Preview

Flowers for Algernon, an Inspiring Novel by Daniel Keyes

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
673 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Flowers for Algernon, an Inspiring Novel by Daniel Keyes
Essay on Flowers For Algernon

In the novel Flowers For Algernon, Daniel Keyes keeps the reader constantly entertained by adding subsequent details to introduce the main character, Charlie Gordon. During the beginning of the book, Charlie, at age 32, is intrigued to have surgery on his brain to make him learn like an average person. Charlie is a mentally challenged adult, who was giving away by his mother because they said he would never be smart. Now, he is working at Donners Bakery doing mostly janitor work for Mr. Donner. Dr. Strauss inspires Charlie to write progress reports to help with their studies. Professor Nemur and Alice Kinnian are also helping Charlie to fulfill his dream to be smart. Charlie is hungry for knowledge and he will not let anything cross his path that will keep him from his dream.

Our Service Can Write a Custom Essay on Flowers For Algernon for You!

After a few months of a constant battle, Charlie’s writing strategies start to become comprehensible to everyone who reads his progress reports. Everyone is in to help Charlie. His nurses after his surgery help him to spell words that are incorrect and Mr. Donner, at the bakery, tells Charlie he can do anything he puts himself up to. His friends at the bakery invite Charlie to a bar and a party at one of their houses. They pick on him and try to push girls onto him so they will make fun of him. The girls would tell them to back off and Charlie would always laugh along with the guys because he thinks they are just joking around. Charlie has a flashback from his childhood when he was playing hide and seek, and he realizes that all the people from the bakery were always picking on him and it causes him to get very upset at them, and leave the party.

Charlie wrote a letter to Professor Nemur to tell him what was happening inside of his body. It was a study of structure and function of increased intelligence. This was the surgery that the performed on Charlie. He was completed

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    <br>The plot of both the novel and film version of Flowers for Algernon share common similarities. They both feature a retarded middle-aged man, Charlie Gordon, who receives an operation to heighten his intelligence. Charlie's IQ eventually surpasses human normalcy to reveal that the experiment did prove successful. In both the film and novel, Charlie became even more intelligent than the professors who worked with him. In the film, Dr. Strauss was embarrassed to reveal that Charlie was smarter than him. That played a milestone event in Charlie's identification of himself. Slowly his intelligence began to decrease and he eventually returned to his original state of mind. Throughout the story, Charlie encountered many different emotions that he had never experienced before because he didn't have the common knowledge to understand them. The episode when he was at the nightclub with his co-workers gave him the opportunity to experience betrayal and anger. "I never knew before that Joe and Frank and the others liked to have me around just to make fun of me" (Keyes 30). The plot for both versions also carefully depicted Charlie's psychological traumas that he suffered after his operation. These outbursts were often caused by romantic anxiety and the painful memories he would recall. Whenever Charlie got intimate with Alice he would tend to get extremely nervous or have a hallucination, causing him to ruin the moment.…

    • 1108 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Charlie Kelmeckis, is an introverted and intellectually gifted teenager who is just starting his freshman year of highschool all alone. Then two seniors, Sam and Patrick, help him learn how to participate in life instead of watching others live it for him. He quickly is given the gift of true friendship, love, music and so much more, while a young english teacher and aspiring playwright helps him develop his skills as a writer. Though as all things that come up must go down, as his new friends start preparing for college, the problems he had buried all along threaten to shatter his newfound love for life.…

    • 508 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    One common argument some readers have throughout is that by having the surgery, Charlie had seen that the world could be very cruel in many ways, but I oppose this stating that even though he has faced many cruel times he has mostly had many beneficial times because of it. For instance, by having the surgery, Charlie was able to make more friends that were much more understanding of him and that didn’t bully him like his previous “friends” Joe and Frank. So as with that, others still oppose and say that he was better off without the surgery because with having the surgery when the effects of it wore off his I.Q. would be decreased less than what his original I.Q. was before the surgery. As that may be true while he had the effects of the surgery he was able to use it to his advantage by making a contribution to science by discovering the Algernon-Gordon effect which would be able to help future researchers on the topic of artificial intelligence and the human…

    • 845 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Obviously, the surgery had failed! Ever since Algernon died, Charlie knew he was fated to die as well; he could realistically expect his own death. Charlie, soaring high above intellectual expectations, was still shocked by the ultimate failure of the surgery. The doctors could not repair this devastating, grotesque outcome. Only Charlie, the genius, could find and remedy the surgery’s problematic components. At this point, Charlie did not regret the surgery; never the less, he should not have been the experimental humanoid.…

    • 446 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Charlie was all in for the surgery no matter what because all he wanted was to be smarter than he was. Although all he got was to experience about a few weeks of being smart. It made him want to work harder and make himself smart again after the intelligence wore off. He could have lived his life if he didn't have the surgery, but now there is that possibility that he will pass before he was able to do the things he was wanting to do. Therefore the surgery was unnecessary and Charlie shouldn't of had to go through that…

    • 310 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout the book "Flowers for Algernon" Charlie, a retarded person goes through a whole process in which he becomes a genius and then regresses, which results in him being retarded again. In this work I will try to show that the process Charlie goes through (becoming a genius and the regression back to being retarded), is much like the human life, and compare his development to that of a child, and his regression to that of an old man.…

    • 1506 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    -Charlie undergoes a thematic apperception test where he has to make up stories about the people he sees in the pictures…

    • 3676 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The story “Flowers for Algernon” is about a mentally troubled man named Charlie Gordon, who gets a surgery to make him smarter. In my opinion, Charlie’s life is better off with him being smart. Even though there are some bad things about him being smart, there are also many good reasons that he is. He is smart enough to know what’s going on. Whether it be at work or at the lab, he knows how people are actually treating him. In my mind, Charlie is better off being smart, shown through how other people treat him, how he treats other people, and his potential contributions to the world.…

