preview

Short Story Flowers For Algernon

Decent Essays

People go through up and downs in their life. They experience joys and heartaches. One example of this is the short story "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes. It is about Charlie Gordon, a 32-year-old man with a very low I.Q. of 68. His goal in life was to become smarter. But he cannot become more intelligent. Because of this, a doctor performs brain surgery which would triple his I.Q. So, they do the surgery. No noticeable things happen at the beginning. But over time, it is apparent 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 heartaches. He lost his ability to learn quickly. In the end, Charlie Gordon has experienced joys and heartaches such as being able to learn, understand what is happening around him, and losing his ability to comprehend.

After the surgery, it was apparent 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 still is mentally retarded. 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

Get Access