Human Connection and Intelligence in Flowers for Algernon
Extended Essay English Category 1
Veronica Cisneros
0000000
Mrs. Mohel
Lamar Academy
Session: May 2017
Word Count 3509
VERONICA CISNEROS
Cisneros, 1
Abstract
This essay explores the use of Daniel Keyes’s progress reports in his novel, Flowers for
Algernon. The author utilizes the style to convey the growing loneliness within Charlie Gordon, a man who undergoes a surgery that increases his intelligence. The range of literary devices that the author implements within his work include that of imagery, diction, symbolism, among others. These devices all combine in order to paint the picture of a man in the middle of realizations having to do with his life. The way Charlie perceives being
…show more content…
This novel exposes the progression of the main character, Charlie, and his ongoing results as various scientific experiments conducted on him change his mental ability and range of knowledge. As mentally disabled, Charlie yearns for the intellectual capability the people around him encompass. How
Charlie gains intelligence and how this deeply affects him only touches the surface of the analytical value of this novel. A prevalent component of life includes genuine human connection with those one interacts with. The ability to achieve these connections relies on one’s mental capacity to handle these relationships, which Charlie lacks at the beginning of the story. This investigation allows for an analytical approach to Keyes’s work and challenges the
…show more content…
Charlie serves as a symbol of a type of flawed innocence in which the powerful, negative characters in his life taint. His own mother, for example, instills the idea of Charlie lacking humanity or worth unless he is intelligent. Charlie’s mother desires the best for him by “pretending he's normal” (Keyes 45). This innocence comes at a price of ignorance, which applies to Charlie in the way that he remains unaware of the human corruption around him. As the guys from the bakery invite Charlie for drinks, Charlie “[does] a dance on the bar with a lampshade on [his] head” as “everyone [laffs]” (Keyes 10). Keyes employs the brilliant use of imagery within this progress report to allow the reader to visualize the extent of Charlie’s isolation. Charlie, separate from the rest of the people in the bar, acts out a degraded form of entertainment for the audience. His object of humiliation, a lampshade, symbolizes the barrier between him and the other people in the bar, presumably of average
Cisneros, 6 intelligence. This form of isolation along with Charlie’s lack of recognition of his humiliation prevents him from reaching a truthful grasp of his own emotional capacity and
Charlie like Miss D were not helpless and Charlie had his own job and went to night school, but he was never able to do overly complicated things and was made fun of may times by what he thought were his friends. Like Miss D charlie was given the chance to undergo a experimental surgery to increase his intelligence to be like his peers he went through with it and just like Miss D he stared with no noticeable effects though a couple of weeks of learning charlie slowly became more and more like his friends but instead of stopping there he went further and further were there seemed to be no bounds. He became a genius in I.Q but was still naive about some things he was fired from his old job but started working for the clinic that gave him his Intelligence. He was doing great and was expanding his reach but eventually he stopped learning so much and progress slowed to a stop, and began to fall backwards like a ball throw in the air falls back down. Charlie desperately wanted to stay smart and like Miss D
Charlie’s friendship with Jasper Jones, his parents, and witnessing the intolerance of Corrigan are the three biggest factors in Charlie's development from innocence to experience. Jasper Jones exposed him to fear and forced him to be brave and face his fears, the rampant intolerance in Corrigan, both racial and otherwise, exposed him to the injustices of the real world, and his relationship with his parents taught him to be diplomatic and control his
Charlie Gordon a 32-year-old man with an IQ of 70. Not the smartest man ever don't you think? But everything has changed. Charlie is enrolled in a clinical trial that involves a surgery to block the enzymes from his brain that are making him dumb. Charlie is an oblivious, ignorant man who works at a bakery and earns only 11 dollars a week, before the surgery.
