Flowers For Algernon Loneliness Analysis

Seminar Essay: The Themes of Alienation and Loneliness in the Novel
If a person is lonely, it means that he or she is affected with or characterized by a depressing feeling of being alone. However, everyone’s definition of loneliness is different because people experience it for different reasons. Loneliness is an emotion everyone has experienced before, but it does contribute to growth, mentally and emotionally. Loneliness is felt by Charlie Gordon throughout Flowers for Algernon. Charlie’s varying degree of loneliness can be divided into three phases: the pre-genius, genius, and post-genius phases. The themes of alienation and loneliness played a big role in each one of Charlie’s phases of intelligence and affected his development to becoming
Not only has Charlie learned how to treat others, but so have Gimpy and the others at the bakery as Diane Telgen also found evident and then noted that “And in the final irony, when Charlie returns to his IQ of 68 and seeks his old job back, Joe and Frank, the men who had persecuted him before, defend his against an attack from a new worker. This is what real friendship is” (Telgen). When Charlie reverted back to his original self, he made real friends. Those who used to bully him became close to him just like when Gimpy said, “Charlie if anyone bothers you or trys to take advantage you call me or Joe or Frank and we will set him strait. We all want you to remember that you got frends here and dont you ever forget it” (Keyes 209). Gimpy actually told Charlie that he was his friend, a sign of moving forward. In this phase, Charlie finally felt as though he belonged and was wanted for the right reasons. Although Charlie’s intelligence revert back to an IQ of 68, Charlie became more wise and mature when on page 308, he told Gimpy not to get Klaus fired after he was bullied by him because it is right to give everyone a second chance. Charlie has learned the true importance of friendship and through not wanting to feel lonely and have others feel the same, he became
From thinking that he had a perfect life to becoming a genius and losing everything he had. Then, he reverted back to his original self, but this time, there were people who stood up and wanted to be around him. Charlie experienced much loneliness throughout the novel, which affected his behaviour, which is very common is today’s world when people want to fit in. Charlie teaches the audience an important lesson; friends are people who will like you for your personality and behaviour around them and intelligence is not an issue. This lesson actually reflects today’s society because it teaches how peer pressure is something that you should not take into account in life. Alienation and loneliness really played a huge role in Charlie’s life throughout his phases of intelligence. Loneliness affects how humans interact with one another because they want to be loved. Mother Teresa of Calcutta once said, “The most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being