Tyler Groh 11/28/2016 Reading Ms. Benton Text Dependent Question Who is Charlie Gordon? Charlie Gordon is a 37 year old that has a disability. He is an adult but his mind and how he acts is like he is a child still. He shows that he wants to get smart and want to develop in his life. He doesn 't have the common sense to know when his own friends pick on because of his disability. Charlie wants to fit in and not be left out just because he 's not smart and he cant do anything. It is clearly stated on page 190 line 4-6. Author Daniel Keyes. Charlie is a very nice person it 's just that he doesn 't know better or doesn 't think the right way. Charlie wants to actually learn and have the same mind set as people here today. He doesn 't want to be known as dumb he wants to be known as a well work hard person and super smart. This is why Charlie goes and gets help. Charlie is like scared and doesn 't think he is smart. He takes tests here and there to see if he gets smarter. He takes this test with a very young man. He spilled ink on these blank notecards. Charlie thought to himself whenever I spill ink and I fail tests. The young man held up the card and he said "Charlie what is this?" Charlie simply said "inkblot." This is stated on page 190 and lines 7-10. Author Daniel Keyes. Charlie gets really nervous when it comes to a big question or a big test. He has this rabbit foot to give him good luck on those tests. Later in that day he had to take another big test. The other
The author uses communication style as a method of character development, which the author utilized to build Charlie Gordon’s character. Throughout the book, Charlie’s communication changes from when his IQ is merely 68 to when the surgical procedure raises his IQ to 125. Initially, his grammar is full of errors and simple vocabulary but later improved drastically, after the procedure, by use of complex wordings (Allan 31). The communication style is different between the two phases especially through differentiated personalities and speech between two periods. Daniel Keyes also endeavors to capture the character’s history to enable the audience to understand the events that shape Charlie’s personality.
Intellectual growth is the development of one’s ability to process information and form your own conclusions. We see Charlie’s intellectual growth throughout the book. He eventually surpasses everyone around him and starts viewing them with a more critical eye. On April first Charlie surprises his workmates by demonstrating that he can operate the dough mixer and the on April twenty first he redesigns the whole dough mixing process. Charlie makes tremendous psychological leap with his realization. When Charlie says “’Gimpy stealing from Mr.Donner … I wanted to hit him” (Keyes, 88) this statement reveals that Charlie is capable of solving moral predicaments, such as Gimpy’s theft all by himself due to that fact all his coworkers want him fired and Charlie is disappointed by their insecurity. When Charlie was on the same intellectual level as everyone around him he says that he once looked up to them intellect people he once thought. Charlie’s greatest leap towards
Charlie was a man that did not know how to stand up for himself. He allowed his peers to bully him, and treat him like he is worthless. Charlie thinks that if he allows people to laugh at him, and tease him, they will become his friend. He thinks “Its easy to make frends if you let
Learning about the world is challenging enough, but to unlearn it knowing what is being lost is even more burdensome. Charlie Gordon is a man that learned the world and lost it all. Is knowledge admirable while it can be retained or is ignorance bliss when it can’t? Knowledge is excellent, even if it is only for a little while, even if it is retained for a short period because people know what the world is, even when that knowledge is lost, people will retain a certain understanding of the world before they “unlearned” it. Some say “ Knowledge is a wonderful tool in life, but if a man acquires knowledge, but soon “unlearns” the knowledge yet understands how the world should be, and then loses it, ignorance is bliss so the man does not know how people treat them in atrocious ways, and it shall stay that way for his/her benefit.”. All people deserve to acquire Knowledge, so they have the experience of how life should be. Charlie Gordon acquires knowledge of how the world is and how people treat people who have mental setbacks. To come from a position where he is made fun of, to know this, and then back to being treated as a person that has a mental disability, knowing how he is treated has multiple pros including some cons.
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
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.
