Intellectual Growth In Daniel Keyes's Flowers For Algernon

Therefore, intelligence does not bring happiness. For Charlie, Ignorance is bliss. He realizes that his so- called ‘friends?’ were just using him to entertain their perverse humor. Also, he was fired from the job that he loved because his new intelligence level. This promotes Charlie into a short depression. This short depression made it clear that Charlie’s life prior to the experiment was better than his current conditions since he had a job which he looked forward to and so- called “friends”.Charlie says on May 20th "Now I'm more alone than ever before” (Keyes, 108). He had nobody to relate to at this point of the story because his intelligence grow to overpower other surrounding him. Charlie’s intelligence has already exceeded his teacher and the doctors. Before Charlie gained intelligence, even the simplest things in life were good enough for him. After he gained intelligence,none of those things mattered to him because his mind grew more complex. As a result, he felt alone and buried himself in his work.

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

Have you ever wanted to know several languages, be able to learn everything easily, or even have an IQ of at least 200? Charlie Gordon, in the story “Flowers for Algernon,” was a man who had an IQ of 68, but he went through a surgery that made him smarter than his own teacher at a school for the mentally challenged, and his own doctors. Charlie’s IQ was tripled after the surgery once he began to practice different languages as well as the English language. Charlie soon reverted to his former self at the end of the story, and this tripled intelligence that he possessed once before was soon back to the IQ of 68 Charlie had it easier in life after the surgery.

This book follows Charlie Gordon, a 32-year-old man with an extremely low IQ. He becomes the subject of an experimental surgery to raise his intelligence, however, this experiment has only been preformed on mice. Written in the voice of Charlie, readers are able to see his progression through journal entries and progress reports.

The award-winning short science fiction, Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, digs deep in how society reacts to different levels of intelligence. The book covers a wide variety of society from the creative minds to world-renowned scientists. When a retarded adult becomes one of those brain maniacs through a scientific operation, you get the full spectrum of what it is like personally as a handicapped person and through the minds of a genius. In the reports, you can see the progress and comparison of Charlie’s realization towards other people’s capability of intelligence.

As stated above, this humiliation that he has been experiencing has caused him to lose his confidence in himself. This is proved when Charlie writes about his conversation with Miss Kinnian. He writes: “I tried to make a conversation with Miss Kinnian but no matter how much I tried to talk at the same level as her I always brought up psychology in the process. I am having great difficulty in making friends.” This quote proves that after the surgery that Charlie took to triple his intelligence made him find it difficult to make friends after he became aware of this humiliation that he has been experiencing. It

Flowers for Algernon is a heartfelt novel written in 1959 about a man named Charlie Gordon, and a mouse named Algernon. Charlie has the IQ of 68, which is borderline mentally disabled or “retarded”. When doctors are in search of a participant for an operation to test the capability of growth in intelligence, Charlie is the perfect candidate. Along with Charlie receiving this operation, the mouse Algernon receives it as well. Algernon not only becomes competition for Charlie, but he also becomes a loyal and trustworthy friend. The operation goes as foreseen, if not better for both Charlie and Algernon. Charlie soon becomes more intelligent than the doctors predicted, and Charlie brings to everyone’s attention that he’s smarter than the ones

Essay Sometimes we don’t need to increase a thing that are not very functional and that isn’t a copy of the original item. In Flowers for Algernon By Daniel Keyes, Charlie Gordon wants to be smart. Right now he has no family with him so all the time he was alone. So he had no family except for his teacher, Ms. Kinniean.

Daniel Keyes science fiction novel, Flowers for Algernon, is about a man, Charlie Gordon, who is the subject for an experimental surgery to help raise his intelligence. The operation was highly successful for a lab mouse, Algernon, until his intelligence starts to rapidly decline. Unfortunately, the operation ended up being ineffective for Charlie Gordon as well. His IQ drops again and he does not understand what happened and can not remember anything he learned before. Charlie Gordon’s journey started with a surprisingly low IQ with hopes to gain intelligence, surpassing his doctor's intelligence and learning about himself, and ending with the operation failing and him being back to his old self.

But that doesn’t stop him. HE has incredible motivation. Three times a week, he goes to Beckman collage center for retarded adults. His teacher Miss. Kinnian has complete faith in him to be able to do an experiment that may make him smarter. At first Charlie becomes frustrated that the experiment mouse, Algernon, can beat him at the maze games. But after his procedure, everything begins to change. Although he becomes amazingly smart, he finds a slip in Professor Nemur’s work showing that his intelligence to be only temporary. Algernon soon loses his intelligence, but before Charlie completely loses his, he makes a point to tell the reader to leave fresh flowers for Algernon.

In the story “Flowers for Algernon” it is written in first person by Charlie Gordon. He is told by Professor Nemur to write progress reports about how he feels about his way of becoming intelligent. He explains that he is thirty-two years old and that he works as a janitor. Also he explains that he is in Ms. Kinnians class for retarded adults. Dr. Strauss and Dr. Nemur want Charlie to have his dream of being smart come true. He is nervous but still excited about the surgery. Days go by and Charlie sees no change. But many see the increase proper vocabulary and grammar. Many of his co workers make fun of him by saying “You pulled a Charlie Gordon” when they do something dumb. He than realizes and begins to explain that he is better than them.

In the story, Flowers for Algernon, Charlie and his teachers hope for the best while they travel on the rocky road of life. To start off with, Charlie Gordon is a young man that takes a literacy class for retarded adults from Alice Kinnian. He is a bright man that undergoes an experimental surgery to increase his intelligence. Charlie has hoped of being smart for a while now and hopes this surgery just might do the trick. After the surgery Charlie’s IQ skyrockets to the level of genius and he begins to gain happiness.

Not everyone is the same; some learn better than others, but only a fraction of those people who can’t learn as fast want to be intelligent. In the book Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, the reader is introduced to a intellectually disabled man named Charlie Gordon who is trying to become smarter and will try his hardest to do so. He had an operation that tripled his I.Q. , Later, in the story Charlie’s stroy unravels even further and we see what this knewly aquired intellegence does for him and a little mouse named Algernon who had the same operatoin as him. Charlie Gordon’s experience with the artificial intelligence operation was positive.

The novel Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes is narrated through progress reports written by Charlie Gordon the protagonist of the novel. Novel is based on how people mock mentally challenged people and how people treat others inferior in terms of intelligence. Charlie is a kind hearted mentally challenge person who has a desire of knowledge. He was gave the opportunity to take an operation that will amp his intelligence which was first successful on a lab mouse named Algernon. He take the operation so he can fit into society, make friends, and become more knowledgable. Charlie undergo the surgery and he slowly and then tragically become an genius. The surgery soon takes an negative impact on him. He begins to become bitter and starts to isolate himself as he realizes his friends mocked him for being retarded before operation. Throughout the story Charlie gradually remember his past life such as his mother resented him for being retarded and his sister for being cruel to him. He also dealt with trying to reach emotional maturity to match his soaring intellect. As the story comes to end Algeron starts to regress to his old state and he

“14% of Americans wish to become smarter…,” and for Charlie Gordon this wish is about to come true. In the short story, “Flowers for Algernon”, Charlie Gordon, the main character, is about to get surgery to enhance his intelligence, little does Charlie know that this surgery could turn his life upside down. Daniel Keyes, the author, represents the theme that if someone alters with the way a person is made, it can result in bad consequences.