Charlie's Life Better Before His Operation Analysis

In this novel, Flowers for Algernon, written by Daniel Keyes, a man named Charlie Gordon has an operation done to increase his intelligence. He started as a mentally retarded man and slowly became a genius. He seemed to soak up information like a sponge and he was able to figure out the most complex scientific formulas. The only problem with the operation is that it does not last for ever and in his remaining time he tries to figure out why it is not permanent. He will eventually lose everything he learned and become worse off than when he started, so Charlie was better off before he had the operation.

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.

First of all, why Charlie shouldn’t have gotten the surgery is because he started understanding everyone and how they felt. This stressed him out a lot. He felt like he didn't belong with others. “Now I know what it means when they say “to pull a Charlie Gordon.” I'm ashamed.” (209). In this sentence, Charlie recognizes why his friends liked having him around so much. It was so that they could make fun of him and play tricks on him for their own fun. Also Charlie had felt bad about a kid at a restaurant. “I jumped up and shouted, “Shut up! Leave him alone! It's not his fault he can't understand! He can't help what he is! But for

After the operation, in only a couple of months, Charlie starts showing signs of new intelligence. His grammar, improved, and he is able to reflect on what his does in the past something he wasn’t able to do before. He had finally gotten something use had always desired. Then, everything and everyone turned on him. In “PROGRESS REPORT 12” April 30th (pg. 60) Charlie writes: “now, they hate me for my knowledge and understanding. What in the name of god do they want of me? They’ve driven me out of the factory. Now I more alone than ever before…” Charlie got what he always wanted, and now he lost everything he had. It was a sacrifice it sounded like he didn’t want to make. I can tell just be the tone of his writing. This shows that we should embrace everything that we have. Charlie didn’t embrace everything, although he appreciated most of the thing he never became happy not being able to just enjoy life as it is.

Charlie should have chosen to have had the operation because he got to achieve his ultimate dream, he got to form new relationships, and he was able to contribute new information to others; One argument that can be made for why it was beneficial for Charlie to have the surgery is because he got to live out his dream. Prior to having the IQ increasing procedure done to him, Charlie, was an optimistic and good-hearted man. Unfortunately for Charlie though he was disabled and had a low IQ, this caused Charlie to dream of becoming smart and fit in with others. One quote that can support the claim that Charlie got to achieve his dream of becoming smart is, “Im glad I got a second chanse to be smart becaus I lerned alot of things that I never new were in this world and Im grateful that I saw it all for a littel bit (245).

Have you ever known anyone one that was slow but became smart? In or story it showed when he was not smart people like him but when he was smart no one liked him anymore. I think that Charlie was better off after the surgery.

In addition, due to the surgery, Charlie was more aware of his surroundings and he was able to see how people reacted to specific things, and how they treated others. Charlie isn’t “blind” anymore. “It’s a funny thing I never knew that Joe and Frank and the others liked to have me around all the time to make fun of me (April 18).” Charlie was confused by the phrase “stop pulling a Charlie Gordon”. The surgery opened his eyes to the cruelty

Before the surgery, Charlie was a person that was liked by all. The people in his life knew him from his benevolent smile with a sense of humor. Now, his intelligence seems to have taken over the emotional side to him, and transform it for the worse. For example, the people at the bakery are what Charlie considered as family. As a young child, Charlie’s family life was not adequate. His parents—especially Rose (Charlie’s mother)—wanted to put him into a mental institution. Before the chaos would take place, Charlie’s uncle had taken him in and offered a job, and other necessities. Since Uncle Herman died, Mr. Donner seems to have a reason to let Charlie go, especially since he along with the other coworkers are confused at what is happening to Charlie. For example, “But something happened to you, and I don’t understand what it means. Not only me. Everyone has been talking about it” (Keyes 104). After the surgery, everything seemed to go downhill for Charlie; everything in his life was not the best because of his increase in intelligence. His emotions are taking a toll from his life at the expense of the decision he made. Furthermore, changes cannot always be beneficial. Charlie would have been fine without the procedure because his life was just right. A change in one’s life can because the biggest break in

Now I know what it means “to pull a Charlie Gordon.’’ I’m ashamed.” (Keyes201). He always saw everyone as being his friend and everyone seeing him as an equal. At this moment he saw how people really saw him. For the first time in his life he saw his “friends” for what they really are. Even when Charlie became smart he started to be like everyone else, “I felt sick inside as I looked at his dull, vacuous smile, the wide, bright eyes of a child, uncertain but eager to please. They were laughing at him because he was mentally retarded, and I had been laughing at him too.” (Keyes207). He had been just like that boy once, and now he’s just like everyone who was laughing at him. He realized that he was becoming like the people who once laughed at him. This opened his eyes to how the world will treat people. It was worth the surgery because he got to experience the other side of

Should Charlie have had the operation? In the story “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes, Charlie isn’t very intelligent. His teacher Mrs. Kinnian thinks he would be good to get to operation. Charlie is willing to lose his personality and everything about him already, just to get an operation that is supposed to make you intelligent. It may be temporary, but he goes for it. If he never had gotten the operation he wouldn’t have lost everything he had, such as his personality and most of all Mrs. Kinnian.

Although he got to experience emotions, the surgery Charlie Gordon had worsened his quality of life because he realized his friends were making fun of him, he could no longer conversate, and he became depressed.

surgery also allowed Charlie to see the world from a brand new perspective. Prior to raising his I.Q. Charlie only saw the simplistic parts of the world, After tripling his I.Q. though he was able to see the world from a new point of view. This change was like looking at a wall, and then seeing every molecule and atom that makes up that wall. The book shows some of his “discoveries” in the quote “How strange it is that people of honest feelings and sensibility who would not take advantage of a man born without arms, or legs, or eyes- how such people think nothing of abusing a man born with low intelligence.” (Keyes 237) With this surgery, Charlie was able to gain awareness of the world, and the bullying around him. Without this surgery Charlie would have lived the rest of his life as a walking joke to those around him.

Charlie would think that the best part of the operation would be the experiences and feelings he got to have. For example, Charlie and Miss Kinnian had dinner, where discussing Charlie's advancement in brain development, and the thought Charlie of passing Miss Kinnian intellectually made Charlie feel upset because he had fallen in love with her. In the story and movie, Charlie never had felt the feelings he had felt for Miss Kinnian ever before. Charlie said he thought of Miss Kinnian as genius and too old for him, he never saw her as a suitable girlfriend. As a result of the operation, Charlie would think the best part of the operation was being able to have feelings and experiences he never had before the operation. On the other hand,

In the first place, Charlie and what he calls “his friends” made fun of him because of the way he does certain activities. For example, Charlie does not know how to read and write before the surgery. It was often a struggle for him because he could not quite apprehend with the subject he was dealing with. Charlie soon started to write his progress of work, which

He had the operation and it would not be permanent, it will make people not expect him to be the Charlie he was, and he then had no friends, or jobs, and he put his life in danger. Will Charlie ever change his mine? . I think that it's hard to do things, or pick something that may be a dream at first, and then have it become something that wasnt expecting. When Charlie thought that the operation was going to make him smarter, it turned out that everything he cared about, or was close to him,all slipped through his