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Charlie Gordon's Flowers For Algernon

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In Flowers for Algernon, Charlie Gordon endures a few emotional obstacles because of his intellectual improvement. In this essay there will be argued that intelligence is not compatible alongside emotional maturity. This statement will be proven by referring to Charlie’s relationships, his desire to create a life he wants and also his happiness and fulfilment.

Charlie struggles to keep his emotions under control, even when his intelligence starts to show progress. When he goes with his friends to party, they make him dance with a noticeably provocative girl and Charlie does not know why his body is reacting with a wet dream. This shows that emotional maturity and intelligence is not compatible, on the grounds that even though Charlie is mentally improving, he does not know how to handle …show more content…

In Progress Report 7 of Flowers for Algernon (Keyes, 1989), Charlie is thinking about what his future will hold when he will become intelligent. He believes that he will never be lonesome again. His thinking establishes the fact that he is reaching towards emotional maturity. Unfortunately, when he becomes smarter, all of his purported friends starts to envy and resent him because he is starting to outwit them. Simultaneously, Alice Kinnian starts to avoid Charlie because he is becoming more intelligent than she is. “Charlie, don’t push me. I don’t know. Already, you’ve gone beyond my intellectual reach.” (Keyes, 1989). Charlie has the desire to join university students in conversation about politics, religion and art. However, when he has this desire, he is still short-sighted and when he becomes intelligent, he realises that they converse about childish things. This leaves Charlie emotionally dissatisfied in terms of him creating the life he desires. This emotional desire of Charlie proves that intelligence and emotional maturity are not

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