An Analysis Of Charlie Gordon's Flowers For Algernon

“Im going someplace where nobody knows that Charlie Gordon was once a genus and now he cant even reed a book or rite good.” (p.23) this line is taken from the very last progress report written by Charlie Gordon in the short story “Flowers for Algernon,” written by Daniel Keyes, 1959. In this report, Charlie describes how he is going to leave New York, due to an experiment gone wrong, thus making you doubt if such an experiment is even a good idea after all.
Throughout this short story one gains an insight to the development of said experiment, from Charlie Gordon’s point of view through his progress reports, and is therefore able to understand it on a more personal level.
In his reports, Charlie is instructed to write down his thoughts and feelings, giving you an opportunity to look into his emotional journey during this experiment as well. In the first couple of progress reports leading up to the surgery, Charlie is very hopeful and eager to learn, eg. “I hope they use me” (p.1) and “Miss Kinnian told … wantid to lern.” (p.2). He is also very naïve, “Maybe white mice are smarter than other mice” (p.2), and easily excited, “Im so excited I can hardly write” (p.3). These personality traits combined simple language, lack of punctuation and many spelling errors, makes it easier for the reader to see exactly how

His spelling and punctuation is the same as it was before the surgery, and there are also some of the same personality traits. He is, for instance, very hopeful, “But if I try and practis very hard maybe Ill get a little smarter and know what all the words are.” (p.22-23). In the end, he knows how everybody feels sorry for him, and he does not enjoy that feeling, so he decides to move away to get a fresh start. He seems to be somewhat at peace with not being as intelligent as he once was, but he still wants to learn and understand things like he used to be able