Flowers For Algernon Grade 8 Boy Essay

The Best Short Story for a Grade 8 Boy

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes would be a Grade 8 boy’s favourite short story. There are three main reasons for this which are that it teaches important life values such as appreciation, kindness or perspective. It has writing conventions unique to any other story and that isn’t just incorporated in the plot, but the grammar as well. The story encourages people to want to read more because they realize that there is a lot more to a story than just a story.

First of all, in the time of a grade 8 boy’s life, they are moving onto the next step of their journey to adulthood. It is really crucial at this time that they learn the important lessons of principals such as perspective or appreciation, and in my opinion,

When Charlie becomes intelligent, it teaches the reader that all of that hard work was worth it, and it had bred an immense amount of success. This a great time for the reader to really learn this lesson and see it in effect because this story makes you happy for Charlie’s accomplishments. It gives you the perspective that nobody is ever a lost cause, and they can be the change they want to see in themselves. This story is also extremely emotional, it makes the reader really sad when Algernon and Charlie begin to deteriorate. It again teaches the reader to be grateful for what they have when they have it, because you never truly appreciate something until it has been taken away from you. For example, in the story the smart Charlie was laughing at a disabled kid when he dropped some plates, it was at this moment that Charlie realizes that he was once like that, being made fun of, and it was wrong to make fun of the kid. It really puts things into perspective, the contrast between a smart Charlie and an unintelligent Charlie. Secondly, speaking of contrast, this also teaches a student about writing conventions, in