Charlie's 'Revealed In Flowers For Algernon'

In the story, Flowers for Algernon, Charlie Gordon makes a decision to allow doctors to do an operation on his brain to ¨make him smarter¨. Because of Charlie being mentally handicapped, I think that most of the decision making for Charlie was based on hopes and dreams, and not medical arguments, therefore nobody made the right decision.

To begin, one of the biggest reasons that Charlie would’ve been better off having never gotten the surgery is so he wouldn’t have to deal with knowing what great intelligence is like, but then having to go back to being naïve and dumb again. In the story Flowers for Algernon, Keyes says, “I learned so much so fast. Now my mind is deteriorating rapidly. I won’t let it happen. I’ll fight it. I can’t help thinking of the boy in the restaurant, the blank expression, the silly smile, the people laughing at him. No- please- not that again…” (303) This shows that Charlie realizes his mental capabilities are deteriorating and

“Action is the real measure of intelligence,” (Hill). In “Flowers For Algernon” created by Daniel Keyes, An adult named Charlie Gordon had a mental disability and he had an IQ of 68. He was learning, but at a very slow rate. Charlie had brain surgery to make his IQ triple in a matter of weeks. After months his brain started degrading and he lost his intelligence. The costs wayout the benefits after Charlie’s surgery.

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.

I believe that Charlie is happier when he is less intelligent before the operation. You know the saying ignorance is bliss? That's what I think this is. Sometimes when I get bored I think about things. This is one of them. Would you rather be happy and not know something bad is happening? Or would you rather be unhappy and know that something bad is happening. Charlie was happiest before the operation. He didn't know that his "friends" weren't really his friends. He didn't know that his whole work place was making fun of him. He was happy though. Then he was intelligent, and knew what everyone was doing, he wasn't happy. He knew his "friends" weren't his friends. He knew everyone makes fun of him. He wasn't happy. In fact, he was so upset that

In Flowers for Algernon, the main character, Charlie Gordon is a 32 year old who is mentally disabled. He has been living his life thus far with an IQ of sixty-eight. Although Charlie is not smart, he is very happy, but being happy does not always mean being content, and Charlie is a perfect example of this. Charlies teacher, Miss Kinnian, explained to him that there is a chance for him to get smarter, and that is through a secret surgery. He wants to fit in and be smart like everyone else, but the outcome of the surgery may not be as planned. Charlie’s increased intelligence causes him to lose his innocence. When Charlie loses his innocent mindset he gains experience, which also brings him emotional outbursts. The sacrifices Charlie makes

As a consequence, having the operation created the chance for unpredictable and unwanted outcomes. Charlie was the first human patient for the experiment. Since the doctors have never tried the operation on a human being before, the chances for making mistakes are higher. This was proven as Algernon soon experiences side effects as his intelligence regresses and he eventually passes away. Soon, Charlie also regresses back to his original intelligence state. In conclusion, having the operation created unpredictable and unwanted outcomes. I inferred that Charlie wouldn’t die like Algernon did because the last line in the book in which he asks that someone puts flowers on Algernon's grave shows that he hasn't lost 100% of his memory of what happened. The fact that he remembers Algernon and his meticulous ritual of placing flowers on his grave shows that with repetition and reminders, he does have the capacity to recall details about the time he spent with intelligence. It's there somewhere in his subconscious, just like his childhood memories were before. While Charlie maintains most of his intelligence, 16 days after Algernon bit Charlie, Algernon died. And even after 13 days realizing his intelligence is regressing, he isn't showing signs of sickness, just showing that he is absentminded. Having all these different factors influenced all these different outcomes. In

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.

Wise men learn from the mistakes of others, but when a man is the first to step on new terrain, whose mistakes are there to learn from? In Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, a mentally retarded man named Charlie Gordon goes through a surgery that he hopes will change his IQ for the better, but ends up changing the rest of his life for the worse. Keyes uses elements of inferiority and superiority, loss and gain, and mental and emotional balance in Flowers for Algernon. The elements of inferiority and superiority are present when Charlie changes and the tables turn for the people around him.

Before the operation Charlie may not be very intelligent, but his is always happy with a smile on his face. Throughout the story, "Flowers for Algernon," it is easy to see how Charlie changes over time because it is evident in his progress reports. Early in the beginning of the story, he is not able to spell very well and he has trouble creatively. For example, when he is administered a Rorschach test, Charlie has a tough time understanding what the inkblots are supposed to mean. Although he is not as smart and doesn't have much creativity either, Charlie lives a happy day to day life and is better able to enjoy himself.

To begin with, Charlie became emotionally unstable. According to Dr. Strauss in “Flowers for Algernon”, he became so intelligent that his emotions could not catch up to the level where is brain was. The operation could have affected his brain in a bad way by making other things wrong with him. Charlie knew his surgery was not permanent and that affected his feelings which made him upset.

Earlier in the novel, Charlie was friendly and didn’t know what was going around him. He had friends in the bakery, who made fun of him because of his condition. Charlie is also afraid of interacting or sharing intimacy with a woman because of his mother, and old self. Over the course of the novel, Charlie begins to change. Memories flashed back, he becomes so intelligent that he exceeded the doctors who operated on him. Towards the end, he got over his woman issues by sharing intimacy with Fay for the first time. He discovers the problem in Professor Nemur experiment, and called it the “Algernon-Gordan effect.” Charlie knew he was going to eventually go back to his old self or even worse, so he forgives his family for what they did to him. Charlie changed a lot through the course of the novel, especially towards the end. From being an innocent adult working at a bakery, to the most intelligent man in the world. When he ran away from the convention and got an apartment was when he became an independent person for the first time. The novel’s ending was very sad. Seeing how much Charlie improved since the surgery, and in the end he was even in a worse state than when he started. When charlie finally got a hold on his life, he discovered that he doesn’t have a lot of time until he transforms back to being mentally disabled again. The end was very

Have you ever heard the expression, “be careful what you wish for”? The saying applies to Charlie in “Flowers for Algernon”. Some may think he was better off after his operation, others may think before. His IQ was way lower than an average person’s, but his life was better that way. He was happier, had friends and a job, and the world was a wonderful place to him.

For many people, it is a struggle to find what makes their life good: financial success, power, love, happiness. In the book Flowers for Algernon, the reader is presented with a choice: whether Charlie’s life is better when he is less intelligent or when he is more intelligent. Though Charlie has increased intelligence and better comprehension of the world after his surgery, he is more outgoing and kind to all when his degree of knowledge is low. He is also happier, and lacks painful memory of his past. As Charlie evolves throughout the story, it is made clear that Charlie has a better life when he has a low IQ rather than a high IQ.

You could say that in the novel Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, Charlie gets influenced easily, or you could say that Women are silver tongued and very charismatic, but you can’t argue that women influence Charlie in more ways than one. Charlie’s mother, Rose Gordon influences him through his childhood and his memories, Alice Kinnian, Charlie’s teacher at the Beekman College Center for Retarded Adults, influences Charlie in the most important manner by recommending and encouraging him to get the operation. Fay Lillman is Charlie’s next door neighbour who is a free spirit and friends with Charlie, Fay influences Charlie by being unorganized and lazy, this makes Charlie more of a mess. Charlie gets influenced by various women in the novel, but Rose, Alice and Fay affect him greatly throughout the story.