“Even a feeble-minded man wants to be like other men.” This is the situation for the main character in Daniel Keyes’ scientific fiction short story, “Flowers for Algernon”, Charlie Gordon. Charlie, a man with an I.Q. score of 68, wants to be smart like everyone else. When he is selected for an operation that can triple is I.Q., Charlie is happy to be Dr. Nemur and Dr. Strauss’ test subject. Despite the risks, Charlie Gordon has his intelligence increased, but later suffers from deterioration of his intelligence, amnesia, and senility.
He knew that “ [Lennie] ain’t mean..” (Steinbeck 41). He was the person who had the most “authority” over the other men, and the one who decided who deserved to be right in certain situations. When Lennie and Curley got into their fight and Lennie crushed Curley’s hand, Slim had to tell him to lie and say instead that “...[he] got [his] han’ caught in a machine..” (Steinbeck 64). According to a journal entry, the “Ego is the logical part, which is partly conscious, and is the mediator between the two trying to pacify the struggle in order to bring the psyche in balance.” (Manjhi, Kumar Tiwari, 19). Slim matches perfectly with this description, as he is the one who thinks and acts logically and rationally in order to make the best decision for everyone involved.
Secondly, Franz Kafka used Gregor as a dramatization of himself. Similar to Gregor, Kafka’s father did not approve of him and showed little or no affection. Franz did move many times in order to escape his father’s constant criticism. In addition, Kafka and Gregor both suffered physical and emotional abuse at the hands of their fathers. Throughout the story, Mr. Samsa used demeaning language with Gregor like he was a pest instead of his son, and hits him a couple of times with no remorse.
No matter what his IQ was, Charlie’s coworkers never appreciated him for who he was. On March 25th, a couple of days after the surgery, Charlie was writing about his “friends”. He wrote, “Sometimes somebody will say hey at Joe or Frank or George he really pulled a Charlie Gordon. I dont know why they that but they always laff.” (Keyes 354) Charlie’s pursuit of intelligence was an attempt to become as smart as his coworkers and friends. Because the author, Daniel Keyes, uses the journal format, it allows the reader to understand concepts that the main character doesn’t.
Atticus shot the mad dog and the children head over to Miss Maudie’s and ask why they had never known Atticus could shoot? (10) Miss Maudie explains that because of their age they do not know everything about Atticus. Another instance where the children do not understand how much wisdom miss Maudie has comes during their visit in her house. “I simply want to tell you that there are some men in this world who were born to do our unpleasant jobs for us. Your father’s one of them.” (22) After this she goes on to say that they do not and cannot truly appreciate what she said.
Most of the subjects delivered the most intense shock available, but only because they were told to do so. When the experiments were repeated in other cities, states and countries, the results showed even more obedience. Even though the subjects could hear the victim holler and beg for them to stop, most of the subjects completed the experiments. There were some subjects such as Fred Prozi a 55-year-old unemployed male who did show concern for his victim and worried about being held responsible for whatever may happen to the victim. However, when informed he would not be held responsible he continued and even administered the most severe shock.
Have you ever looked at your life and thought that maybe if you were smarter or wiser, maybe it could have gone another way? Have you ever wished that you could have natural intelligence that, like other people, could help you through your life? If you could have an operation that could make you smarter, would you do it? Many people think that having intelligence or being a genius is the most important thing to have in life, as if knowledge and wisdom is the only thing that can get us anywhere in this world. But, as illustrated in the story Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, it’s the people around us who help us get through our everyday lives because of the happiness and even hurt that they may give us.
Daniel Keyes 's science fiction story “Flowers for Algernon” is about a mentally retarded man named Charlie Gordon. Throughout life he hasn 't always been the smart one. He wants to change that, and by doing this he wants to do an operation that will expand his learning and his IQ will triple. Charlie met a mouse named Algernon, Algernon is going through this experiment as well. Charlie 's relationship with Algernon isn 't the best, Charlie 's hated him so much because Algernon kept winning in the test the doctors did with them.
These books and his other works shows that his writing style can be risqué and to some, distasteful. He writes about hard hitting topics and he does not sugar coat the characters’ true feelings. Additionally, some parents at Glenrock, Wyoming disagreed with the passages in the book Flowers for Algernon; the parents surprisingly compared the book to pornography magazines such as Playboy and the Hustler (Munley ¶ 4). This caused the book to be banned for “Explicit, distasteful love scenes…” by Glen Rose High School, Oberlin High School, Glenrock High School, Plant City, Florida, and Emporium, Pennsylvania (¶
Through the following weeks after Charlie is bit, Algernon begins to ail some of his test and Charlie knows that means the operation did not last. Algernon dies a while later and Charlie is determined to research the cause of his death until he cannot anymore. During his research Charlie's intelligence once again starts deteriorating. Charlie begins to become more like he used to be, less intelligent. Charlie loses hope of becoming intelligent permanently and decides he cannot stay in this city, not with all of these doctors he was to embarrassed to even talk