Top-Rated Free Essay
Preview

"Flowers for Algernon" Character Analysis on Alice Kinnian. It touches on how she cares for Charlie and how she helped him emotionally.

Good Essays
1143 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
"Flowers for Algernon" Character Analysis on Alice Kinnian. It touches on how she cares for Charlie and how she helped him emotionally.
It takes a special kind of person to be a special education teacher. They have to be caring, patient, and understanding. People who take up this responsibility by helping these kind of people show that there are still good and selfless people out there in the world. The character Alice Kinnian in "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes is one of these people. She not only cares for Charlie and sees him as a person before the operation but continues on loving him even after he is way above her intellectual level. Through her caring and selflessness, Charlie is shown not only a new world of knowledge after the operation but also of emotion.

Before the operation, Ms. Kinnian taught Charlie in night school along with other mentally challenged adults. Alice Kinnian notices and admires Charlie's enthusiasm for learning. Even Charlie noticed; "Burt kept saying Alice Kinnian feels he has an overwhel** desir to lern. He acktually beggd to be used. And thats true because I wantid to be smart." (Keyes, 10) Since Ms. Kinnian has been there since the beginning she might have the biggest influence on what Charlie does and says. At this stage he is very dependent on her to learn after his operation. She also gives him words of encouragement and praise which makes Charlie attracted to her because he doesn't get that attention from anybody else.

As Charlie progresses through his intelligence, he always sees Ms. Kinnian as a sign of warmth and comfort which attracts him because all he has spent time at is the cold lab which is frustrating and confusing. He can go to Alice for a break and to talk out his problems. Ms. Kinnian is mostly confused throughout this stage of his intelligence because she doesn't know what is appropriate or not. Through her original caring and concern for Charlie, she finds herself in love with him.

As the story progresses, Charlie discovers the emotion of love through Alice. He writes in his progress report, "Why haven't I ever noticed how beautiful Alice Kinnian is? She has pigeon-soft brown eyes and feathery brown hair down to the hollow of her neck. When she smiles, her full lips look as if she's pouting." (Keyes, 76) This is where it all starts, this wave of emotion has come over him and he doesn't know what to do with it. He was in the movie theater and all he could think about was her. "I didn't see much of the first picture because I was too conscious of her sitting next to me. Twice her bare arm touched mine on the armrest, and both times the fear that she would become annoyed made me pull back." (Keyes, 76) Charlie has never been conscious of touching Alice before. Back when she taught them in night school she probably touched him a lot like helping him write letters. Charlie is obviously maturing emotionally and he wouldn't have been able to without Alice.

When they go to the concert, Charlie doesn't know how to act in front of Alice. When she lies down to listen to music, he is confused and doesn't know what to do because he hasn't felt these emotions before. "I had no way of knowing what she expected of me. This was far from the clear lines of problem-solving and the systematic acquisition of knowledge." (Keyes, 98) He knows his problems can't be solved through books or papers but he must experience trial and error in order to get things right. Through this experience, he finds out how good life is with love and emotion and not just intelligence. He would have never been able to see this if it wasn't for Alice.

In the middle of the book Alice gets frustrated with Charlie's intelligence level and tells him, "I'll be here when you get back. I'm just upset, that's all, and I want both of us to have a chance to think this out while we're a good distance apart." (Keyes, 122) She obviously has been overwhelmed by his intellectual growth and doesn't know what happened to the old Charlie who she used to admire because of his openness and enthusiasm which has turned to aggression. Charlie sees that she needs a break and probably himself too. He experiences the feelings of frustration and sadness. It seems as his intelligence gets higher, his love for Alice goes down.

When Alice and Charlie get back together and Alice meets Fay, you would think that she would be jealous and hate her. "No, I don't think you should cut her out of your life. She's good for you. You need a woman who's been around as she has." (Keyes, 235) Alice gives Charlie advice not telling where she fits into his life. She knows that Fay is helping Charlie and she wants the best for him. But she also wants Charlie to continue his research without interruption so he can help other mentally retarded people. This shows Alice's genuine concern for people with handicaps and her undying love for Charlie.

As Charlie starts to regress, Alice moves in with him for a while. She straightens up his mess and helps him with other things. She knows he is regressing but still wants to help him until she can't anymore. They are at the same intelligence level now so that no longer opposes Charlie's emotions for Alice. They make love and the older Charlie has no problem with it. This is probably the climax of Charlie's emotional level even though his intelligence is regressing.

