preview

Perseverance In Flowers For Algernon

Decent Essays
Open Document

“the mind of low intelligence peering from a dark room, through the keyhole, at the dazzling light outside. I see that even in my dullness I knew that I was inferior, and that other people had something I lacked-something denied me.” Charlie says, realizing he was once unintelligent and once didn't know what everyone was talking about. Charlie just hoped he could be smart and so could all the other people in the world could be too. Charlie is a 32 year old that was born with a mental disability and has always dreamed of being as smart as his friends. Because of this Charlie gets a procedure done to make his intelligence grow and make him smarter everyday. When the procedure begins to fade away he realizes that by having hope you learn later …show more content…

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. For instance, in Charlie’s progress report 9 he writes, “ But I dont feel smarter. I wanted to race Algernon some more but Burt said thats enough for one day.” Charlie’s longing to get better and to learn more makes it easier for him to persevere through his social life. Another example of a …show more content…

Algernon was the other side to this experiment they tried on Charlie, so when he died charlie had to keep believing to push through. He pushed through with perseverance when he buried algernon. According to text Charlie says, “I put Algernon's body in a cheese box and buried him in the back yard.” When Charlie writes about how he grew the strength to bury Algernon and how he also talks about how he hopes Algernon will be happy in heaven and be able to eat whenever he wants shows that he persevered through Algernon’s death. After algernon’s death it was apparent to Charlie that he has the same chances of dying. Although, he had to put that aside and keep his hope and perseverance. He couldn’t just give up and die, which he didn’t. Charlie says “I've got to find the reason for the sharp regression in Algernon. I've got to know if and of when it will happen to me.” By this point he knows there is a chance he is going to die but he is still hoping and only wants to know when it will happen. He has not lost any hope or perseverance. Although Charlie ended up still less intelligent and died he never gave up or lost perseverance throughout this process, he was always saying how he was going to keep pushing through and accomplish his goals of intelligence. For instance, Charlie said, “I've got to try to hold on

Get Access