Daniel Keyes's 'Flowers For Algernon'

Claire Aguilar-Hwang
Mrs. Veitch
2
2/15/18

Endless Possibilities Entering a rocket, risking life, exhilarating adventures waiting. Travelling to the moon, to the endless possibilities in outer space, just like what 37 year old Charlie Gordon feels in the science fiction short story “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes. He has a surgery, risking his life. There are highs and lows waiting for him the minute the surgery is complete. The operation is meant to increase his intelligence and with intelligence he can touch the sky. With education, there are endless possibilities. In the story, Charlie does not know how to read, write, or spell. After his surgery, he meets

Charlie makes a discovery for science and he wants Dr. Strauss and Dr. Nemur to appreciate his discovery. They had been previously researching artificially increased intelligence, and Charlie wanted to research it too because he wanted to find out what had happened to Algernon. He became smart enough to research the topic of increased artificial intelligence and come up with a full report explaining artificially increased intelligence. The words “I feel” show that Charlie has emotions and feelings which make him feel strongly about the hypothesis he concluded from the report, and he feels that it is important. From this report, Charlie makes a lasting mark on the world. His findings also make him feel happy which is great to come from a discovery which he made after the surgery. In Charlie’s last progress report when he is saying personal goodbyes to everyone who helped him on the journey to becoming smart, he mentions, “Evry body feels sorry...I dont want that...Im going someplace where nobody knows that Charlie Gordon was once a genus and now he cant even reed a book or rite good [sic],” (Keyes 27). Charlie is moving out of New York because he does not want people to feel sorry for him anymore. Everyone feels sorry for him because he lost all the intelligence that he gained. The words “evry body feels sorry” show that he knows and acknowledges the fact that people know his situation and feel bad for him. He wants to solve this difficulty by moving away and having a second chance at life. Charlie wants to go somewhere where no one knows his name or his story so he can have start a new life. He wants to erase everything that has happened to him and obtain a blank slate. This would make him refreshed and have a mental break from all the thrilling adventures he had on the trip to