    • 917 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Charlie works at Donner’s Bakery in New York City as a janitor and delivery boy. The other employees often taunt him and pick on him, but Charlie is unable to understand that he is the subject of mockery. He believes that his coworkers are good friends. After a battery of tests—including a maze-solving competition with a mouse named Algernon, who has already had the experimental surgery performed on him—Charlie undergoes the operation. He is initially disappointed that there is no immediate change in his intellect, but with work and help from Alice, he gradually improves his spelling and grammar. Charlie begins to read adult books, slowly at first, then voraciously, filling his brain with knowledge from many academic fields. He shocks the workers at the bakery by inventing a process designed to improve productivity. Charlie also begins to recover lost memories of his childhood, most of which involve his mother, Rose, who resented and often brutally punished Charlie for not being normal like other children.…

    • 916 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    After an array of tests, including a maze-solving competition with a laboratory rat named Algernon, who has already had the experimental surgery performed on him, Charlie receives the operation. In the beginning he is disappointed that there is no immediate change in smartness, but with work and help from Alice, he gradually improves his spelling and grammar. Charlie begins to read adult books, slowly at first, then voraciously, filling his brain with knowledge from many academic fields. Charlie amazes the workers at the bakery by inventing a process designed to improve productivity.…

    • 579 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Flowers for algernon

    • 512 Words
    • 3 Pages

    One of the people who knew Charlie very well was his teacher-Miss Kinnian. As an experienced teacher of mentally handicapped adults she learned a lot about the special case that Charlie is while she was teaching him. Because of that it would be instructive for other teachers, scientists or even the parents from mentally handicapped persons to know all details, experiences, teaching techniques, failures, among others.…

    • 512 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Charlie’s miraculous transformation from mental disability to genius sets the stage for Keyes to address a number of themes and issues. Charlie’s lack of intelligence has made him a trusting and friendly man, as he assumes that the people in his life—his coworkers at Donner’s Bakery—are as well intentioned as he is. As his intelligence grows, however, Charlie gains perspective on his past and present. He realizes that people have often taken advantage of him and have been cruel to him for fun, knowing that he would not understand. Likewise, he realizes that when people have been kind to him, it usually has been out of an awareness that he is inferior. These realizations cause Charlie to grow suspicious of nearly everyone around him. Interestingly, the experimental operation elevates Charlie’s intelligence to such an extent that his new genius distances him from people as much as his disability does. Charlie eventually…

    • 599 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Analysis of the character of the main protagonist, Charlie Gordon, in the beginning of the novel entitled Flowers for Algernon, shows a complicated person with interesting personality and physical characteristics. He is a thirty-two year old man who is mentally retarded. He has difficulty spelling and using correct grammar and understanding a lot of what is happening to him. However, he is also a very determined individual. He wants to try to change. He hopes to become more intelligent and to be able to solve problems. For example, he kept on trying to beat Algernon, the smart mouse, in the maze race. I also learned early in the novel that Charlie is honest. He said that he would not make up lies about people. But, that sometimes means that Charlie is not very imaginative or able to fantasize. He can't think of something if it is not the absolute truth. He is a very trusting person, who does not steal or do unlawful actions. Charlie feels frustrated because he feels excluded by other people. He wants to fit in. He said, "I want to be smart so I can have lots of friends." Charlie is also forgetful. He told Dr Strauss that he did not remember how he found the Beekman School. He is very friendly and kind toward other people. He never yells at people or gets mad at them. No matter what happens, Charlie is highly motivated. He really wants to learn new information and skills. In summary, I think that Charlie is a good man who is easy to get to know and…

    • 267 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Flowers for Algernon Charlie Gordon goes through a life changing experience. He is a mentally retarded man who struggles every day because of his disability and wishes he could be smart like other people. When he gets the chance to have a brain surgery that will increase his intelligence it sets him off on an exciting and scary journey. He learns that in life people can be cruel to those that are different, that being smart is overated and that intelligence alone is not enough to make someone happy. Through the course of his experience of first being mentally retarded and then becoming a genius Charlie learns some good lessons about life.…

    • 813 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As the book begins, a major conflict of man vs. society appears. Basically its between Charlie, representing the mentally retarded vs. society. Charlie does not realize this when his intelligence is limited but as he grows brighter he notices the people he used to call friends, namely his co-workers in the bakery, were outwardly mean to him. Frank Reilly, Joe Carp, and Gimpy play cruel tricks on him that Charlie does not understand. Once they took Charlie to a bar, got him drunk, and laughed at him while Charlie. Charlie never understood this at the time and he tools the laughter as a sign of friendship. His other co-worker, Fanny Birden, is the only one nice to him but it is only out of pity because of his disability. Once Charlie realizes the mistreatment of mentally retarded people, he cannot help but feel resentment to those who used to look down on him. At one point in the novel, Charlie is at a restaurant and there is a mentally retarded kitchen helper. When he sees that they are laughing at him he proceeds to yell at them telling them that the kitchen helper is human too. Charlie feels a connection with him. However when Charlie visits the Warren Home, he looks at the boys with the same perception people used to look at him with. For example, when the deaf mute boy in the shop class shows Charlie a mediocre lamp he made, Charlie said it was a nice job to humor the boy. Charlie resents the boys in the Warren Home because he knows that soon he will become just like one of them soon, and he does not want to go back to being dumb. Another conflict in "Flowers for Algernon" is man vs. man, namely Charlie vs. himself. When he grows smarter, he starts to talk about how Charlie is always looking at him. This Charlie is the dumber version of him and…

    • 920 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays