Mental Disabilities In Flowers For Algernon By Daniel Keyes

As Collinsdictionary.com defines, mental disability is a general handicap, resulting directly or indirectly from injury to the brain or from abnormal neurological development. Charlie was a mentally disabled adult who faced many challenges throughout his life, which impacted him in spelling, grammar, memory, ability to make friends, and much more. In Daniel Keyes’s science fiction short story, “Flowers for Algernon,” Charlie Gordon should not have had the operations to increase his IQ. After getting the surgery, many positive aspects of his life disappeared, and shortly after, caused his life to take a turn down the wrong road. Charlie before he had the surgery was much better than his life afterwards. To begin, before the operation Charlie was much more happier and healthier in both a physical and mental way. First, Charlie always enjoyed having company around him, and he loved spending time with his “friends.” Keyes added, “We had a lot of fun at the factery today… that made me laff. Their really my friends and they like me” (317). To elaborate, he thought his coworkers were truly his friends although they made fun of him; however, it made Charlie happy and excited to go back and see them. Second, he was very motivated to learn and become smarter just like his friends Joe and Frank, even though they were just average people. Charlie said enthusiastically, “They said Miss. Kinnian told that I was

However, after the surgery, his entire life began going downhill; for example, Charlie began to feel more depressed as he did not have any friends other than Algernon. In conclusion, as Albert Einstein once said, “The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its