Also, before the surgery, Charlie didn’t realize how un-faithful his friends were, and how naïve he actually was, which ultimately caused him a lot of shame. Finally, if Charlie had never gotten the surgery, he wouldn’t have had to leave New York.

“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.

Fanny explains how Charlie went against nature by getting the surgery to increase his intelligence. Furthermore, Charlie Gordon a thirty seven year old man with a low IQ of 68 gets an operation done on him to raise his intelligence. But what he does not know the many problems the surgery will cause him. In the story “Flowers for Algernon” a science fiction short story by Daniel Keyes, Charlie Gordon should not have had the operation in order for him to increase his

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

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

Firstly I would like to start off with an example the backs up, why i think Charlie should have gotten the operation, because with him getting the operation it helps advance science. “ Anyway i bet im the first dumb person in the world who ever found out something important for science”(keyes, 86) this means he did do something important to help science. The way it helps advance science is it helps them see what they have done wrong by all the data they have collected and learn what their mistake was. Another way it helps advance science it that he just helped with an important partin science that could potentially make the whole world smart. If scientists are to figure out what the mistake was they could make all mental and even advanced people even more smart. Also you never know if it would have stayed permanent and if you are Charlie you have to do whatever it takes to

The surgery was worth the experience because it helped him contribute to the world of science. He contributed by desperately wanting to be in the experiment and wanting to make discoveries, “I hope they use me. Miss Kinnian says maybe they can make me smart. I want to be smart.” (Keyes190). He was the first human to really want to contribute to this experiment. Just by getting the surgery he helped science. Without Charlie they couldn’t have gotten the results and shown

Charlie should not have had the operation because it ruined his relationships. After the operation, when Charlie reached genius level, he realized “This intelligence has driven a wedge between me and all the people I once knew and loved” (235). As Charlie’s intelligence started to progress, he began realizing that those he once called friends, thought he was just a joke. Since Charlie was not as smart as the people around him, he did not

“Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”-James Madison. In the science fiction story “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes Charlie Gordon always wanted to have the power of knowledge. Ever since he was a boy, his life goals were to be smart, have friends, and be respected. All of this was hard for him, as he only had an IQ of sixty eight, so he agreed to an A.I. surgery that would hopefully triple his IQ. Charlie Gordon’s life was much better and easier after the A.I. surgery. After the operation Charlie finally had an imagination, experienced adult emotions, and had a second chance to contribute to the real world and science.

In the short story “Flowers for Algernon,” Daniel Keyes leaves the reader saddened, stunned and ultimately forming questions. Keyes also highlights several characters, a particular character is a mentally disabled janitor named Charlie Gordon. He has a sixty-eight IQ, works at a paper factory in New York, and is oblivious to his surroundings. Gordon’s deepest desire is to increase his intelligence by doing an operation that has only been done on a mouse, whose name is Algernon. Soon after the operation is done, Gordon starts becoming a super-genius with more knowledge than most doctors. He understands elaborate mathematical equations and can read and write at an age beyond his years. However, his increased intelligence starts to “ware off,” Gordon starts losing huge chunks of intelligence, he is unmotivated and is overall ashamed. His three stages which include his wanting to be the one for the operation, his super genius self, and his deteriorating self-are important in Charlie Gordon’s character development.

In the beginning, he wasn’t very smart, but he was happy. He didn’t understand things, he didn’t know how to spell, he was childish, but he was happy. The story explains, “ She told me this test and the other one the raw-shok was for getting personalty. I laffed so hard. I said how can you get that thing from inkblots and fotos.” (Keyes, 55) The text explains that he was happy, he can’t spell, and that he is childish. Then when he had the operation, he became so knowledgeable that he lost his friends and wasn’t very happy. Being happy is more important than being intelligent, and Charlie lost his happiness because he wanted to be

Charlie’s operation was a horrible idea from the beginning; the results of the operation were temporary, the operation put his life in danger, and it caused him to become depressed. Would you have the operation if nobody knew what would happen? Messing with intelligence through operation is wrong and unnatural; you could always go to school or just live life the way you think and understand

Critics argue that Charlie shouldn’t have gotten the A.I surgery because he regressed more than his normal I.Q of 68. Nevertheless, Charlie was very happy to have contributed to science and doesn’t regret a thing about it. In a letter Charlie wrote,”Yet for sake of science I am grateful for the little bit that I here to add to the knowledge of the human mind and of the laws governing the artificial increase of human intelligence” (Keyes 239). In addition to that Charlie now is more knowledgeable of the world around him. “I have reread my progress reports and seen the illiteracy, the childish naivete, the mind of a low intelligence peering from a dark room, through the keyhole, at a dazzling light outside”(Keyes 237). This evidence proves that Charlie’s life became substantially better after the surgery.

This quote informs us that Charlie has found consequences in his intelligence by surgical means. He has lost all of his innocence, and has lost all of his happiness. Before the operation, his ignorance made him not worry about the world and he was blissfully

So, without the surgery he probably would not have gotten where he was with an IQ of 204 starting at only 68 in a matter of weeks. “What a dope I am! I didn’t even understand what she was talking about. I read the grammar book last night and it explanes the whole thing.”(Keyes page 192). People tend to think that this dream come true does not override the fact that a side effect of his decreasing intelligence is that he died. While dying is not a good thing alone it does not strain from the fact that he died finally achieving something that he spent his whole life trying to reach. So, instead of dying from a life searching but never really achieving. He died a life where he succeeded his dream. Other people say that this human sacrifice was unsafe and that no one knows about it since even the doctors told Charlie not to tell anyone that he was getting the surgery. Well, that is not true. “All human exposure studies conducted by EPA scientists are independently evaluated for safety and ethics, and the results are peer-reviewed. EPA is committed to ensuring the protection of study participants.” (Watchdog: EPA human test subjects not always told about lethal risks of studies, page 32). So not only was it safe but, it was also evaluated by other