“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
“I said Miss Kinnian never gave me tests like that one only spelling and reading. They said Miss Kinnian told that I was her bestist pupil in the adult nite scool becaus I tryed the hardist and I reely wantid to lern” -Charlie. Concluding that if you could feel smarter than you are now, would you. That's what Charlie feels like until he has an operation that makes him smart. The theme of this story I think is that people change over time. Like charlie changes throughout the story. In the story “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes Charlie patarys the theme that people changed overtime.
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
Throughout the whole book, Charlie is determined to become smarter. But he is impatient. Most importantly Charlie becomes understanding, after an operation to make him smarter. First of all, Charlie is determined.
He seemed to be drowning in his loneliness with nobody or nothing to save him. “The imagery that Keyes uses to contrast Charlie's dark thoughts of suicide to the light he experiences within his out-of-body experience causes the reader to examine the reuniting of the two Charlies: the original Charlie, in the dark about most aspects of his life, and the evolved Charlie, who, at the peak of his intelligence, experiences absolute clarity of thought.” When Charlie realizes that he can no longer complete the mazes and answer the questions he became frustrated with himself. His time was up which was a result of the procedure the doctors did to him, Before he died he finally got to know just how cruel the world really
Flowers For Algernon Essay In Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes, the main character Charlie Gordon under goes in an operation to increase his intelligence as a mentally disabled person. Later on in the story he looses the intelligence he gained and could be on the road to dying. He is better off with the surgery because he gained so much such as, social cues and intelligence. Before the operation Charlie could barely say complete sentences let alone spell, but after the operation he was becoming smarter than his teacher, Mrs. Kinnian.
As a consequence, having the operation created the chance for unpredictable and unwanted outcomes. Charlie was the first human patient for the experiment. Since the doctors have never tried the operation on a human being before, the chances for making mistakes are higher. This was proven as Algernon soon experiences side effects as his intelligence regresses and he eventually passes away. Soon, Charlie also regresses back to his original intelligence state. In conclusion, having the operation created unpredictable and unwanted outcomes. I inferred that Charlie wouldn’t die like Algernon did because the last line in the book in which he asks that someone puts flowers on Algernon's grave shows that he hasn't lost 100% of his memory of what happened. The fact that he remembers Algernon and his meticulous ritual of placing flowers on his grave shows that with repetition and reminders, he does have the capacity to recall details about the time he spent with intelligence. It's there somewhere in his subconscious, just like his childhood memories were before. While Charlie maintains most of his intelligence, 16 days after Algernon bit Charlie, Algernon died. And even after 13 days realizing his intelligence is regressing, he isn't showing signs of sickness, just showing that he is absentminded. Having all these different factors influenced all these different outcomes. In
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.
The “old Charlie” was a person that lived a life of ignorance and was completely happy with the way that he was living. He worked at a bakery, making barley enough to scrape buy, however, he was happy. But once he got his first taste of intelligence, he was immediately hooked and wanted more than just an appetizer. After a couple of tests and procedures later, and Charlie got his wish. But his wish wasn’t all that he expected as all of his knowledge soon took a toll on
Then he goes into a depression because there is absolutely nothing he can do himself to help him regain his knowledge. The doctors didn’t do anything to help him. The only person that helped him was the woman that was hired to take care of him while he was going through his stages of amnesia. The doctors didn’t help Charlie when he was going through his decrease of intelligence even though it was their
In “Flowers for Algernon,” numerous themes appear throughout Charlie Gordon’s journey. Charlie Gordon, the story’s protagonist, is considered to be used as a test subject for an original experiment that can potentially change the face of science. After many tests, Charlie undergoes an operation, as a result, a slow progression begins in his overall intelligence levels.
“Anyway that test made me feel worser than all the others because they did it over 10 times with difernt amazeds and Algernon won every time. “ This shows Charlie wants to get revenge on the mouse for beating him, and his attitude toward the mouse changes. “Their going to use me! Im so exited I can hardly write.” This shows he was working toward a goal and finally achieved what he wanted.
After the operation, in only a couple of months, Charlie starts showing signs of new intelligence. His grammar, improved, and he is able to reflect on what his does in the past something he wasn’t able to do before. He had finally gotten something use had always desired. Then, everything and everyone turned on him. In “PROGRESS REPORT 12” April 30th (pg. 60) Charlie writes: “now, they hate me for my knowledge and understanding. What in the name of god do they want of me? They’ve driven me out of the factory. Now I more alone than ever before…” Charlie got what he always wanted, and now he lost everything he had. It was a sacrifice it sounded like he didn’t want to make. I can tell just be the tone of his writing. This shows that we should embrace everything that we have. Charlie didn’t embrace everything, although he appreciated most of the thing he never became happy not being able to just enjoy life as it is.
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.
Reverting back to just a basic white rat and since both procedures for Charlie and Algernon were similar to foreshadowing concluded that Charlie was to lose his intelligence as well and so it happened...though not all at once it happened just a exponential as it came, within just a few short weeks Charlie Gordon we back to being him self...going back to his life...forgetting everything that he knew... and we are heartbroken knowing all of this. As readers we are devastated seeing this underdog finally achieve something more than him
Charlie’s life is like a maze. His life if full of decisions, roadblocks, and, as always, the maze has an end. Mazes are constantly requiring you to question what you have done in the past, and ponder the future. Charlie is doing this throughout. When Charlie started his life, it seemed like it would be more of a straight line.