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Flowers For Algernon Short Story

Decent Essays

People go through ups and downs in their life. They experience joy and despair. The short story "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes shows these experiences. It is about Charlie Gordon, a 32-year-old man with a very low I.Q. of 68. Charlie wanted change and be smart. That is his simple goal. Because of this, a doctor performs brain surgery, which would triple his I.Q. No noticeable things happen at the beginning. But over time, it is clear what has happened to him. He has become smarter than a lot of people and has a new feeling about the world. Despite this, he also experienced agony and despair. He lost his ability to learn quickly. In the end, Charlie Gordon has experienced joy and despair such as being able to learn, understand what is happening around him, and losing his ability to comprehend.

After the surgery, it was clear that nothing happened immediately. But after a while, you could tell that something has changed about him. He was spelling words correctly, able to comprehend, and became very creative. Before the operation, Charlie is able to learn but slow. However, he is able to take care of himself and do his job well even with his condition. He would sometimes race a mouse named Algernon. Algernon is a mouse that got his intelligence level raised by brain surgery. Slowly but surely, he became super smart. "I beat Algernon!" said Charlie. Charlie even made and researched the "'The Algernon-Gordon Effect: A study of structure and Function of

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