His frustration grows after his friends start heading off to college and has a constant stressor from all the flashbacks he’s having, believing that he himself killed his Aunt. Charlie was close to his aunt as a child and it is obvious that aunt Helen was playing favoritism when it came to charlie. Aunt Helen gave him a special attention and she was kind to him, she told him that she understood him and he was special but this in a way was a ruse. Charlie repressed his memories of aunt Helen 's sexual assault but started realizing eventually, Charlie has a mental breakdown during his first sexual encounter with Sam and the realization of his past comes flooding in after she touched his leg similar to the way his aunt Helen did to him. He was sexually assaulted by his aunt and he tried forgot all of this and he tried to move on with his life but he saw memories that haunted him. This could be the possible reason and explanation as to why he said to her sister that he wished their aunt to die. Afterward, charlie is in a hospital after trying to commit suicide and must start accepting the truth to get past what happened. Charlie is often trying to please people and is always worried about how other people feel but never truly worries about himself, it could be that charlie is very caring but it is possible that charlie has had this way of thinking instilled in his mind: aunt help was very disturbed as charlie knew this and because of this he was constantly
Originally published in 1959 as a science fiction short story for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, the novel Flowers for Algernon by an American writer Daniel Keyes is more relevant today than at that time. With more than five million copies in print, this book with its great depth of meaning is still considered to be the most acclaimed author‘s work.
[Keyes, 299] As an intelligent member of society, Charlie has a certain moment when he becomes frustrated once he understands the world he lives in, when he thinks of how “Before, they laughed at [him] and despised [him] for [his] ignorance and dullness; now, they hate [him] for [his] knowledge and understanding. [Keyes, 293]” These emotionally alienated members of society believe that they can alienate themselves, believing they can be happy alone. This happens very often. Society, in this way, doesn’t like to own up to their pain, and as such, alienates themselves. In this way, they connect to Charlie
Suddenly, I was furious at myself and all those who were smirking at him" (14). Charlie's anger at those around him and at himself delves into the idea of the bully becoming a bully. The centre piece of this idea is that those who wish to harm others have a reason behind it, which does not validate their actions, but does explain their intentions. Victims of all sorts of trauma and pain constantly struggle to stop themselves from inflicting similar pain on others.
It shows that intelligence doesn’t give you happiness or friends. As Charlie got smarter he became more selfish and more people began to dislike him.
For instance, both Algernon and Charlie had a low IQ then after the surgery they had a higher IQ and became extremely smart. Before, the surgery, Charlie had to race a mouse that had the surgery. Charlie had an IQ of 68 so that is low for an adult. But, after the surgery, Charlie’s IQ raised and was really smart. Some people may want the surgery due to making them smart fast.
Charlie experiences drastic changes throughout the story. All of them are mentally due to the experimental operation he had. In the
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
We get to know Charlie through letters he writes to the unnamed “friend”. Charlie has a lot of internal conflicts which he deals with every second of his life. He deals with his best friend’s death and his aunt’s death and his past with his aunt. These internal conflicts make him withdrawn. Moreover, Charlie has a need to tell someone about his life and thoughts, maybe to feel less lonely. In the very start of the story Charlie expresses: “I don’t want you to find me”, which emphasizes that he does not want a concrete person to help him, he only needs to let his thoughts out. Charlie is absolutely a dynamic and round character. He is an intelligent, observant high school freshman who hides his beautiful personality because of having dealt with a lot of trauma in his childhood. Through the relationships he develops over the course of the school year, Charlie suddenly comes out of his shell and grows as a person. For example, what he tells Sam who has also dealt with a troubled past: “Even if we don’t have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there”. However, it is not until the very end of the book that he uncovers the repressed memories of sexual abuse of his aunt that are at the foundation of his internal
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.
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.
Charlie’s friends even take advantage of how nice he is. They always make him the root of their jokes. When Charlie asks a barber shop owner to move his illegally parked car, the owner laughs at him and just throws him the keys to the car and tells him to move it himself. The whole town takes advantage of Charlie though, not only his friends. In the supermarket a woman asks to cut in front of him inline and then ends up having a cart full of groceries. This is Charlies breaking point. He starts tensing up, you can tell something is happening. All of a sudden he starts talking in a different voice, and finds vagaclean in the woman’s cart that cut in front of him. So to take his anger out on her he gets on the store microphone and announces she has vagaclean in her cart. We learn this new personalities name when he is drowning a young girl in the water fountain who disobeyed him earlier. When the girl says she is going to tell her father on him, he announces that he is Hank. After this change in personality he starts going