Charlie's Mental And Emotional Development In Flowers To Algernon

Conflicts are often faced by characters in novels and movies. A conflict is a struggle between two opposing forces, usually a protagonist and an antagonist. Charlie Gordon is a mentally disabled man from Flowers for Algernon who has a surgery to become smarter. Sam Dawson is a mentally disabled man from I am Sam, who is fighting for custody of his daughter. Charlie had it worse than Sam because he struggled with many emotions and he had various losses throughout the story.

In Flowers for Algernon, throughout Charlie's life, the one main goal he always wanted was to be smart, including his mother. When Charlie performed the surgical procedure, his mind became more understanding which made him learn more information. Later, he learned that intelligence wasn't the only

Intelligence greatly affects how people feel and who they truly are. The level of understanding of others' emotions and how the world works changes who a person is. Who someone is how they act, and what they think. Intelligence is as much of a factor in the formation of personality as genetic makeup. Flowers for Algernon shows this very acutely, as Charlie’s personality changes greatly throughout the book as his intelligence fluxuates.

“Flowers for Algernon” contains numerous themes throughout Charlie Gordon’s journey. Charlie Gordon the story’s protagonist is a 32-year-old mentally disabled man who has the opportunity of a lifetime to undergo very special surgeries which will most likely change his life for the better, hopefully. This operation has already been performed on a laboratory mouse named Algernon, who received astonishing and outstanding results, so the doctor is convinced it can alter a human’s disability and help millions of people. The reason Charlie was chosen for this operation is his teacher Miss. Kinnian, who said he was a very hard worker and valuable asset. After the operation, Charlie’s intelligence increased rapidly and soon became a genius. Charlie was asked to keep progress reports of his personal experiences and as he gets smarter he improves in grammar, spelling, and wordplay. However, all actions have consequences, the first side effect are flashbacks to Charlie’s childhood, which contain emotional and depressing events, the second side effect is a lack of social skills this could be the operation or not, but it certainly increased after the surgery, this shows when Charlie tries to make new friends or keep old ones but no one understands him and when people don’t understand something they get scared and destroy it or back off. The only true friend Charlie had was Miss. K, which soon became his girlfriend. After a few weeks Charlie

Everyone is perfect in their own way, so you should not change yourself just to be like everyone else. In the story “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes, a 37 year old mentally challenged man named Charlie Gordon, had a very low intelligence quotient (IQ) of 68. Charlie had always wanted to be smart like those around him. Fortunately, he was given the opportunity for this. He was chosen to be in an experimental operation that could triple his IQ. This experiment was successful on a mouse named Algernon. After some time from the experimental operation, Charlie is a genius. As Charlie gets smarter than before, he begins changing as a person. Charlie should not have had the operation because it ruined his relationships, it was temporary, and he fell into depression.

Charlie gains intelligence and how this deeply affects him only touches the surface of the

Throughout the novel Charlie’s personality and intelligence level changes a lot. In the beginning Charlie is happy, has friends, he’s retarded, and can’t remember a lot of things. “I fergot his last name because I dont remebir so good.” (Keyes 2),

Daniel Keyes in "Flowers for Algernon" utilizes the actions and thoughts of the main protagonist, Charlie Gordon, to convey the central idea, people only show kindness to someone else when the opportunity seems beneficial to themselves.

Flowers for Algernon shows how Charlie isn’t any less human than the rest of us. He had ambition, a goal, he wanted to fit in. He can feel the pity showered on him, he even said that he didn’t want anyone to feel sorry for him when Miss Kinnians cried after Charlie forgot that he wasn’t in her class anymore. Charlie’s mind was clear, he wanted to be smart like everyone

To begin with, when Charlie is smart everyone avoids him and acts almost scared of him. For example, people are avoiding Charlie he “guess[s] it’ll take a little time for them to get used to the changes in me. Everybody seems to be frightened of me.” Charlie really wants to be smart to fit in but in the process everyone avoids him. Along with people avoiding him, when he is smart everyone begins to see that Algernon is getting hostile and it foreshadows what will happen to Charlie. For example,“they’re all pretending that Algernon’s behavior is not necessarily significant for me. But it’s hard to hide the fact that some of the other animals who were used in this experiment are showing strange behavior.” After Charlie realizes what will happen to him he regrets ever having the operation

Charlie's emotions swing throughout the story. At the beginning he is just a happy guy living life. Although his one desire is to become very smart. He is still just an average person that may not be as intelligent as the rest. I believe that Charlie is in fact more happy at the beginning of the book than after the operation.For example, in the text Charlie Gordon is upset after the operation because he does not see a significant difference in his intelligence level, he says, "Nothing is happening. I had lots of races and different kinds of tests with Algernon. I hate that mouse." This shows that Charlie is upset about Algernon and all the tests he has to go through, he feels as if he is not making any progress. Although he reaches his goal

Why did Charlie want to become smarter? Charlie Gordon wanted to be smarter so he got a brain operation and he learned a lot faster than normal and then started loosing what he learned and what he knew before the operation. In the story, “Flowers for Algernon” Daniel Keyes explains that a person should not compare his/her intelligance with others.

In my opinion I believe that everyone has to go through a bad experience to learn more about life. I think that even though most of his memories are bad, that he now knows what to do when he feels anger, love, or when he is scared. Now that Charlie is more intelligent than he was before, he could prove to all of the people that hurt him, that he is smart and knows how they have been treating them in the past. In one of Charlie’s progress reports it states that “When I went up to Gimpy he jumped and dropped his coffee.” This is proving how people that have treated him badly in the past are now afraid of him and the amount of brilliance that he has after his surgery. The bakery boys don’t know that he got the surgery so all they know is that Charlie has been acting very strange and they are scared of what he knows about his past. I envision that this surgery has helped Charlie understand what life is and the feelings that come with it. I don’t think that Charlie would have survived life not being able to recognize everything around

Therefore, intelligence does not bring happiness. For Charlie, Ignorance is bliss. He realizes that his so- called ‘friends?’ were just using him to entertain their perverse humor. Also, he was fired from the job that he loved because his new intelligence level. This promotes Charlie into a short depression. This short depression made it clear that Charlie’s life prior to the experiment was better than his current conditions since he had a job which he looked forward to and so- called “friends”.Charlie says on May 20th "Now I'm more alone than ever before” (Keyes, 108). He had nobody to relate to at this point of the story because his intelligence grow to overpower other surrounding him. Charlie’s intelligence has already exceeded his teacher and the doctors. Before Charlie gained intelligence, even the simplest things in life were good enough for him. After he gained intelligence,none of those things mattered to him because his mind grew more complex. As a result, he felt alone and buried himself in his work.

In the beginning of the story, Charlie wasn’t smart at all. In fact, Charlie had a shockingly low IQ score of 68. At the time, Charlie didn’t understand many simple things that the average person could easily understand. He wasn’t aware of how people treated him or the things around him. Although, Charlie had a burning desire to become intelligent. One of the things that shows how much Charlie wants to be smart is when he says, “I told them because all my life I wanted to be smart and not dumb” (47). So, Charlie works hard to try and learn everyday. Until one day, he is informed about the experiment that could possibly increase intelligence.