Flowers For Algernon Critical Lens

Irony happens in a lot of places in the stories Flowers for Algernon and The Necklace. Irony happens in The Necklace when Mathilde loses her friends Necklace she bought a 36 thousand franc necklace. Meanwhile, the necklace that she actually lost was only worth about 500 francs. In The Necklace, the irony is shown when “Madame Forestier, deeply moved, took her hands. “Oh, my poor Mathilde! But mine was imitation. It was at the very most five hundred francs!..” (Maupassant, 5). It is ironic that she spent ten years paying for something that was worth less than the necklace that she bought to replace the false necklace with. There is also irony in Flowers for Algernon when Charlie is unhappy due to the operation that

Imagine yourself as a young child. You’re extremely happy and you have little to no worries. Now imagine yourself as a teenager or adult, and you’re the exact opposite, because of school, relationships, jobs,money, or responsibility. These contrasts tie into the theme I’m about to introduce you to. This theme is expressed thoroughly in many parts of the story, Flowers For Algernon, which is “Ignorance is Bliss”. In the story, the main character Charlie Gordon undergoes an operation to gain intelligence. After a while, he finds out the operation is only temporary, which leads many negative things to his mind including stress. Two reasons this story explains great examples that “Ignorance is Bliss”, is that when you’re ignorant or unintelligent or even young, you’re upbeat and when you are smart, you endure much more stress and worries. I remember when I was young, and I had nothing to worry about in life.

This entire book highlights both the high and low points in Charlie’s life, and how he changed and has not changed all from his constant value of friendship to his many realizations, based on the one experimental surgery that gave him insight on what life would be like if he was “normal”.

Before the enhancing surgery, Charlie Gordon seemed to have depend and trust others, while those people didn’t have his back. This could be a problem in the future, because people have to learn to be independent so when they lose someone important, they don’t crack under pressure. In the story, Keyes writes, “Sometimes somebody will say hey look at Joe or Frank or George he really pulled a Charlie Gordon. I dont know why they say that but they always laft” (Keyes, 289). Daniel Keyes uses dramatic irony as a way of displaying Charlies perception of his friends. Charlie assumes he has very nice friends, but the audience knows that his

When Charlie was intelligent he often got irritated at the doctors because they weren’t as smart as him. He had also dealt with a lot of emotion with Miss Kinnian, Charlie was in love with Miss Kinnian. When he regressed, he was embarrassed to see her because he thought she would think he was dumb. When Charlie was at a diner, he saw a kid with disabilities, and everyone was laughing at him and so was Charlie. He was upset with himself that he laughed at him because that kid was him before he had the surgery to make him smart.

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 that I have read is Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. This book was published in 1966 and 1959.

Charlie was known to have the personality that was always bright and talkative. Charlie had the lowest skill level out of all his “friends” and he didn't understand how real friends should treat one another so he never thought anything of it. Charlie felt good about himself but he wanted to be smart and know what his friends and other people around him knew. He was ready to learn and he wasn’t scared because he pushed fear away; he just wanted to know what it was like to comprehend what was going on in the world. The

He is motivated to learn before the surgery, which is why Miss Kinnian suggested him for the surgery. Charlies main goal is that he wants to be smart like everyone else. In “progris riport 6th Mar 8,” Charlie says, “and he [Prof Nemur] said that meens Im doing something grate for sience and Ill be famus and my name will go down in the books. I dont care so much about beeing famus. I just want to be smart like other pepul so I can have lots of frends who like me” (Keyes 12-13). He is trying so hard because he wants to fit in. Fitting in is a big deal to Charlie because he has always felt outside, especially with his family. He wants his mother to be proud of him, he wants her to know how smart he is. After the surgery Charlie’s intelligence increases so much over a period of time that he is now at what is considered the genius level. Ironically, when Charlie’s intelligence increases his relationships and friendships start to be harmed, which is the exact opposite of what Charlie believed would happen. Charlie found his dad’s barber shop and decided to go see him. When Charlie started talking to him though, Charlie knew his father Matt did not recognize him. “I wasn’t his son. That was another Charlie. Intelligence and knowledge had changed me, and he would resent me—as the others from the bakery resented me—because my growth diminished him. I didn’t want that” (Keyes 188). Charlie starts to realize that

His mother had taught him to not look at girls, and after the operation when he started to develop more feelings, he had a hard time talking to Alice Kinnian because he had the thought that he liked her, and that he shouldn’t. Due to the hard nature of his mother, Charlie’s emotional life was not maturing with his new-found intelligence. Emotionally, he was still a little kid. “I knew she would give herself to me, and I wanted her, but what about Charlie?” Whenever he would get near Alice, he would start to panic because he felt that there was still a part of his old self within him, keeping him from taking his relationship further with

The result of gradually becoming more intelligent causes him to become over-confident and arrogant. Additionally, in the text, a quote by Charlie states, “Only a short time ago, I learned that people laughed at me. Now I can see that unknowingly I joined them in laughing at myself. That hurts the most”(Keyes 199). This quote displays his callous behavior towards an innocent boy, who was in fact, very much like Charlie.

As one immerses themselves into Charlie’s journal or rather, progress reports, they began to learn much about Charlie and his character. Through these reports, one can gather that Charlie desires to be smart like everyone else (Keyes 1), strives to accomplish any task that he is given (Keyes 4), is very self-motivated (Keyes 9) and,

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.