Flowers For Algernon 700 Word Essay

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.

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

It is possible to live without intelligence. Intelligence is important but if you don't have it, then it is fine. You can try to become intelligent by being yourself, but there is no need for getting surgery to get smarter. Charlie shouldn’t have gotten the surgery. He was living happily. He wasn't sad about anything, so he wouldn't need to go through any stress.

The first step of the five steps to being ethical is to make an ethical decision to gather facts. Charlie's doctors did not gather enough facts before the operation. An example is when they gave Charlie the operation after they tested on animals, especially the mouse, Algernon. The problem for this is that after a while, Algernon, and all the other animals tested, was losing their intelligence. Soon after this happened, Charlie lost his own. The doctors should've waited after they tested on animals

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.

One of the reasons Charlie is better off after the experiment is because he becomes more self-aware. One part of the story that shows this is when Charlie goes to a party with his friends Joe and Frank, and everyone laughs at Charlie trying to dance. Charlie is now smart enough from the experiment to realize Joe and Frank just keeps him around for some entertainment, and not as real friends, so now he knows “what it means when they say ‘to pull a Charlie Gordon’” (7). Here, Charlie is benefiting from the surgery because he is now intelligent enough to be able to tell whether he has real friends or not. He realizes that they are just making fun of him, because he knows he used to be very unintelligent, which is why they say he can pull a Charlie Gordon. Now, Charlie can be more aware of who he chooses to be with, and know whether or not they are actually caring of him. He has become more self-aware in his choice of friends, and by doing so, improve his emotional situation. Another

The Book “Flowers for Algernon” is about an intellectually disabled man named Charlie that has an operation that makes him smart.The operation made operation made his life worse. 3 reasons to why the operation made his life Worse are that (1) he found out a lot of things that he was better off not knowing.(2) a lot of people couldn't understand him when he was talking. (3) after the intelligence from, the operation went away his intelligence was worse than before that operation.

In the story "Flowers For Algernon" Drs. Neimer and Strauss had considered a group of candidates before choosing Charlie, they ended up choosing him due to his motivation and desire to learn. When they were considering the study they had to know if this was going to be right for the patient and their research. They had to think about the patients and their ability to live a normal life and have positive effects, but they also had to consider the possibility of a negative outcome including failed attempts, side-effects, health issues, or even death. They most likely thought through some other steps before starting the project, including evaluating the subjects. Charlie was given tests to see his intelligence and help them decide his status for the surgery; he also had to race the mouse Algernon throughout the study to see the progress in his intelligence. Before the operation even happened the doctors behind it were considering the ethics, outcome, and worth of this study.

surgery, Charlie became so smart he was able to make advancements in science. Charlie knew that the effects of the operation could only be temporary. So, he started working to learn more about this operation to figure out how to make the results permanent. Charlie tried different formulas and he found a partial solution. Even Dr. Strauss and Dr. Nemur, the doctors who performed the operation on Charlie, could not understand the things Charlie was trying to do. He sent them a letter telling them about it. “Under separate cover I am sending you a copy of my report entitled “The Algernon- Gordon Effect: A Study of Structure and Function of Increased Intelligence,” which I would like to have you read and have published” (Keyes 239). With Charlie’s discovery, there was the possibility that other scientists could go on to discover the next steps to make the operation permanent. It is an amazing thing that Charlie went from not being able to read a book, to making advancements in

“Evry body feels sorry at the factory and I dont want that eather so Im going someplace where nobody knows that Charlie Gordon was once a genus and now he cant even reed a book or rite good.” These words were taken from a young man named Charlie Gordon who willingly decided to take an operation to triple his intelligence. This operation was performed by the doctors Dr. Nemur and Dr. Strauss, both found the operation successful through a test mouse named Algernon. I believe that this operation should not have been conducted because the operation worked for a short period of time and Charlie’s life was completely changed for the worse.

To begin, Charlie is still better off after the surgery because he now has E.Q, or emotional intelligence unlike he did before he got the operation. Before the operation, Charlie did not understand the emotions of people. For instance, the entry on April 15 (Keyes 291) tells us that when Charlie and Ms. Kinnian were talking, Ms. Kinnian got something in her eye and had to go into the ladies room, but we knew that she was actually crying, an example of dramatic irony. This displays that before the operation, Charlie does not know the emotional standpoint of people, but after the operation Charlie does. To demonstrate, after Charlie had the operation but lost his intelligence, Charlie went into Ms. Kinnians class acting like he used to before the operation. Then, he said, “She startid to cry

Achieving a lifetime dream is something many people work towards without considering the consequences that may befall them. In the story “Flowers For Algernon” by Daniel Keys this happened to the thirty seven year old protagonist named Charlie Gordon. Born with a mental disability, he had an abnormally low intelligence quotient (IQ) of sixty eight. Charlie attended a night school which was taught by his teacher Ms. Kinnian. Charlie was offered and agreed to have an operation that would drastically increase his IQ to an unusually high level that had never been achieved before. After many failures on lab mice, this surgery was finally performed successfully on a mouse named Algernon. Charlie should not have had the operation because it ruined his relationships with his friends, it was experimental, and it made him antisocial

Before the operation could occur, Charlie went through a series of tests to see what he knew and could think of. One of the tests involved a mouse named Algernon, who went through the same operation that Charlie was getting ready to go through. Algernon was a smart mouse, and Charlie had to try to beat him in a race through a maze. Algernon won every time, and Charlie began to hate the mouse. After all the tests, Professor Nemur and Dr. Strauss decided Charlie would be great to use in the experiment. The two scientists told Charlie to write everyone he could think of, and they called them progress reports. At the beginning of the book, Charlie’s progress reports have many misspelled words and improper grammar. After the

    When Charlie was little to before he noticed that people he thought were his friends made fun of him all the time. They laughed at Charlie and Charlie laughed along with them. For example, “  Joe Carp said hey look where Charlie had his operashun what did they do Charlie put some brains in. … Then Frank Reilly said what did you do Charlie open a door the hard way. That made me laff. Their my friends and I really like me.”(Keyes 22) This happens when he goes back to work at the bakery right after his operation. At this point in the book he is starting to realize how people are treating him. He is also absorbing knowledge like a sponge absorbs water.

For instance, “Drs. Strauss and Nemur must be viewed as having little ) or no practical applicability (at the present time) to the increase of human intelligence. This quote shows that Dr.Strauss and nemur doubted the capability of increasing the intelligence in a human subject but, continued the experiment anyways which lead to charlie getting his hopes up and becoming smarter then it suddenly stops working and charlie goes back to him old self and even worse has a sudden end to life itself. Also In addition, Daniel Keyes uses the experiment/surgery to portray the theme by failing to increase charlie's IQ. “the boy in the restaurant, the blank expression, the silly smile, the people laughing at him. No-please-not that again .” this quote shows that giving charlie the operation only hurt charlie because once he was highly intelligent he finally felt smart but slowly started to feel himself becoming mentally retarded again and it hurt him to know he would have to be stupid the rest of his life and also brought down his confidence like their was no chance. Daniel Keyes also uses the experiment to portray the theme changing nature leads to