There has always been a fascination with the self, often expressed in literature; Both Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) and Daniel Keyes’ Flowers for Algernon (1966) published nearly one-hundred years later, explore the theme of the importance of self-knowledge. Both The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Flowers for Algernon explore cases of self-alienation catalyzed by a quest for self-knowledge. The main character’s self-alienation stems from an attempt to comprehend the fact that both characters see a part of themselves as contrary to the whole of themselves. The only way they can comprehend that part of them is to separate that piece of themselves into an alternate persona. Both …show more content…
Charlie says that Other Charlie is just waiting in the back of his head for Charlie to lose control, interfering at points of intense emotion (248). This isolation of a portion of their personalities makes truly knowing themselves impossible, because they refuse to acknowledge this part of themselves as a piece of their personality, they can never truly know themselves Understanding one’s past is key to understanding oneself. Both of these books examine the past of the character for answers about themselves, and both come up short. In Flowers for Algernon, Charlie struggles to remember his past; when he finds out his intelligence is limited, one of the first tasks he undertakes is to visit his mother and find out more about the parts of his past he does not remember. He says “…I can’t be a complete person unless I can understand myself...” (264). One of the first topics discussed in Jekyll’s report of the case is his examination of his past as a possible cause for his evil streak. Even Jekyll’s friends turn to his past for an explanation of his odd behavior; they assume a mistake from his youth had come back to haunt him. Charlie, too, fails in his quest to understand himself through his past. His sister barely remembers him and his mother’s mind is so far gone he can barely hold a conversation with her; Like Jekyll’s, his examination of his past finds no reason why he would have gone bad. Because of their struggles to
Self discovery is at the root of many stories. It is easily limited by external and internal factors. Tales about self discovery are often called a bildungsroman. A bildungsroman, essentially, is a coming of age novel. Both Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston and Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison are considered a bildungsroman. In the case of those two novels, there is one unique concept that contributes to their examples of self discovery. Double consciousness is that idea. It emphasizes how a person may struggle to adapt to more than one varying identities in order to fill a role within society. Double consciousness is present in both novels through the mindset and actions of characters who try to conform to the gender and racial roles placed upon their lives but find themselves in conflict with their limitations.
The protagonist and author of the progress reports that form the text of Flowers for Algernon. Charlie is a thirty-two-year-old mentally retarded man who lives in New York City. At the start of the novel, he works at Donner’s Bakery as a janitor and delivery boy. Charlie’s friendliness and eagerness to please, along with his childhood feelings of inadequacy, make him the hardest-working student in Alice Kinnian’s literacy class for retarded adults. When Charlie undergoes an experimental surgery to increase his intelligence, his IQ skyrockets to the level of a genius. His obsession with untangling his own emotional life and his longing to reach an emotional maturity and inner peace to match his intellectual authority inform many of the novel’s
Charlie, also has a peculiar speech pattern. Despite being a young teenager, his language is somewhat outdated; and he has a sardonic sense of humor. He shifts from “fancy” vocabulary to a more simple type of speech on a regular basis. In his first letter of Part 4, he describes someone’s face as “ashen”; but he had previously described his family members using the words “nice” and “fat”. Surprisingly simple speech from someone so seemingly contemplative. He, Charlie, is also very “matter-of-fact” about things. He does not say things that he does not believe to be true; and if he’s unsure, he states his ignorance as a fact. This is easy to see in Part 1 when he states, “I am really in love with Sam, and it hurts very much,” like it was an immovable thought or an unchangeable
Character Comparison Essay In the book Girl In Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow, the main character Charlie Davis and a later-mentioned character, Riley West, has many similarities because the both have gone through traumatic experiences and has lost or has been left abandoned by the people they love. Although they both have similarities, both characters have differences between them because Riley’s way of coping through stress of abandonment and loss is substance abuse of drugs and alcohol and Charlie’s way of dealing with it is self-harm, and even after that, both characters has made it out of a distressing and destructive life. Kathleen Glasgow purpose of writing this book is reflected off of Charlie Davis’ and Riley West’s differences because
This entire book highlights both the high and low points in Charlie’s life, and how he changed and has not changed all from his constant value of friendship to his many realizations, based on the one experimental surgery that gave him insight on what life would be like if he was “normal”.
