Persuasive Essay Flowers For Algernon

“Flowers for Algernon” Persuasive Essay

Have you ever wondered what it would be like making yourself smarter and/or increase your ability to learn? In the story “Flowers for Algernon”, a 37 year old man named Charlie Gordon wasn’t the smartest person in the world but, he was able to function and maintain a job. Charlie had an I.Q. of 68 before being approached by Dr.Nemur and Dr.Strauss. They wanted him undergo a surgery that would triple his I.Q. Charlie had the surgery and became, at one point, the smartest man in the world with an I.Q. approaching 210. After this he began to lose the intelligence, knowledge, and emotions he just recently gained. This begs the question, should Charlie have had the surgery. Charlie, in most minds, was right for having the surgery, it not only gave him genius level intelligence, but allowed him to make great leaps in science and technology.

He accomplished what many scientists take lifetime’s to do, in a few short weeks. Evidence of this is represented by this quote,”Dr.Strauss thinks that I’m working too hard. Dr.Nemur says I’m trying to cram a lifetime worth of research into a few weeks,”(Keyes, 238). As the quote clearly states, Charlie devoted his short time, as his intelligent self, to try to solve the great mysteries of science. Readers may oppose Charlie having the surgery. Some of them reason that Charlie had rotten emotions such as anger, depression, greed, and loneliness. This brings up the point, Charlie shouldn’t have had the surgery. Although Charlie did deal with these emotions, he felt new and amazing feelings also. He felt happiness, true love, normality, and accomplishment. As he regresses, he states,”...I am grateful for the little bit that I here add to the knowledge to the function of the human mind…”. In most opinions, this outweighs the terrible things he had to