He wears glasses but only for watching T.V. and movies. Charlie has a great motive because all he wants is to be smart for example, "After the operashun I'm gonna try to be smart. I'm gonna try awful hard. (p.11)". Charlie, being intellectually disabled, doesn't understand things, making him constantly happy. This is because he doesn't think about life. Charlie gets bullied but thinks they're being nice to him when they do things like "He really pulled a Charlie Gordon that time. I don't know why they say it but they always laff and I laff too. (p.23)". After the operation, he had a different outlook on life. He wanted to become smart so that he could talk with his coworkers about intelligent things like politics. Although, the operation made him too smart. His way of thinking was based on facts and intelligence, rather than emotion, feelings and instinct. Charlie was a genius and they weren't. He didn't know how to control his emotion because he never knew he had them, often making him go into depression and be
He still is mentally disabled, because he got smarter and now he is the same as he was in the beginning of the story. States in Flowers for Algernon, "I was looking at some of my old progress reports and its very funny but I cant read what I wrote. I can make out some of the words but they dont make sense" (Keyes 84). When Charlie Gordon got worst at the end of the story, he started to yell at Miss Kinnian when she came to his house and started to reteach what she has already taught him. Symbaloo research, "Miss Kinnian tells Charlie that he is going to take this test and if Charlie does bad on the test it is Miss Kinnian's fault."
Charlie was known to have the personality that was always bright and talkative. Charlie had the lowest skill level out of all his “friends” and he didn't understand how real friends should treat one another so he never thought anything of it. Charlie felt good about himself but he wanted to be smart and know what his friends and other people around him knew. He was ready to learn and he wasn’t scared because he pushed fear away; he just wanted to know what it was like to comprehend what was going on in the world. The
Charlie Gordon has faced isolation his entire life. His family had given up attempting to increase his intelligence. His coworkers laugh at him, but Charlie doesn’t understand that he is
He is functional, but moderately mentally disabled. Charlies main goal is to learn so he can be smart like everyone else. When he was suggested by his teacher for an operation that could make him smarter, he got excited because he actually had a chance. Before the surgery Charlie is completely innocent. Being innocent is defined as simple and naive. He has no experience because he has been under circumstances that did not allow him. He is a generally happy person that values companionship. Charlie sees the good in everybody and is nice to all, even when some are not particularly nice to him. Before the surgery Charlie is very ignorant to the jokes and slurs his “friends” express to him. He always enjoys going to work to see his friends because he likes how they joke around and laugh with him.
There is 14.3 million mentally retarded people in the United States. So who is going to stand up for them? Charlie Gordon, a 37-year-old man, was mentally retarded but was then given a chance to change the world of science. He was offered to have a surgery to increase his intelligence and he took it. He now had a chance to make amazing discoveries. The surgery was worth the experience because it opened doors for Charlie.
3) Some examples of how the author shows Charlie’s increased intelligence is when Oliver quits his mixer job at the bakery, so Charlie volunteers to take his place. His coworkers give him a chance and he does an even better job than oliver. Another example is when Charlie figures out that Gimpy is
Charlie Gordon, a 32 year old ignoramus man is motivated to know and understand knowledge. His teacher, Miss Alice Kinnian, suggests a special experiment due to his exceptional eagerness to learn. Additionally, Charlie’s friends always mocks and ridicules him, and only after Charlie gains intelligence did he gain enough clarity to understand what it means to “Pull a Charlie Gordon”. Once the procedure was done on Charlie his brain grew, together with his partner Algernon, a mouse; to the point where his friends portray respect and reverence towards him. Unfortunately, the experiment failed and Algernon, his mouse died. At that point, he started to regress and loss all his wisdom; Although, Charlie’s intelligibility may have disappeared, but he still remains optimistic; “But if I try and practis very hard maybe I’ll get a littl smarter and know what all the words are”. In the end, Charlie manages to gain awareness even in his heartbreaking situation and decides to moves out of New York, to a place where nobody knows he was once a genius and now
Throughout the novel Charlie’s personality and intelligence level changes a lot. In the beginning Charlie is happy, has friends, he’s retarded, and can’t remember a lot of things. “I fergot his last name because I dont remebir so good.” (Keyes 2),