In 1959, the Mental Health Act was passed to stop the difference in mental hospital and other hospitals. Before this act mental illnesses were looked at differently. People with mental disabilities were put in asylums. Now the world sees that differently because we include them in everyday life. In Flowers for Algernon, Charlie Gordon experiences having a mental illness, and learns how to live a normal life after a life changing surgery. Charlie’s surgery changes his life for the rest of his life.
Charlie Gordon lived in New York City at the age of 32 with a mental disability. He attend Beekman College Center for Retarded Adults to try to learn to read and write. His teacher, Miss Alice Kinnian, suggested him to take part in an
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Donner, fire Charlie. He also learns the social skill love. He sees Miss Kinnian as his love, but she tells him that she is the only women in his life that he know well, and to go talk to other women. He eventually does this and finds interest in other women but they don 't go very well. The Charlie before the surgery didn’t know much about his childhood, but the smarter Charlie had flashbacks of his childhood like how his mother used to love him but then didn’t and sent him away. One day he ventures to go see his father in his barber shop, but his father doesn’t recognize him and Charlie leaves without revealing who he is. Charlie then realizes that he needs to be put on the committee of this experiment because he thinks he sees a flaw in the experiment which he later proves to be true. He proves that he will slowly fall back to the stage he was at before the operation. Just about right after he finishes this, Algernon dies and Charlie buries him in his backyard. Before he stops progressing and starts degressing he goes to visit his mother and sister. After regressing back to his old self, he goes to get his job back at the bakery. After seeing Alice again at the school, he thinks people feel sorry for him and goes to live in the Warren State Home.
Charlie experiences drastic changes throughout the story. All of them are mentally due to the experimental operation he had. In the
The Community Mental Health Act of 1963, was the first federal law that inspired community-based mental health care, and it ignited the transformation of the public mental health system (Young Minds Advocacy, 2016). Other names of the Act are Mental Retardation and Community Mental Health Centers Construction Act of 1963. It was the beginning of the Deinstitutionalized movement in mental health treatment options for children, youth, and adults (National Council for Behavioral Health (NCBH), 2015). States received money from grants, from the Community Mental Health Act for the construction of these mental health centers. Initially, the intention of the grant program was to provide 1500 mental health centers nationally (Young Minds
“Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” - Harriet Tubman. Charlie Gordon is a very welcoming, playful, and genuine man. He attends Beekman College for Retarded Adults and has a strong motivation to learn and to improve his intelligence. He dreams of being popular, and making friends. Throughout the novel Flowers for Algernon, Charlie Gordon changed in many ways. Prior to his life changing operation, he was not able to grasp that the people at Donner’s Bakery were not his friends, they only spoke to him to make fun of him. Charlie acknowledged their harsh actions, and started retaliating. Charlie is a very open
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.
After Algernon began to behave strangely, Charlie was given a lab of his own from Dr.Nemur and Dr.Strauss to conduct research to see if what happens with Algernon will happen to him. “As I review the records and data on Algernon, I see that although he is still in his physical infancy, he has regressed mentally” (239). Algernon had egressed mentally, which meant that Charlie soon would too. Charlie went through so much to be where he is at this point. Now, it was all for nothing. All the intelligence he gained will soon be gone. He would not even be the same person he was before the operation. This is one of the big reasons why Charlie got
Charlie Gordon was born with an extremely low IQ and although he may not realize all that is going on around him, he does realize that he is not smart. More than anything he wants to learn to read and write and impress his family and co-workers. That opportunity comes along for Charlie and although he does not understand the consequences fully, he takes it. Charlie was not going to just go to school and learn to "be smart" because he did not have the capability, although he went to a class for retarded adults three times a week. Instead his teacher suggested he talk to Dr. Strauss and Professor Nemur who were looking for a retarded adult to test a new operation on to enhance the IQ of not only retarded people, but later for people with average IQ levels and even geniuses, to further knowledge for the human race. Although the operation did work, it did not last and Charlie was left struggling to hold onto the knowledge he had acquired over the few months where his IQ had increased three fold, then dropped again. This experiment was dangerous and unethical. It affected Charlie
