Was Charlie Better Off After Surgery

“It’s a good feelings to know things and be smart. I wish I Had it right now, if I had I would sit down and read all the time. Anyways I bet i'm the first dumb person in the world who ever found out something important for science”. The operation was for Charlie to become smart permanently. It didn’t work so I agree of the operation being bad.

In this novel, Flowers for Algernon, written by Daniel Keyes, a man named Charlie Gordon has an operation done to increase his intelligence. He started as a mentally retarded man and slowly became a genius. He seemed to soak up information like a sponge and he was able to figure out the most complex scientific formulas. The only problem with the operation is that it does not last for ever and in his remaining time he tries to figure out why it is not permanent. He will eventually lose everything he learned and become worse off than when he started, so Charlie was better off before he had the operation.

Many people believe that achieving great intelligence will bring them great happiness. This was what Charlie Gordon imagined for himself, that if he could only get the surgery that was supposed to make him smart, then he could finally fit in and be really happy. In the end, though, was Charlie really better off after he got the surgery? No, he wasn’t. Charlie was ultimately better off before he got the surgery to make him intelligent because if he had never done the surgery, then he would never have had to experience the trauma of having to go back to not being intelligent after knowing what intelligence felt like. Also, before the surgery, Charlie didn’t realize how un-faithful his friends were, and how naïve he actually was, which ultimately caused him a lot of shame. Finally, if Charlie had never gotten the surgery, he wouldn’t have had to leave New York.

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

The more obvious ways he had changed was his intelligence, and the memories that slowly came flooding back to him after the surgery. He had went from an IQ of 70, to an IQ of 185 and counting. It had a tremendous impact on Charlie, for he was like a sponge, absorbing as much knowledge as possible, refusing to stop. He had exceeded the expectations, surpassing the IQ of the doctors that worked at Beekman University, and even the ones that constructed the experiment that changed Charlie’s life. He had managed to learn French, German, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Russian, Portuguese, Chinese, Hindi, and Japanese in an extremely short period of time. Before the surgery, Charlie wanted to partake in conversations with the college students about politics,

Charlie was better off after the surgery. After the surgery, he had real friends, loved Miss Kinnian, and beat Algernon. After all what happened after the surgery, at least he knew what it felt like to be

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

After the operation, in only a couple of months, Charlie starts showing signs of new intelligence. His grammar, improved, and he is able to reflect on what his does in the past something he wasn’t able to do before. He had finally gotten something use had always desired. Then, everything and everyone turned on him. In “PROGRESS REPORT 12” April 30th (pg. 60) Charlie writes: “now, they hate me for my knowledge and understanding. What in the name of god do they want of me? They’ve driven me out of the factory. Now I more alone than ever before…” Charlie got what he always wanted, and now he lost everything he had. It was a sacrifice it sounded like he didn’t want to make. I can tell just be the tone of his writing. This shows that we should embrace everything that we have. Charlie didn’t embrace everything, although he appreciated most of the thing he never became happy not being able to just enjoy life as it is.

Have you ever wanted to know several languages, be able to learn everything easily, or even have an IQ of at least 200? Charlie Gordon, in the story “Flowers for Algernon,” was a man who had an IQ of 68, but he went through a surgery that made him smarter than his own teacher at a school for the mentally challenged, and his own doctors. Charlie’s IQ was tripled after the surgery once he began to practice different languages as well as the English language. Charlie soon reverted to his former self at the end of the story, and this tripled intelligence that he possessed once before was soon back to the IQ of 68 Charlie had it easier in life after the surgery.

I believe that Charlie is happier when he is less intelligent before the operation. You know the saying ignorance is bliss? That's what I think this is. Sometimes when I get bored I think about things. This is one of them. Would you rather be happy and not know something bad is happening? Or would you rather be unhappy and know that something bad is happening. Charlie was happiest before the operation. He didn't know that his "friends" weren't really his friends. He didn't know that his whole work place was making fun of him. He was happy though. Then he was intelligent, and knew what everyone was doing, he wasn't happy. He knew his "friends" weren't his friends. He knew everyone makes fun of him. He wasn't happy. In fact, he was so upset that

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”.

One reason as to why this is the theme that sticks out the most is because the operation harmed Charlie’s social life. He had a lot of people to call friends, like Joe Carp, Frank Reilly, and Gimpy, but after he had the operation, he realized that they weren’t really his friends. “April 22- People at the bakery are changing. I can feel the hostility.” Charlie had become smarter than the people who worked at the bakery, and they started to push him away, and Charlie started to feel upset and hurt by their actions. He thought that he had lost all of his friends were lost, and that upset him. This is one of the many reasons why technology was a bad thing for Charlie.

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.

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.

One reason why I think the surgery was a bad idea was because, no one was expecting him as a friend. When Charlie got his surgery, some people at his work were realizing that Charlie had changed, and was starting to have feelings. “Look at him. His face is red.He's blushing. Charlie is blushing.Hey, Ellen, what'd you do to Charlie? I never saw him act like that before”. In this sentence Charlie's workmates realized that Charlie's operation was actually working, and that Charlie was