Character Analysis: Flowers For Algernon

Sam Duong
Mrs. Veitch
Period 6
Date 2/15/18

Intelligence as a Car
Many things in this world are like cars. Cars may seem better at first yet, they actually cause more harm than help. This was the case in the story “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes. In the story, the main character Charlie is a 37-year-old with a 68 IQ. Charlie is picked to have an experimental surgery that will make him become more intelligent. After the surgery, Charlie becomes smart extremely quickly and learns many things such as how to read and write properly, how his friends were making fun of him, also finds out he is in love with Ms. Kinnian and became friends with a mouse named Algernon, who also had the surgery

After Algernon died, Charlie realized that he would start losing intelligence soon. Charlie decided to pick up a book that he used to enjoy, called Paradise Lost, “but when I picked up Paradise Lost I couldn’t understand it at all. I got so angry I threw the book across the room” (Keyes 23). When Charlie throws the book, it demonstrates how frustrated Charlie was because he couldn’t read it. The author also illustrated the level of stressed Charlie had by making Charlie throw the book instead of just being mad at himself. Furthermore, the author demonstrates how frustrated Charlie is by using a small situation such as book and blowing it up with Charlie’s reaction. Even though Charlie knew this would happen, he still got mad, because Charlie has set a bar that is too high for him due to the fact he had the surgery. Overall, Charlie has been battling with himself and trying to come to terms with the fact that he will no longer be smart yet, in a much more stressful and traumatic experience, supporting the fact that Charlie was better off before the