Your intellect may be confused but your emotions will never lie to you: There are more than eight emotions in a human body such as fear, anger, sadness, joy, disgust, trust, anticipation and surprise. In the novel “Flower for Algernon”, written by Daniel Keyes, Charlie Gordon is a mentally disabled man of thirty-two years old and his instructor embark him to be the “lab rat” of an experiment because he really wants to learn. During the novel, his feelings are being introduce in his life because he did not have any before he grew up and became cleverer. In parallel with him, the scientists are also testing this new experience on Algernon, a mouse who is capable to do a maze because of the experiment. Charlie’s teacher is Mrs. Kinnian and they both developed a relationship that did not work. Charlie’s IQ was too high for Mrs. Kinnian. Slightly, at the end of the book, Algernon is starting to degenerate and so Charlie does too. In Charlie’s life, emotions are taking over knowledge because it helps him to develop friendship, feelings and love. First, friendship plays a really important role in the story because in the book, he says that “Its easy to make frends if you let pepul laff at you” (p. 311). Charlie says this at the end of the book when he has regressed to professor Nemur. Friendship is an essential thing in life because you need to have friends that can have your back when you have issues. Your best friend will listen to your problems but an acquaintance will talk to
Friendship is one of the key character traits in the novella. For instance, friendship would be Lennie and George, their friendship is what holds them together and although Lennie is not smart, George still accompanies him as a friend. Continuously as George play more tricks on Lennie he began to see how Lennie didn't care for the tricks, he knew he had a friend. Another example would be Candy and his pet. How candy has had his dog for a while describing how he had his dog since he was a puppy; and how they had herded sheep together. Even though everyone else hated the
“I wanted to race algernon some more but Burt said thats enough for one day. They let me hold him for a minit. Hes not so bad,” (Keyes 120). Charlie Gordon has a good heart, but a very low intelligence. In Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, Charlie Gordon is eager for a surgery that will hopefully triple his IQ and make him much more intelligent than the average man. After Charlie gets his operation, he meets a lab animal, a mouse named Algernon, who has had the same operation that Charlie had. Dr. Strauss, the man who started this all, has Charlie and Algernon race to solve mazes that measure Charlie's intellectual growth, which increases proving the operation successful. Daniel Keyes focused on multiple craft moves: simile, foreshadow, and personification to give the reader a way to associate the story with ways that they can relate to.
Society has become a shallow place. If an individual does not fit into societies form of the normal person then they are treated differently. But does society treat those who are different in a negative or positive way? In the novel Flowers for Algernon, the author Daniel Keyes shows an in depth look at the treatment of individuals in today's society. Firstly society tends to discriminate against those whose IQ does not fit into the norms of our society. The physically handicapped in today's world are not considered to be "equal" as those who fit into the normal physical appearance, Keyes portrays this through Charlie's thoughts while in the café. Although animals are not technically humans society treats them in ways which no human would
Character development is the core for Daniel Keyes endeavor to convey themes to his audience by developing the character of Charlie Gordon. One way to develop his character is through relationships with other characters, which is critical in conveying the themes in the book. Another way through which Keyes develops Charlie Gordon’s character for his audience is through letting in the audience on the thoughts of the character in the book so they get on a ride with his emotion, conflict, and dilemmas. Flowers for Algernon illustrates how cruel the society treats the mentally disabled with the use of literary elements. Daniel Keyes conveys the message that the grass is not always greener on the other side through character development.
Charlie was a man that did not know how to stand up for himself. He allowed his peers to bully him, and treat him like he is worthless. Charlie thinks that if he allows people to laugh at him, and tease him, they will become his friend. He thinks “Its easy to make frends if you let
“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things”, -Henry Miller. When one reads this quote, it may have a different meaning to them than to others. To Charlie Gordon, it practically defines his life journey. In the shorty story “Flowers for Algernon”, Charlie Gordon is a main who obtains an IQ of 68, and desires to be smart. Charlie finally gets his dream one day by partaking in an intelligence enhancing operation. His perspective of life is much different before and after the surgery. Although Charlie seems happy before the surgery, Charlie is able to apprehend reality through a “pair of new eyes”, regarding the operation. Three arguments why Charlie’s emotions are happier following the surgery are: He learns about lies he had in life, Charlie had a positive learning experience, and Charlie discerns his full potential.
