What Is The Theme Of Flowers For Algernon

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.

With his decision to undergo the operation, Charlie is able to experience love for another person who also loves and cares for him. Charlie realizes how beautiful his teacher, Miss Kinnian, is for the first time. He notices her eyes, hair and her youthful beauty. He is able to experience her warm kindness, concern and caring for him. She shows him that she is very dedicated to him too! Charlie exclaims, “I amm in love with Miss Kinnian.” Everyone deserves to experience love at least once in their lifetime and Charlie is no exception! His temporary experience with love alone was well worth his decision to have the intelligence surgery. True love is never selfish or evil. Charlie's attachment to the laboratory

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

Flowers for Algernon is about a man named Charlie who is mentally slow and not smart. Charlie had an operation to make him smart. What the doctors did was unethical.

“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.

People believed that Charlie was artificial, man-made, a lab rat. Professor Nemur thought that he had created Charlie, and that he was nothing before the operation “It might be said that Charlie Gordon did not really exist before this experiment…”. Charlie was a human before and after 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!”. (p.161) As Charlie began to grow mentally and become intelligent, his understanding of the world became clearer than before. Although he could understand reality, he couldn't understand his feelings. Charlie thought he could understand his feelings but he really didn't, especially love “Something inside is burning me up, and all I know is it makes me think of you.”. Later, as he continues to grow, he decides that he could let his feelings rule him only during his relationship with Alice but not during anything else. He realized that he really loves Alice because his feelings and emotions go wild when he's with her. Also because he sees the old Charlie when he's with her helping him realize he loves her. Charlie loved her enough to let her go because he didn't want her to see him deteriorate. Charlie decided to go to the Warren Home because he

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”.

* Students should work through the idea that different levels of intelligence, emotional and intellectual, lead to different types of interactions with people and society.

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.

Through the memories the Charlie Gordon has had since his surgery, he has revealed many new and exciting feelings in himself that he has never felt before. When he got upset at one of the doctors during his second inkblot test, he described his anger as exciting. Another emotion that we also noticed in Charlie is love and compassion. On page 82, he goes on a date with his teacher, Alice and he soon realizes that he has feelings for her but can’t seem to build up the courage to kiss her. When he finds out that Alice doesn’t have the same compassion for him, he starts to hate her. Since feelings are all very new to Charlie, he does not know how to react to them. One of the important memories that Charlie had was when he was listening to his parents argue. Charlie was sitting on the floor playing with one of his toys while his parents were fighting about Charlie’s

Imagine the possibility of a surgery that could dramatically increase your intelligence. Imagine what a change of life that could mean if you were a mentally handicapped person. This is exactly what happens in the story, Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes. Charlie Gordon, is a mentally handicapped man living alone in New York City. He who undergoes an operation that increases his intelligence he realizes how poorly he was treated by people including his family and friends. Although most mistreated Charlie there was one who was kind and caring towards Charlie and that was Alice Kinnian. The story follows the rise and gradual fall of his intelligence and with that the awareness of how poorly treated he has been treated

As a result, Charlie grows cold and arrogant, destroying his previously happy relationships with everybody except Algernon and Alice Kinnigan, two relationships that were insufficient in keeping Charlie

There were many differences and similarities between the short story, “Flowers for Algernon” and the movie, “Charlie”. A huge similarity was that in both Charlie had an operation done on him that would make him smart. He also lost his intelligence in both. One of the first major differences was that in the short story Charlie worked in a plastic box factory and in the movie he worked in some type of bread factory. This changed the way his ‘friends’ would prank him and how he would show his intelligence at work.

Following a series of journal like entries, Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes, is about a fictional character named Charlie Gordon. Born developmentally disabled, Charlie Gordon was recruited to undergo a neurosurgery that increases his mental capabilities. In a successful turn of events, Charlie was the first human subject to gain artificial intelligence. As he gradually expanded his knowledge, changes in his writing, his beliefs and perspective became prominent as he achieves “genius status.” The humbling nature of Charlie Gordon transformed into a socially deprived, arrogant man. Due to the lack of social intelligence, Charlie was self-centered, his difficulty to establish human relationships only lead to violence and pain. Finally,

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.