The Awakenings : Flowers For Algernon And Awakenings

Charlie Gordon was fighting, working hard, and struggling for being smart. Charlie had a once in a lifetime to increase his I.Q. three times as much. In the story “Flowers for Algernon,” written by Daniel Keyes, the genre is Science Fiction. Charlie has a low I.Q. of sixty eight, and wants to be a genius. Charlie Gordon’s life is better with the A.I. Surgery.

Charlie's opportunity to undergo the operation is not comparable to an evil act, it is simply a well deserved scientific opportunity provided by scientific advancements. As Charlie becomes brighter, he experiences some of life's harsh realities as we all do when we grow up. He learns that many of his coworkers at the box company enjoy making fun of him. He never realized why everyone laughed when he was around, but now he sees through the smiling faces. The truth hurts as it always does, but realizing there are some people around us who show signs of evil is part of life's lessons. Charlie begins to feel better, although he remains a little bitter about the realization of the cruelty of many people he spent time around.

There were many similarities between the short story “Flowers for Algernon” and the movie Awakenings. “Flowers for Algernon”, by Daniel Keyes, is about a man named Charlie, who has a very low IQ. Charlie gets an operation to make him smarter. It is a story about what happens to him during that period of time. The movie, Awakenings, directed by Penny Marshall, starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro, is about how some people, including Leonard Lowe, the main character, developed a disease and are now catatonic. Dr. Malcolm Sayer finds a drug that seems like a miracle drug. The movie is about what happens during the time that the catatonic patients are on the drug.

First of all, why Charlie shouldn’t have gotten the surgery is because he started understanding everyone and how they felt. This stressed him out a lot. He felt like he didn't belong with others. “Now I know what it means when they say “to pull a Charlie Gordon.” I'm ashamed.” (209). In this sentence, Charlie recognizes why his friends liked having him around so much. It was so that they could make fun of him and play tricks on him for their own fun. Also Charlie had felt bad about a kid at a restaurant. “I jumped up and shouted, “Shut up! Leave him alone! It's not his fault he can't understand! He can't help what he is! But for

But, the reason why was all because he was starting to feel things. Emotions are normal and that surgery made him feel like that. Itś honestly not a bad thing. Other readers may also think he shouldn't have had the surgery because it led him to get fired from his only job, however, it wasn't his fault. The other guys were uncomfortable and were afraid only because if they tried to pick on him, that Charlie would out-smart them all. One last reason people with my opposite idea believe that he shouldn't have had the surgery because in the story, Charlie says he didn't want anyone to feel sorry for him, so he left New York. However, most people wouldn't want anyone to feel bad or sorry for them and Charlie made a good choice because if Miss Kinnian was going to cry when she saw Charlie, he wouldn't want to hurt her more even though he was hurt by himself

Despite the differences we may perceive between two situations, often there is a common factor that link them together, both in life and works of fiction. These connections are evident between Daniel Keyes’ Flowers for Algernon, and Penny Marshall’s Awakenings. Flowers for Algernon is a novel, and Awakenings is a film. Flowers for Algernon follows a fictitious scientific concept, whereas Awakenings includes plausible scenarios based on real events. Yet, though both works have their differences, they are connected by the evident similarities in theme and the messages and meaning they intend to convey to their audiences.

In the book "Flowers for Algernon" a man named Charlie, who's intellectually disabled, wants to become smart. Since that's the only thing he wants, and he'll do anything to do it, two men choose Charlie to have the operation done on, which will "open up the gates" to him learning. Before they did it on a human, they did it on a mouse named Algernon, who became very smart. After Charlie had his operation, he was frustrated because he wasn't smart. The two men, Dr. Strauss and Professor Nemur, had Charlie do many things such as read and write down progress reports. Charlie was learning at a very fast rate. He read

There was no point to the surgery in itself knowing that it was probably gonna ware off. The scientists who thought that the surgery was gonna wear off should’ve at least tried there best to perfect the surgery before preforming it. Most of Charlie’s heartbreak came from the wear off of the surgery. The surgery was a complete lose-lose situation for the lab, and Charlie. After the surgery, Charlie stated “I don’t know why Im dumb agen or what I did wrong maybe its because I dint try hard enuff”.

The surgery made Charlie see the things his friends did to him. Before Charlie had the surgery people at work picked on him and he didn't understand what was happening “Sometimes somebody will say hey look Joe or Frank or George , he really pulled a Charlie Gordon. I don't know why they say that but i always laff.” (Keyes 227) if Charlie wouldn’t have had the surgery he would have been made fun of and picked an and even hurt by his so called “friends”.

Charlie had a chance to learn and do things that most people wouldn't have a chance to do in a lifetime, even if it was for a short time. After Charlie's regression he continued to try to become intelligent again, however, Charlie had said himself that he was grateful when he said, "Im glad I got a second chanse to be smart becaus I lerned a lot of things that I never even new were in this world and Im grateful that I saw it all for a little bit (Keyes 245) [Sic]." You have to understand that, with a mindset like this, you know you have done the right thing. Charlie was grateful for his chance to be smart and was thoroughly pleased with his decision. Nothing can be more favorable than the joyous feeling of gratitude. It can be compared to getting the gift you always wanted for Christmas, or when someone gives you a sincere smile that will brighten any bad day. This must have been what Charlie had been feeling in order to be this grateful. Another piece of evidence to prove this point is when Dr Nermur had said that Charlie was, "trying to cram a lifetime of research and thought into a few weeks (Keyes 238)." Both Charlie and Dr. Nemur both know that he was capable of this, and so much more. After the operation Charlie was super intelligent and grew the ability to understand more things socially, which is what he wanted the most, to be able to understand his friends and be smart like them, two of his greatest desires in one stone.

Charlie was able to choose between what’s good and what was bad. In his goodbye letter, Charlie explains that “That is why I’m going away from New York for good. I don’t want to do nothing like this again. I don’t want Miss Kinnian to feel sorry for me. Everybody feels sorry at the factory and I don’t want that either, so I’m going someplace where nobody knows that Charlie Gordon was once a genius and now he can’t even read a book or write good (July 28).” Charlie would have never left for New York if he hadn’t have had that surgery. Also, his “friends” Joe Carp and Frank Riley would have continued to use Charlie for humorous

Charlie wasn’t capable of knowing what was going to happen to him. The doctors didn’t tell Charlie that the operation was going to effect his outside life. One tip for making an ethical decision is to be as neutral as possible, but Charlie wasn’t (Dobrin). The doctors got Charlie smart for a little, but then his intelligence went way back down to this old IQ of 68. When Charlie was smart people were scared of how smart he was.

People believe that after the surgery Charlie was still happy. In the story Flowers for Algernon Charlie says, "The first I knew of it was when Mr. Donnegan showed me the petition. Eight hundred and forty names, everyone connected with the factory, except Fanny Girden. Scanning the list quickly, I saw at once that hers was the only missing name. All the rest demanded that I be fired,"(Keyes).They think that Charlie was happy that he made a difference in the world of science.

Keyes describes it is as if the intellectual Charlie is only borrowing the body of its once primitive owner. This is shown when “thoughts of suicide to stop it all now while I am still in control and aware of the world around me. But then I think of Charlie waiting at the window. His life is not mine to throw away” (278). This situation had not occurred, but only became prevalent again months after the operation.

To start off, living a life with no friends can be extremely lonesome, and definitely something that no human should be put through. A few weeks after Charlie went through with the operation, he was already becoming aware of his surroundings. That being said, he had come to realize that his “friends” were never actually friends at all. This made him shameful.