Flowers for Algernon
by Daniel Keyes
Summary
Charlie Gordan is a 32-year-old retard man who gets the opportunity to become smart by getting an experimental operation that has only worked on a mouse named Algernon. Once he got the operation he started to get smarter by the day. soon the Charlie Gordan who could not write and was alway made fun of without knowing becomes the Charlie Gordon who could "speak twenty languages, living and dead"(Daniel Keyes 187). Through the story, he develops feeling between two women and, his personality starts to change. He also starts having vivid childhood flashback of his home and how he was treated. He only gets to live with this intelligence for a short period of time as eventually he reverts to his old self.
Character Analysis-Charlie Gordan
Conflict-Character vs. Society
Resoulution
Authors message/Theme
Textual evidence
― Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon
I like this quote because it shows that intelligence does not always get you anything. Intelligence does not also always give you human affection. When a man seeks knowledge he loses his sense of compassion towards people. Having knowledge with the absents of love and affection can break a person. The person emotions and feeling will deteriorate until they are a hollow shell of knowledge. This quote is very important and shows how when mankind treats people who are mentally challenge compared to the rest of the world who is not.
Flowers for Algernon a 5/5
Mental retardation
Early intervention
Athens Lunatic Asylum
Citations
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"Disabled" - A Short Documentary. Dir. Haley Kimbrough. YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33wG1nRjNL0. YouTube, 05 May 2015. Web. 05 May 2016. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33wG1nRjNL0>.
Learning Disabilities. Digital image. Neuroblog588. N.p., 25 Apr. 2012. Web. 5 May 2016. <http://neuroblog588.blogspot.com/>.
Davidrivasdiscua. Flowers for Algernon Mistreatment of the Mentally DisabledFlowers for Algernon Mistreatment of the Mentally Disabled. Digital image. Storyboard That. N.p., 25 Mar. 2016. Web. 5 May 2016. <http://www.storyboardthat.com/storyboards/davidrivasdiscua/flowers-for-algernon-mistreatment-of-the-mentally-disabled>
He, Michelle. "Treatment of the Mentally Disabled From 1900 to Today." Prezi. N.p., 9 Sept. 2014. Web. 5 May 2016. <https://prezi.com/zzxpexda3pyt/treatment-of-the-mentally-disabled-from-1900-to-today/>.
Buchanan, Rose Troup. "A Pill to Make You Smart? Scientists' Breakthrough in Unlocking the Brain's Potential by Returning It to Child-like State." The Independent. Independent Digital News and Media, 11 Nov. 2014. Web. 05 May 2016. <http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/a-pill-to-make-you-smart-scientists-breakthrough-in-unlocking-the-brains-potential-by-returning-it-9853446.html>
Mohit Joshi. "Switch That Controls Neuronal Migration in Developing Brain Identified." Switch That Controls Neuronal Migration in Developing Brain Identified | TopNews. N.p., 27 Nov. 2010. Web. 05 May 2016. <http://www.topnews.in/health/switch-controls-neuronal-migration-developing-brain-identified-29368>
Roy, Sudipta. Early Intervention. Digital image. Psy Lens. Psy Lens, 2013. Web. 5 May 2016. <http://www.sudiptaroysurat.com/services.php>.
Rylands, Traci. The Athens Asylum Cemeteries. Digital image. Adventures in Cemetery Hopping. N.p., 25 July 2014. Web. <https://adventuresincemeteryhopping.wordpress.com/2014/07/25/grave-153-the-mystery-of-levin-martin-mercer/>.