Examples Of Charlie In Flowers For Algernon

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

His sister, Norma, was no different because she just followed what her mother did. When Norma came to know that she would not get a dog for getting a good mark on her history test because of Charlie, she had a tantrum. She said, “I’ll stop studying, and I’ll be a dummy like him. I’ll forget everything I learned and then I’ll be just like him.” (Keyes 82). By remembering a memory like this, Charlie felt that the only reason he was born was to give trouble and embarrass his family. He felt this way, because the operation caused him to believe he was the cause of trouble in his family, and have flashbacks such as, moving schools because his schoolmates took advantage of his innocence.

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

First of all, Algernon, the mouse, dies and Charlie is very depressed. This mouse is very smart. Charlie is devastated when Algernon dies and over time he slowly loses his intelligence. This only happens because the mouse had the same operation as Charlie. He was so depressed because that is really the only thing he has bonded with and now it was gone. At the end of the story Charlie says, “P.P.S. Please if you get a chanse put some flowrs on Algernons grave in the back yard. . .” This shows he loved Algernon dearly, and doesn’t want to forget about him.

Algernon, the mouse they tried the experiment on right before Charlie, should have been allowed to live longer and develop before testing the project on a human. Algernon began to express odd behavior and lost his intelligence, as well as died, as time went on. Therefore, the operation could have had a dangerous end and even could have resulted in Charlie's death. For a time, Charlie was damaged, psychologically, when he realized his IQ was dropping rapidly and may not stop. On September 1 Charlie wrote, "Soon there will be signs of emotional instability and forgetfulness, the first symptoms of the burnout. Will I recognize these in myself?" Clearly Charlie was beyond nervous about his "burnout" as he called it. He was even scared that he would not recognize obvious things in himself because of his IQ

One of the most significant themes of Flowers for Algernon is Change in yourself changes everyone around yourself. Charlie's odyssey of growth begins from March and ends in November. Between these two months, you can spot an obvious transformation in Charlie. At the beginning of the story, despite the fact that Charlie was 37, he was not fluent in his only language, English. His progress reports all seemed structured by a second grader, and there were multiple crucial spelling mistakes. Since he wasn't intelligent as others, his co-workers mocked him. They used his name to offend people. In fact, on page 4 it says " Ernie for god sake what are you trying to be a Charlie Gordon." However, Charlie had people who complimented him for having the motivation to learn too. For Example, Ms. Kinnian, Charlie's English teacher said on page 2 that he was her best pupil.

In the first place, Charlie became so smart, it started to destroy his brain. When Algernon died, Charlie knew that the same thing would happen to him, so he started conducting research. He dedicated all of his time to find out what happened to Algernon and what will happen to himself. In the story, “I’ve got to know if and when it will happen to me.” (Keyes, 78) The text implies that he knows it will happen to him and he is determined to learn more about it. He finds out that the operation is killing him, he is dying. He became so smart that his brain started to malfunction; his brain no longer worked.

Before , the surgery they made fun of charlie they teased him & charlie didn’t know how to spell well he also didn’t know how to read well either.

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

Daniel Keyes portrays Charlie by putting him in a situation where he would be looked down upon and putting him in a position where he can act as a superior. Society has become a shallow place and if an individual does not blend in to it then they’re treated differently from others. In the novel Flowers for Algernon, Charlie disovered that whether you have lower intelligence or lower IQ then you still won’t be able to fit in. Even if Charlie learned alot of new things in the past few months, according to the novel “in some ways, you’re so advanced, and yet when it comes to making decision, you’re still a child.” (91) defining that although he has intelligence, he still cannot communicate with those around him.

His awareness of how things really are, causes others to draw away from Charlie and Charlie to draw away from others. Pre-surgery, Charlie links intelligence to a talking point, leading to more friends. His intelligence has the opposite effect that he imagines. He states at the beginning, “I hope I get smart soon because I want to lern everything there is in the werld like the collidge boys know…about art and politiks and god.” (p15) However when he’s at a high stage intelligence, he views these activities as ‘childish’, providing ‘no pleasure’ and ‘elementary’. As his intelligence increases, he falls out of touch with his few friends at the bakery. He feels that he causes them to ‘shrink and emphasize their inadequacies.’ (p.74) Charlie writes, ‘I have betrayed them and they hated me for that’. From his colleague’s viewpoint, Charlie’s spontaneous intelligence is something ‘forbidden’ and portrays them as ‘a bunch of dopes’. (p.75) His rapidly growing intelligence eventually surpasses that of professors, scientists and doctors, including Dr. Strauss, Burt, and Professor Nemur, who designed and performed his surgery. With no one to relate or compete with intellectually, Charlie grows critical and uncompassionate. Charlie’s attitude causes Alice Kinnian to angrily remark, “You're different. You've changed. And I'm not talking about your IQ It's your attitude toward people.” (p85) This change of attitude is evident when Charlie describes Dr. Strauss and Professor Nemur as ‘frauds’, ‘phonies’ and ‘ordinary men working beyond their abilities’, descriptions all contrasting with how he originally viewed them. (p105,108) Although he strives to ‘guard against the natural tendency to look down them’, Charlie continues with his uncaring attitude towards those below him. (p107) Thus, his awareness resulting from intelligence, is

As a result, Charlie grows cold and arrogant, destroying his previously happy relationships with everybody except Algernon and Alice Kinnigan, two relationships that were insufficient in keeping Charlie

At the beginning of the story Charlie wasn’t very bright. Charlie said “I want to be smart.” He was picked on and had no friends because he was mentally retarted and he mind didn’t function like others brain. He was known to be picked on because he was like other people. He wanted to be smart, wanted to spell and think like

We have all been labeled something we don’t like in life like bad test taker, or bad math student. Well imagine being labeled mentally retarded. And then on top of being labeled that you're mentally retarded you're bullied by the people you thought was your friend. That's how Charlie felt, he felt like everyone was labeling him stupid, retarded, and just downright dumb. That’s why Charlie felt the surgery was not just necessary but required.

I do believe that Charlie was much happier when he was dumb than when he was a genius. Charlie Gordon is a mentally retarded person who was the most happy go lucky person in the world. When Charlie got the operation he rapidly became smarter and smarter until he was smarter than the doctors them selves. Charlie was so excited and happy to be smart but when he was smart he didn't seem to be happy at all and was actually depressed. When he was dumb he didn't have a care in the world and when ever something bad happened he didn't think anything of it, but not when he was smart. Overall when Charlie was smart he was depressed lonely and overall a wreck. On the other hand when he was dumb he was the most happy go lucky person out there and did seem