"With the relief of knowing I had passed through a crisis, I sighed because there was nothing to hold me back. It was no time for fear or pretense, because it could never be this way with anyone else. All the barriers were gone. I had unwound the string she had given me, and found my way out of the labyrinth to where she was waiting. I loved her with more than my body." (Keyes, 293)

Charlie finally has found a person who he could have a complete emotional and physical relationship with. Without this, Charlie would just be a intellectual person who has an IQ of more than 200 and now was losing all he had but now he has so much more with Alice. Alice has shown him more than what books could ever teach a person.

Alice, through her understanding and caring, has shown Charlie the side of life, where compassion and generosity are the worth of a person, not their intelligence level. She helps him find a balance between intellect and emotion. Without Alice in the story, Charlie would've never developed emotionally and would've become more of a machine than a person. Alice encourages Charlie throughout the book that he doesn't need to choose his brain or his heart over the other, but must find a balance in between.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Cosi

    • 838 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Lewis is the director of the play, and is hesitant at first due to the fact that these people are mad, but as his character develops, he finds that they are normal people, with some different needs. In the beginning, Lewis only takes up the position as director for the money that will result. This is seen in a negative manner, and reader or viewer is given the impression that Lewis classes himself far away from these people, showing the lack of acceptance in society of the mentally ill. This is also shown on page 2, when Roy introduces himself to Lewis as a patient whilst Nick and Lucy are present. As soon as this is known to Nick and Lucy that Roy is a patient, they quickly find an excuse to leave, despite having promised to help Lewis with the play. In this instance, Nick and Lucy represent society outside the asylum, and demonstrate this negative attitude toward the mentally ill. The first time that Lewis really views the patients as normal people is during his conversation with Julie, a drug addict, from page 32 to 33. Julie engages Lewis in conversation of men’s attitude toward women…

    • 838 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Along with prejudice, Charlie, was also maltreated by his 'so-called' friends and many other people, including his own mother. Rose, Charlie's mother, wanted so much for Charlie to learn and become somebody in life and she did not want to accept that he was mentally challenged. This was not really helping him much.…

    • 676 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Friendship is something that has been difficult but means a lot to Charlie, ever since his best friend Michael committed suicide. “And I think it’s sad because Susa ndoesn’t look as happy. To tell you the truth, she doesn’t like to admit she’s in advanced English class, and she doesn’t like to say ‘hi’ to me in the hall anymore.” (7). Charlie notices a lot about Susan during his first couple of days of school because she is one of the only people he knows. Charlie seems lonely in the beginning of the school year however he soon makes two very good friends. At one of the school football games Patrick recognized Charlie from his wood shop class and called him over where he met Patrick’s stepsister Sam. Eventually Patrick and Sam became Charlie’s best friends and they even introduced him to other people whom he also became friends with.…

    • 596 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Jasper Jones 2

    • 549 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In chapter six the reader witnesses changes in Charlie from the start of the novel. Discuss.…

    • 549 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cosi

    • 567 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The growth of Lewis in Cosi is very vital to the narrative development. Without the growth of Lewis, the play has no form of expansion, and would not have a focal point. During the journey which Lewis goes through, by learning how to empathise with the patients and his self discovery, he learns a lot about what values he strongly believes in, and only learns this through his time spent with the mental patients. In the beginning he says “Love is not so important nowadays”, which shows that he is not a strong believer in love, and his view of sexual love and fidelity is heavily influenced and manipulated by Lucy and Nick. But in the end of the play he says, “It’s about important things like love and fidelity”, which somewhat signifies a climax to his self development. This furthermore puts Lewis as the major contributor to the narrative development, and makes him the main focus within the play.…

    • 567 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    RHETORICAL

    • 381 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In the end Alice’s daughter’s opinion was the only one that mattered after all. “Mommy, there’s a world in your eyes” (Walkers Daughter); “Mommy, where did you get that world in your eyes?”. Everything at that point changed Alice forever. Her outlook on things, the low self-esteem she had from worrying about what other people thought about her eye, everything. This was very touching because it took Alice that long to…