Donner. Charlie thought of the men who also worked at the bakery to be his friends. One day the men at the bakery asked him to attend a party with them; gladly Charlie accepted. When the men took Charlie to the party they mistreated him. They finally decided they were done teasing Charlie and so they abandoned him." I don't remember how the party was over but they asked me to go around the corner to see if it was raining and when I came back there was no one their. Maybe they went to find me. I looked for them all over until it was late." (Keyes 30) When Charlie went to the parties with the men from his work he did not realize they are laughing at him instead of laughing with him. Soon after Charlie's operation he progressively becomes smarter. After he became smart his friends found no pleasure in teasing him, so they ignored him and would not talk to him. Mr. Donner thought it would be best to let Charlie go so he could find a better job. When Charlie's operation faded he went back to the way he was before the operation. Mr. Donner offered him his job back at the bakery and Charlie was glad to accept. Now that all the men from the bakery knew why Charlie suddenly became smart they decided to treat Charlie fair. When Charlie went back to work there was a man who was very rude to Charlie, " But then Joe Carp came in and grabbed Klause by the
“Flowers for Algernon” contains numerous themes throughout Charlie Gordon’s journey. Charlie Gordon the story’s protagonist is a 32-year-old mentally disabled man who has the opportunity of a lifetime to undergo very special surgeries which will most likely change his life for the better, hopefully. This operation has already been preformed on a laboratory mouse named Algernon, who received astonishing and outstanding results so the doctor is convinced it can alter a human’s disability and help millions of people. The reason Charlie was chosen for this operation is his teacher Miss. Kinnian who said he was a very hard worker and valuable aspect. After the operation Charlie’s intelligence increased rapidly and soon became a genius. Charlie
In Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, one of the most important themes deals with the mistreatment of people with mental disabilities. Keyes suggests that society, for the most part, will mistreat people with mental disabilities just because they are different. People dread the unfamiliar due to not having experienced what the unfamiliar exactly is, and in Charlie’s case they do not understand the perspectives of the people with mental disabilities. Keyes reveals this concept through the eyes of Charlie. Shortly after his operation Charlie begins to recall past memories.
Usually we don’t forget what we learn. But in the book “Flowers For Algernon” by Daniel Keyes, things are different.It is about how a mentally challenged man named Charlie Gordon has an operation to gain an extremely large amount of intelligence. The operation succeeds, and Charlie is a genius, but he then starts to lose his friends, and later on his intelligence as well. In the end of this book, Charlie decides to leave New York and everyone he was friends with. So there are more costs than benefits to Charlie’s operation to gain intelligence.
I do not think this was the original intent of the movie, leading me to believe the mental illness was poorly portrayed. Throughout the movie, certain things trigger Charlie to have flashbacks, showing when he was younger spending time with his aunt. He also suffers from blackouts and panic attacks during really stress induced situations. He seems numb to everything, and also seems to imagine himself as other people. Charlie comes off way younger than he really is and is very naive to
Charlie is not a normal person unlike other people he has special needs he is going to get an operation so he can be smarter and fall in love with miss kinnian. If i would have a chance to get an operation like that i would not take the chance because the operation will go away and i'll be dumb again.
Charlie Gordon is a 32 year man who is mentally disabled, works at Donner's bakery as a janitor, and lives independently in a apartment building. He also attends evening classes at Beekman College Center for Mentally challenged adults to learn to read and write. His teacher Miss. Kinnian is very helpful and caring towards Charlie, she even recommended him for a research experiment on intelligence. Charlie was medically changed to be smarter yet his life was changed for the
Charlie Gordon was a mentally retarded thirty-two-year-old man, who was chosen by a team of scientists to take part in an experimental surgery designed to boost his intelligence. Charlie worked at Donner’s Bakery in New York City as a janitor and delivery boy. The other employees would often taunt Charlie, but Charlie was unable to understand that he was being made fun of. He believed that his co-workers were good friends, but they were not. Charlie would go to school at the Beekman College Center for Retarded Adults, and that is where he met Alice Kinnian. Alice Kinnian was his teacher, and she noticed that he was different from all of her students. Charlie was eager to learn. So, Ms. Kinnian recommended Charlie to undergo the surgery.
Introduction “Flowers for Algernon” was first published as a short story in 1958, and then in 1966 it appeared as a full-length novel. The novel is expressed as a series of “Progress Reports” written by Charlie Gordon, who is a thirty two year old man, who has got his IQ (Intelligence Quotient) of 68 was tripled by an experimental surgical operation prepared by Dr Strauss who is a neurologist and psychiatrist who performs the experimental operations. But unfortunately, after several months he becomes like he was before, and his intelligence Quotient was decreased to what he had before the operation. At the end of this novel Charlie was like he was used to be in the beginning of the novel. He had an enemy when his IQ was on at 68, a white
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),