Examples Of Dehumanization And Isolation In Flowers For Algernon

Charlie's opportunity to undergo the operation is not comparable to an evil act, it is simply a well deserved scientific opportunity provided by scientific advancements. As Charlie becomes brighter, he experiences some of life's harsh realities as we all do when we grow up. He learns that many of his coworkers at the box company enjoy making fun of him. He never realized why everyone laughed when he was around, but now he sees through the smiling faces. The truth hurts as it always does, but realizing there are some people around us who show signs of evil is part of life's lessons. Charlie begins to feel better, although he remains a little bitter about the realization of the cruelty of many people he spent time around.

Flowers for Algernon is a story with hope, humor, defeat, sadness, and disappointment. Charlie is your average joe with a mental disability. He writes through a series of journal entries about his journey of coming out of the darkness of ignorance and into the bright light of intelligence. At the beginning of his trek, he was working hard to become smarter on his own but was chosen for a experimental surgery that makes people smarter. He underwent the operation and gradually his intelligence surpassed his teachers. Unfortunately the effects were not permanent and Charlie digressed into the person that he once was, knowing he was going to die like his mouse friend Algernon. He moved to New York and It is assumed that

Flowers for Algernon is about a man named Charlie who is mentally slow and not smart. Charlie had an operation to make him smart. What the doctors did was unethical.

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.

People believed that Charlie was artificial, man-made, a lab rat. Professor Nemur thought that he had created Charlie, and that he was nothing before the operation “It might be said that Charlie Gordon did not really exist before this experiment…”. Charlie was a human before and after the operation “I’m a human being, a person with parents and memories and a history and I was before you ever wheeled me into that operating room!”. (p.161) As Charlie began to grow mentally and become intelligent, his understanding of the world became clearer than before. Although he could understand reality, he couldn't understand his feelings. Charlie thought he could understand his feelings but he really didn't, especially love “Something inside is burning me up, and all I know is it makes me think of you.”. Later, as he continues to grow, he decides that he could let his feelings rule him only during his relationship with Alice but not during anything else. He realized that he really loves Alice because his feelings and emotions go wild when he's with her. Also because he sees the old Charlie when he's with her helping him realize he loves her. Charlie loved her enough to let her go because he didn't want her to see him deteriorate. Charlie decided to go to the Warren Home because he

He is functional, but moderately mentally disabled. Charlies main goal is to learn so he can be smart like everyone else. When he was suggested by his teacher for an operation that could make him smarter, he got excited because he actually had a chance. Before the surgery Charlie is completely innocent. Being innocent is defined as simple and naive. He has no experience because he has been under circumstances that did not allow him. He is a generally happy person that values companionship. Charlie sees the good in everybody and is nice to all, even when some are not particularly nice to him. Before the surgery Charlie is very ignorant to the jokes and slurs his “friends” express to him. He always enjoys going to work to see his friends because he likes how they joke around and laugh with him.

The surgery made Charlie see the things his friends did to him. Before Charlie had the surgery people at work picked on him and he didn't understand what was happening “Sometimes somebody will say hey look Joe or Frank or George , he really pulled a Charlie Gordon. I don't know why they say that but i always laff.” (Keyes 227) if Charlie wouldn’t have had the surgery he would have been made fun of and picked an and even hurt by his so called “friends”.

Flowers for Algernon has a difficulty with technology when Charlie’s brain begins to deteriorate. Scientist Dr. Nemur and neurologist/psychiatrist Dr. Strauss did an operation on Charlie to higher his I.Q. At first, the surgery seemed to be a huge success making Charlie even more intelligent than themselves. Later in the novel, Charlie realizes his intelligence deteriorates and names it the “Algernon-Gordon Effect”. The operation did successfully able him to learn at an extreme rate although, the more he learned, the faster his new intelligence would disappear. The technology made Charlie smart for only a limited amount of time, this becomes burden on him. Charlie realized how his colleagues truly

Initially, Charlie was not aware of what was going on around him. He thought that everyone liked him and was his friend. He also was not very intelligent, which is why he was oblivious to what was happening around him. After Charlie had the surgery he was able to now notice that the people he worked with at the factory were not actually his friends. He found out April 20, “I never knew that Joe and Frank and the others liked to have me around all the time to make fun of me” (33-34). Now that he got the procedure he can now tell that his so-called friends, just liked him because they could make fun of him. Another example of him noticing things for the first time is when the doctors were arguing Charlie felt that he know saw them for the first time. He realizes about their personal life, how one has a wife that wants him to be successful and the other wants some of the glory to. Once again, due to his intelligence, he notices more about the people he interacts with almost every day. He noticed things that he has never realized, let alone thought about.

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

To begin with, ignorance in certain situations is bliss and sometimes not knowing the whole truth is better than knowing all of it. This is certainly the case for Charlie because in the beginning of the novel Charlie's intelligence is very low and he doesn't understand what is going

He begins to realize that his “friends” have always picked on him. Charlie says, “It’s a funny thing that I never knew that Joe and Frank and the others liked to have me around all the time to make fun of me” (55). Before the experiment, Charlie thought that they were making jokes and he didn’t even realize that his “friends” were making rude jokes about him. He also begins to have feelings for someone, Miss Kinnian. Charlie says, “I don’t understand why I never noticed how beautiful Miss Kinnian really is”

Charlie’s analysis of the later interaction shows his emerging social awareness, ‘I guess it will take a little time for them to get used to the changes in me. Everybody seems frightened of me.’ What Keyes exposes, through the character of Charlie, is the fixed perspectives social groups can have about those with limited intelligence and how threatened they can feel when those who are disempowered become empowered. Keyes reminds the audience of the importance of treating everyone with respect regardless

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

     The scientists at the lab report to Charlie that he and Algernon are to be taken to Chicago for a convention, in which the head scientist will present the findings of his team. Once they arrive, Charlie and Algernon are the prime “exhibits” and Charlie is humiliated by some remarks made. He also discovers that the researchers had not given sufficient time to verify their results of Algernon before performing the experiment on Charlie. Charlie and Algernon run away to New York, and Charlie decides his time is probably short, and begins to try and trace the reasons for his experiments’ failure. Alice and Charlie cannot overcome their problems, and she is forced to move on. He soon gets involved with Fay, his neighbor and unconventional artist. Around her, he is able to defeat his inhibitions. But as Charlie’s work becomes harder and more time constraining, they too break up.