    • 381 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Charlie’s father had an agreement with Mr peacock that Charlie was allowed every Saturday to clean the wood yard and take home the scraps of wood to heat the house . Charlie walked in on mr peacock abusing ma and to try and protect ma he hit him in the head with a cricket bat and Squizzy negotiated with mr peacock so that Charlie could get wood . “ I found myself wishing the bruises were back , at least then I could I see what’s wrong with her ” . Charlie’s ma went into a episode of depression Charlie has no idea on how to help ma . Charlie had to learn that he had to give ma and her space to figure out how she wanted to deal with it . Everyone around him kept relating him back to I his father and how he had to be the man of the house . As a 14 year old Charlie had a lot on his mind all the time , worrying about his family and how they would survive , his working environments . He and his ma were so close and seeing her like this broke his heart . This event was a tough time for Charlie and showed him that it was time to grow up…

    • 611 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Considering that, Charlie lacks having the personality and intelligence he wants. Charlie attended Beekman College Center with other adult students who were mentally ill and had a very low IQ just as him. While Charlie attended the University he had a fascination on becoming just like the college students, he wanted to sit around and have conversation like they did, read, and most of all have friends like they did. While attending the school, Miss Alice Kinnian, Charlie’s teacher saw a difference in him, he worked extremely hard on trying to better himself and become smart (pg.4).…

    • 747 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Flowers for Algernon

    • 895 Words
    • 4 Pages

    At the bakery where Charlie works he interacts with many of his fellow employees who he believes to be his friends. They provide him with a great deal of attention that Charlie processes as friendly, but in reality he is the butt of all of their jokes. Despite the constant ridicule he received from this he kept on smiling and being happy. Outside of work Charley is enrolled in a reading and writing class for retarded adults under the instruction of Alice Kinnian. In the beginning his relationship with Alice is nothing more than that of a student viewing a teacher who in his mind is much older than himself. Through this relationship however he is introduced to two researchers who are looking for a test subject for an experimental surgery that is believed to increase ones intelligence by three times. As seen with his coworkers, Charley believes that these men are there to help him and are his friends, but similar to before they only view him as a test subject that can be used to further their research and propel them to scientific notoriety. His last relationship is one that he has with a fellow test subject, a mouse named Algernon. Algernon was the preliminary test of…

    • 895 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    pooper

    • 1102 Words
    • 5 Pages

    8. Charlie is able to remember how he began to attend night classes. Tell why this incident is significant.…

    • 1102 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    To begin with, when Charlie is smart everyone avoids him and acts almost scared of him. For example, people are avoiding Charlie he “guess[s] it’ll take a little time for them to get used to the changes in me. Everybody seems to be frightened of me.” Charlie really wants to be smart to fit in but in the process everyone avoids him. Along with people avoiding him, when he is smart everyone begins to see that Algernon is getting hostile and it foreshadows what will happen to Charlie. For example,“they’re all pretending that Algernon’s behavior is not necessarily significant for me. But it’s hard to hide the fact that some of the other animals who were used in this experiment are showing strange behavior.” After Charlie realizes what will happen to him he regrets ever having the operation…

    • 680 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Charlie Gordon, a mentally challenged 32 year old man, is chosen by a team of scientists to undergo experimental brain surgery designed to boost his intelligence. Alice Kinnian, Charlie’s teacher at the Beekman College Center for Retarded Adults, has recommended Charlie for the experiment because of his exceptional eagerness to learn. After the surgery Charlie’s intelligence increases until he has the IQ of an exceptional genius. Soon after, his intellect gradually diminishes until he once again becomes mentally handicapped. The entire narrative of Flowers for Algernon is composed of the “progress reports” that Charlie was asked to keep by the directors of the experiment, Dr. Strauss and Professor Nemur.…

    • 345 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Unit 7 Assignment

    • 1086 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Special Educators are greatly needed in our school systems all over the United States. It takes a special person to be a Special Educator. In most jobs you are in need of patience, but with this career a requirement is patience. Some people are cut out for this career and some are not. Emotionally and physically this job can take a toll on someone.…

    • 1086 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jasper Jones Analysis

    • 482 Words
    • 2 Pages

    changes, Charlie learns why the truth of things is so hard to know, and even…

    • 482 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Another example of Charlie being happy was that he was thankful for the chance he got. Charlie wrote to Miss Kinnian saying, "If you ever reed this Miss Kinnian dont be sorry for me 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 littel bit." (page 21, paragraph 217). This shows that Charlie was thankful for the operation even when everything eventually faded away. Although at the end Charlie was happy, he hasn't always been.…

    • 501 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays