A central theme in “Flowers For Algernon” is that you don’t have to change who you are to fit in with others. You can be yourself and still fit in with the crowd. In the text, Charlie wrote “Maybe if I ask him he will tell me how I can think now that Im suppose to get smart. What do smart people think about. Fancy things I suppose. I wish I knew some fancy things alredy” (Keyes 225-226). From the text, I can infer that he wishes he was intelligent already so that he could think about fancy things, such as smart people do. Also, in the text Charlie stated “I said I asked pepul and sumbody told me where I shud go to lern to read and spell good. They said why did you want to. I told them becaus all my life I wantid to be smart and not dumb”(pg. …show more content…
All you need is bravery and determination. The theme from The Giver and the the theme from “Flowers for Algernon” can have an impact on anyone’s life but mostly teens. For kids and teens all around the world, fitting in is one of the hardest things to do. People think that they need to change themselves to fit in. Girls think they need to wear makeup to look pretty. Guys think they need to be masculine. Everyone around the world is pressured by society to be someone they’re not. Lots of people say that “society has killed the teenager”. To me that quote means that society gives us these certain images that we are supposed to strive for. For example, skinny, tall, perfect teeth, no acne, etc. As teens we are at the age of wanting to fit in and be better but society is ruining how we view ourselves and the ways we think. Also another thing is to just be yourself. If you be yourself, the right people will come to you. For example, let’s say someone starts to wear makeup because her friends are wearing it, or someone said that she was ugly without it. She’ll start to become a person she doesn’t want to be. She’ll start to become influenced by her friends and the people around her. Then she’ll stop wearing it one day and then she’ll continue to stop wearing it for a while. She might get hatred, compliments on her natural beauty, or her friends won’t even care. See what she did? She stopped pretending to be a character in a movie, and started being herself. All she needed was bravery and determination. As you can see, the themes in “Flowers For Algernon” and in The Giver relate to the real life we are facing today. If personally myself could say something to kids and teens, I would say to just be yourself and don’t change who you are. The right people will come to you if you are brave and
Irony happens in a lot of places in the stories Flowers for Algernon and The Necklace. Irony happens in The Necklace when Mathilde loses her friends Necklace she bought a 36 thousand franc necklace. Meanwhile, the necklace that she actually lost was only worth about 500 francs. In The Necklace, the irony is shown when “Madame Forestier, deeply moved, took her hands. “Oh, my poor Mathilde! But mine was imitation. It was at the very most five hundred francs!..” (Maupassant, 5). It is ironic that she spent ten years paying for something that was worth less than the necklace that she bought to replace the false necklace with. There is also irony in Flowers for Algernon when Charlie is unhappy due to the operation that
In Flowers for Algernon, throughout Charlie's life, the one main goal he always wanted was to be smart, including his mother. When Charlie performed the surgical procedure, his mind became more understanding which made him learn more information. Later, he learned that intelligence wasn't the only
Flowers for Algernon is a story with hope, humor, defeat, sadness, and disappointment. Charlie is your average joe with a mental disability. He writes through a series of journal entries about his journey of coming out of the darkness of ignorance and into the bright light of intelligence. At the beginning of his trek, he was working hard to become smarter on his own but was chosen for a experimental surgery that makes people smarter. He underwent the operation and gradually his intelligence surpassed his teachers. Unfortunately the effects were not permanent and Charlie digressed into the person that he once was, knowing he was going to die like his mouse friend Algernon. He moved to New York and It is assumed that
As Charlie's intelligence increases he thinks that he will be more liked the higher his intelligence climbs, but later Charlie discovers that whether you are of lower intelligence then most of the population or of higher intelligence you still will not quite fit in. "I've discovered that no one really cares for Charlie Gordon whether he is a moron or a genius. (Keyes 172) Charlie's relationship with Alice also shows how whether he is of extreme low extreme high intellect he still cannot communicate with her the way he needs to. " I'm just as far away from Alice with an I.Q of 185 then when I had an IQ of 70" (Keyes 88). In today's society if a persons thoughts slightly differ from those of the majority of the population then they will be scrutinized and shunned from the others. People are not willing to look at an idea through a different perspective and this is shown in Flowers For Algernon, when Charlie discovers the fault in Dr. Nemur's experiment and confronts him about it, Dr. Nemur treats him like the old Charlie who is to mentally challenged to be correct. It is repeated numerous times during the novel that Charlie was "created" by the experiment and was not a "human being" because of his below 100 IQ before the operation. "I'm a human being, a person- with parents and memories and a history- and I was before you ever wheeled me into that operating room." (Keyes 112). Society needs to learn that even those who are different then most of us still are humans and
“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things”, -Henry Miller. When one reads this quote, it may have a different meaning to them than to others. To Charlie Gordon, it practically defines his life journey. In the shorty story “Flowers for Algernon”, Charlie Gordon is a main who obtains an IQ of 68, and desires to be smart. Charlie finally gets his dream one day by partaking in an intelligence enhancing operation. His perspective of life is much different before and after the surgery. Although Charlie seems happy before the surgery, Charlie is able to apprehend reality through a “pair of new eyes”, regarding the operation. Three arguments why Charlie’s emotions are happier following the surgery are: He learns about lies he had in life, Charlie had a positive learning experience, and Charlie discerns his full potential.