“Flower for Algernon” is an outstanding story about a Man named Charlie Gordon with an I.Q. of 68, and a small white mouse named Algernon who can beat Charlie in any maze. The story begins when Charlie's Support teacher, Miss Kinnian, advise Charlie to do an experiment that Dr.Nemur and Dr.Strauss believe that a surgical operation could possibly have Charlie's I.Q. raise up triple the amount it was once before. In the beginning, it was a thank took months for success to happen in the experiment.However, the success was only temporary. Charlie with once with an I.Q. of a genius know back to his original self.
At the beginning, Charlie is without friends and is rather alone. He is very gifted and quite an overthinker which expels him from the usual teenage social groups. This changes, however, when he meets Sam and Patrick at a football game. They expose him to all new experiences. Resulting from his new friendships, is his relationship with Mary Elizabeth, his experimentations with drugs, and new knowledge of being a person. During this time, he is increasingly happy because Charlie was finally living.
Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes is not your average book. It is written in a progress report format, and from the point of view of a mentally challenged man named Charlie Gordon. During the book, you follow Charlie's life before, during, and after he has an operation to make him smarter. It contains a lot of themes, but the theme that stuck out the most was both harm and good can come from technology.
“Today evolution of human intelligence has advanced us to the stage where most of us are too smart to invent new gods but are reluctant to give up the old ones” (Ruth Hurmence Green). Flowers for Algernon is about a man named Charlie Gordon, he is 37, and has a low IQ of 68. He will go through an operation that has never been done before. It is supposed to generate Charlie to three times smarter. A while after he had undergone the operation his mind starts to deteriorate. He was able to predict that his mind will deteriorate like Algernon's due to a series of experiments he did. Charlie is better off doing this experiment. Charlie is better of going through the experiment be because he can now see things clearly for the first time, he has the chance to experience what it is like to be smart, and he knows how he truly feels.
Flowers for Algernon is set up in a manner that allows one to see Charlie’s day to day life; this is called an epistolary novel. This type of writing allows the reader to see what the character thought was the most important events that happened to them that day. As with any style of writing, there are many positives and negatives to this writing. For Flowers for Algernon, this writing style was most favorable.
As stated above, this humiliation that he has been experiencing has caused him to lose his confidence in himself. This is proved when Charlie writes about his conversation with Miss Kinnian. He writes: “I tried to make a conversation with Miss Kinnian but no matter how much I tried to talk at the same level as her I always brought up psychology in the process. I am having great difficulty in making friends.” This quote proves that after the surgery that Charlie took to triple his intelligence made him find it difficult to make friends after he became aware of this humiliation that he has been experiencing. It
The story "Flowers for Algernon", by Daniel Keyes, that we read in English was about a mentally retarded person, named Charlie who had an operation to increase his intelligence, but the operation was a failure and Charlie is slow again. He wants to move now so society won’t ridicule him for being slow again. Daniel Keyes wrote this short story for good reasons. Daniel Keyes wrote "Flowers for Angernon" to show people from an outside look on how we treat mentally challenged people. When you treat people as you always do, you don’t see how mean or how cruel it really may be. It could just be your personality or the way you were brought up. By him writing a story on a mentally challenged person wanting to become smart to
Dilemmas happen everyday. Some dilemmas can be good, and some can be bad. A dilemma is a situation in which a difficult choice has to be made between two or more alternatives. In the story, Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes wrote a story about a 37 year old man named Charlie who has a disability, he doesn't understand thing that normal people can. He then is encouraged by his teacher to get a surgery done to become smarter. Some people think that the surgery was a good idea,or some think it was a bad idea. In my opinion, I think that Charlie made the wrong decision about the surgery. Some people think that Charlie should of have the operation to make his dream come true In my opinion, I think he shouldn't have had the surgery because, people weren't expecting him to be new, it would not be permanent, and he put his life in danger.
In Daniel Keyes’ compelling novel, Flowers for Algernon, the main character undergoes both important emotional and physical changes. The book has an interesting twist, as it is described in the characters “progress reports”. This book has a science fiction undertone, and takes place in exciting New York City. As the novel begins, the main character, Charlie Jordan is thirty-two years old, but cannot remember anything from his childhood.