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
Self-knowledge is a highly discussed topic by many prominent philosophers. Two of these philosophers are Thomas Aquinas and Catherine of Siena. The philosopher, Thomas Aquinas, is a very important figure in medieval philosophy. He has discussed various topics, including self-knowledge. In addition, “he was influenced, philosophically, by past philosophers as well as those who became his mentors and contemporaries. Among these the most important was, of course, Aristotle” (MacIntosh, 2017, p. 1). Another philosopher that has extensively examined self-knowledge is Catherine of Siena. She is a “renowned medieval theologian and Doctor of the Catholic Church” (Nemes & Wessling, 2017, p. 303). Although both philosophers have discussed self-knowledge,
Self-discoveries can affirm or challenge an individual’s previously held attitude through acceptance contributing to a change in perception of self and the world. This notion is explored in Michael Gow’s play “Away” where three fractured families go on transformative holiday as they experience discoveries about themselves and others. Self-discovery of a certain individual can stimulate modification for others’ perception and lead them to a more prominent discovery. Similarly, the poem: “the core” by Steve Taylor illustrates the perfect journey of self-discovery and its impact on individual’s perspective on self. These texts illustrate how discoveries challenge an individual’s previously held sense of self.
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.
“Solitude gives birth to the original in us, to beauty unfamiliar and perilous - to poetry. But also, it gives birth to the opposite: to the perverse, the illicit, the absurd.” (Death in Venice, 78). Everyone in today’s society is supposed to fit the expectations that has been created, but this individuals to lose their ingenuity. Although many believe that the best ideas and realizations are conceived through the sharing of ideas between multiple people, in all actuality, some of the best inventions were created by single people. These actions can be seen from characters in “Anthem,” “The Odyssey,” “The Pedestrian,” and “Lord of the Flies.” Isolation leads to clarity due to the lack of external influences tainting one’s perspective.
Initially, Charlie was not aware of what was going on around him. He thought that everyone liked him and was his friend. He also was not very intelligent, which is why he was oblivious to what was happening around him. After Charlie had the surgery he was able to now notice that the people he worked with at the factory were not actually his friends. He found out April 20, “I never knew that Joe and Frank and the others liked to have me around all the time to make fun of me” (33-34). Now that he got the procedure he can now tell that his so-called friends, just liked him because they could make fun of him. Another example of him noticing things for the first time is when the doctors were arguing Charlie felt that he know saw them for the first time. He realizes about their personal life, how one has a wife that wants him to be successful and the other wants some of the glory to. Once again, due to his intelligence, he notices more about the people he interacts with almost every day. He noticed things that he has never realized, let alone thought about.
Humanity revolves around the basis of one concept: knowledge. The acquisition of knowledge has driven humanity’s progress and will continue to propel man into new heights. There comes a point where the want for knowledge becomes dangerous. The novelette, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, tells the tale of a man meddling in the affairs of another, who dwells in macabre, in order to gain insight. Man lives for knowledge, but sometimes it is that knowledge that quenches man’s ability to live.
As one immerses themselves into Charlie’s journal or rather, progress reports, they began to learn much about Charlie and his character. Through these reports, one can gather that Charlie desires to be smart like everyone else (Keyes 1), strives to accomplish any task that he is given (Keyes 4), is very self-motivated (Keyes 9) and,
In the story of Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (1886), the character Dr Henry Jekyll develops an alter ego called Mr Edward Hyde while trying to separate the two consciences he believes everyone has inside of them. This Mr Hyde ego is the evil half of Dr Jekyll and performs horrendous acts like murder feeling no guilt, but when Dr Jekyll regains control of the body they share he is overcome with regret. This wonder about multiple consciences was popular at the time of the story’s writing with double personality being “one of the most widely discussed clinical disorders” (Armstrong 189). This essay will discuss the ‘reverse transformation’ found in the novel and how
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),