The book that I have read is Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. This book was published in 1966 and 1959.
In Flowers for Algernon, the main character, Charlie Gordon is a 32 year old who is mentally disabled. He has been living his life thus far with an IQ of sixty-eight. Although Charlie is not smart, he is very happy, but being happy does not always mean being content, and Charlie is a perfect example of this. Charlies teacher, Miss Kinnian, explained to him that there is a chance for him to get smarter, and that is through a secret surgery. He wants to fit in and be smart like everyone else, but the outcome of the surgery may not be as planned. Charlie’s increased intelligence causes him to lose his innocence. When Charlie loses his innocent mindset he gains experience, which also brings him emotional outbursts. The sacrifices Charlie makes
“Flower for Algernon” and Charly, one is a story and the other is a movie. Both of the authors, Daniel Keyes and Stirling Silliphant had to change different parts of the story line in order for it to work. In both, Charly Gordan is the protagonist. He is 38 years old and lives in Boston at the time. At this time, Charly was not highly intelligent. After doctors performed an experimental surgery on him, he became more sophisticated and smarter. At work, his so-called “friend” bullied Charly. The only reason Charly “friends” take him out is to make fun of him for an amusement. Charly would have never found out what they laughing about if he had not gotten the surgery. Therefore, when Charly was out of a job, Silliphant perspective was that the boss fires Charly. However, Keyes perspective was that he is persuaded that he should quit his job. In both cases, he was unemployed. While Charly was unemployed, he has different feelings about people and things. When the bust boy dropped the tray with glasses in the movie and in the story, everyone in the diner laughs at the poor boy. Charly has seen himself in the boy who has dropped the dishes.
How would you feel if you were developmentally delayed do you think it would be ok for your parents to sign off for you to have a possibly life threatening surgery? In the science fiction story “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes a thirty-seven year old man named Charlie Gordon has to face this challenge. He wanted nothing more than to be smart and fit in. He had the opportunity to have an Artificial Intelligence surgery to triple his I.Q. Charlie Gordon should have had the A.I. surgery because it made him feel he had a purpose in life. After Charlie had the A.I. surgery he saw the bad things his friends did to him he felt he had a purpose and he became smart even if it wasn't permanent.
Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes is not your average book. It is written in a progress report format, and from the point of view of a mentally challenged man named Charlie Gordon. During the book, you follow Charlie's life before, during, and after he has an operation to make him smarter. It contains a lot of themes, but the theme that stuck out the most was both harm and good can come from technology.
* Students should work through the idea that different levels of intelligence, emotional and intellectual, lead to different types of interactions with people and society.
“Today evolution of human intelligence has advanced us to the stage where most of us are too smart to invent new gods but are reluctant to give up the old ones” (Ruth Hurmence Green). Flowers for Algernon is about a man named Charlie Gordon, he is 37, and has a low IQ of 68. He will go through an operation that has never been done before. It is supposed to generate Charlie to three times smarter. A while after he had undergone the operation his mind starts to deteriorate. He was able to predict that his mind will deteriorate like Algernon's due to a series of experiments he did. Charlie is better off doing this experiment. Charlie is better of going through the experiment be because he can now see things clearly for the first time, he has the chance to experience what it is like to be smart, and he knows how he truly feels.
The story "Flowers for Algernon", by Daniel Keyes, that we read in English was about a mentally retarded person, named Charlie who had an operation to increase his intelligence, but the operation was a failure and Charlie is slow again. He wants to move now so society won’t ridicule him for being slow again. Daniel Keyes wrote this short story for good reasons. Daniel Keyes wrote "Flowers for Angernon" to show people from an outside look on how we treat mentally challenged people. When you treat people as you always do, you don’t see how mean or how cruel it really may be. It could just be your personality or the way you were brought up. By him writing a story on a mentally challenged person wanting to become smart to
Dilemmas happen everyday. Some dilemmas can be good, and some can be bad. A dilemma is a situation in which a difficult choice has to be made between two or more alternatives. In the story, Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes wrote a story about a 37 year old man named Charlie who has a disability, he doesn't understand thing that normal people can. He then is encouraged by his teacher to get a surgery done to become smarter. Some people think that the surgery was a good idea,or some think it was a bad idea. In my opinion, I think that Charlie made the wrong decision about the surgery. Some people think that Charlie should of have the operation to make his dream come true In my opinion, I think he shouldn't have had the surgery because, people weren't expecting him to be new, it would not be permanent, and he put his life in danger.
In Daniel Keyes’ compelling novel, Flowers for Algernon, the main character undergoes both important emotional and physical changes. The book has an interesting twist, as it is described in the characters “progress reports”. This book has a science fiction undertone, and takes place in exciting New York City. As the novel begins, the main character, Charlie Jordan is thirty-two years old, but cannot remember anything from his childhood.