Before the operation, he was not that smart, as he states: “Miss Kinnian says maybe they can make me smart. I want to be smart” (Keyes, 285). However, he could still learn more through Miss Kinnian’s Adult School. Like Algernon the mouse, Charlie could die of the side effects of increasing human intelligence. It did make him smart for a short period of time, but it eventually wore off and led to problems that Charlie did not have before.
Which was caused by his desperate to be intelligent that illustrates how he perseveres through the whole experiment. Last time he did this the Rorschach test, “[he had] pretend[ed] a fowntan pen with ink leeking all over a table cloth.”(Keyes 6) As the effect of the experiment reached to it’s peak, Charlie’s use of scientific words is increasing which is causing no more grammatical or language usage mistakes. For a man who is 37 years old, learning and remembering things would be pretty hard. But Charlie Gordon is a man who never gives up, and is forever willing to do anything that makes himself in a good social status. In addition, he was very strict with himself himself when he was “trying to cram a lifetime of research and thought into a few weeks” (Keyes 28).
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
Charlie also realized that he really liked Miss kinnian. A quote from the book says “I don’t understand why I never noticed how beautiful Miss Kinnian really is.”(Keyes 15). Before the surgery, Charlie did not really understand a lot of stuff, but know that he had the surgery, he understands a lot more stuff including how beautiful Miss Kinnian
Nobody lives happily ever after, but the story impacts people in a way that fairy tales don't. It shows as the reality of people, how others treat people that are different and life in general. If Charlie was a real person I would tell him he needs to get the operation, based on what I know. He deserved to feel like a normal person, and if by any chance he could get that I would tell him to jump at the first sign of hope. So yes, if he had the operation, he could finally pursue his dreams, know what people think of them and why they think that way, and lastly, realizing that he loved Ms. Kinnian.
If all other people like your friends, family and coworkers had something you desperately hungered for, would you truly be content with what you had? How far would you go to get what they had? In Daniel Keyes’ science fiction short story “Flowers for Algernon” Charlie is a factory worker with the humble job of a janitor. He volunteers for an experiment to increase his intelligence by performing surgeries on his brain. The experiment works at first, sending Charlie to I.Q.
The choice of using Charlie Gordon in Daniel Keyes’ book, Flowers for Algernon, for an intelligence altering surgery was unethical and biased. The first reason that Charlie should not have been chosen for the surgery is that it left him and his life in worse condition than when before the surgery. “ I dont want Miss Kinnian to feel sorry for me. Evry body feels sorry at the factery and I dont want that eather so Im going some place where nobody knows that Charlie Gordon was once a genus and now he cant reed a book or rite good” (Keyes 210). This quote illustrates that Charlie has
The book "Flowers Of Algernon" by Daniel Keyes is a science fiction short story based on a man named Charlie, who has a learning disadvantage. He gets a chance to mend himself by getting surgery. The surgery was a dangerous idea which leads to his death. Charlie was better off before the surgery because it changed Charlie's life by making him a miserable and grievous person. One of the reasons Charlie felt this way was because the knowledge he obtained from the surgery was short-term.
Charlie liked the operation at first but then it started going downhill, he he couldn’t spell as easy, he didn’t recognize things like he did and forgot some things that smart Charlie wouldn’t. “I did a dumb thing today I forgot I wasnt in Miss Kinnians class at the adult center any more like I use to be.” (Keyes, 85) the Charlie before the operation would of never forgot about something important like class, he wanted to get smart so he could pass the raw shok test so he tried. While the operation was still working, Charlie was probably one of the smartest people, he realized people were actually making fun of him before when he thought they were just being a friend! After the operation started to wear off, Charlie started forgetting things, and then he started spelling wrong, all these conflicts just add up to Charlie getting the
Flowers for Algernon is a science fiction short story written by Daniel Keyes. The story is about Charlie Gordon, a man with an IQ of 68 who has to go through an operation that will triple his IQ. Charlie does not stay at an IQ of 204 for very long before he starts to regress back to his near mentally retarded self. The story also makes the reader think twice about if it is ethical to enhance human intellect and intelligence by medical procedures. Although the operation done on Charlie was not a success, it still improved Charlie’s life for the better.