Stupidity And Genius In Flowers For Algernon By Daniel Keyes

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits,”(Einstein). “Flowers for Algernon” is written by Daniel Keyes and was published in April 1958. This short story is about a mentally handicapped man who goes through a life-changing procedure to triple his sixty-eight I.Q. Charlie only has a little time to experience the transformative moment of his life. Sadly, there appears to be more costs than benefits in Charlie Gordon’s surgery. To begin with, no one likes losing many of their closest friends and get taken advantage of by many people. For example, Charlie was hurt when the whole factory petitioned for him to leave or get fired, including his good friends (page 527). In addition, when Charlie helped arrange

For example, Charlie showed signs of amnesia, major headaches, and was thinking of committing suicide a few weeks after the surgery (page 534 and 536). This shows that the surgery did not go in Charlie’s favor because he lost a copious amount of his memory, including what he had learned after the operation. Also, thoughts of committing suicide were another bad effect of the surgery. He felt like all the walls were closing in and he was continuing to lose all the benefits of the operation. Anyone who has ever thought of committing suicide understands just how deeply Charlie was impacted by the loss of the surgery benefits and how truly devastating this must have been for him.

Also, no one wants to recognize that their surgery results are deteriorating, especially their intelligence. In the story it states, “...Charlie Gordon was once a genus and now he cant even reed a book or rite good,” (page 538). This proves that the operation worked, but for a limited amount of time. He does not remember everything that he had learned after the surgery. Ever since the results began to decrease, he knew he wasn’t going to be smart forever. Everyone who has gone through surgery always hopes for good results. Charlie hoped for the best, but was disappointed that his 204 I.Q wouldn’t be