Think about what it would be like if you could make yourself three times smarter. Charlie Gordon did from “Flowers for Algernon” did. Charlie Gordon is a thirty seven year old man with an IQ of only sixty eight. This means he is very unintelligent. He got a controversial brain surgery tripling his intelligence. After his intelligence tripled, it quickly wore off. Algernon a mouse and friend of Charlie’s also had the surgery. Charlie Gordon should not have got the IQ surgery because of the danger and negative side effects, the heartbreak, and it made him non-nïave to the world. Charlie should not have got the surgery because of the dangerous and negative side effects. The surgery was a brand new brain surgery. A unneeded brain surgery could cause someone to die or go brain dead. Also as Charlie’s intelligence wore off, he got sick, staying in bed for weeks not eating. He went into emotional instability. Finally Charlie could die like Algernon died.Algernon died after his surgery wore off due to smoothing of the cerebral convolutions. This could still happen to Charlie causing his death. Charlie told us,”I get awful headaches and aspirin doesn’t help me much”(p. 339). This is an example of the awful pain Charlie …show more content…
Before the surgery Charlie didn’t know what it was like to be smart. Without this knowledge he didn 't want to be intelligent as bad, causing him to be happier with who he was. Secondly, Charlie had people who he thought were his friends. When he got the surgery, he found out he had no friends. Finally, when he obtained his intelligence he also learned that his “friends” just made fun of him, causing him emotional distress. Charlie once stated,”Now I know what it means to “pull a Charlie Gordon.” I’m ashamed” (p.323). To “pull a Charlie Gordon” is what people would say when someone preformed a major mistake. With Charlie’s intelligence came embarrassment that Charlie wasn’t capable to
His intelligence came with a price that made him rethink his entire situation. Charlie was happier with an IQ of 68 because he was oblivious to what was going on around him, people would treat him differently after the surgery, and he struggled with his identity. Charlie was happier when he was oblivious to what was going on around him. Being oblivious and ignorant is not a good thing, but in Charlie's case, not knowing
The surgery worked at first, but then he gradually lost his newfound intelligence. Even Though he ended up where he began, his life was very different. Although Charlie had a nice life before the surgery, it allowed him to realize that some parts of his life were different than he thought they were and because of this he was better off after the surgery. Throughout the story Charlie begins to realize that some of his best friends actually are just making fun of him because of his low intelligence.
Its so obvious he would do anything to be smart. The only problem is that he didn't have the mental capacity to understand what the surgery would do. Charlie had a hard time with spelling simple words like write. So how could he understand what the surgery would do to him and how it would effect his life he didn’t know how to think about all the backlash for this decision. Charlie wasn't smart enough to understand what would happen to him after the
Charlie is beginning to feel isolated and alienated from the people at his work. People begin to sign a petition to kick him out of his job. He learns that intelligence does not buy happiness and it ruined all of his friendships and purpose in life. He becomes depressed and begins to spend all of his time in his apartment then he begins to regress. Charlie’s intelligence created a wall that separated him from everyone around him.
Charlie found out how to scrutinize, write, prabble, and understand people better than he ever could. Charlie gets so smart that he
One time Joe and Frank took Charlie to a party. Charlie said he did not want to drink alcohol, so Joe gives him a coke and then tells him to go dance with a girl named Ellen then he tried to dance with her but he was always stumbling because someone was always tripping him. He saw .that everyone was laughing at him and then he ran out of the building and threw up because somebody spiked the coke. A quote from that part was “ now I know what it means when they say “to pull a Charlie Gordon.”
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
Alice, or Miss Kinnian, was Charlie’s teacher when he attended the college for retarted adults when his I.Q. was about 70. He maintained a friendly and semi-romantic relationship with her when his intelligence soared and he left the college class. Now that his I.Q. is so high he is feeling distant with people with even above average intelligences. His wish for intelligence is not solving his problems with relationships and is not making his life perfect. Close to the end of the novel Charlie is regressing rapidly with his
The operation is meant to increase his intelligence and with intelligence he can touch the sky. With education, there are endless possibilities. In the story, Charlie does not know how to read, write, or spell. After his surgery, he meets
For example, on page 299, “I felt sick inside as I looked at his dull, vacuous smile, the wide bright eyes of a child, uncertain but easy to please. And I had been laughing at him too. Suddenly, I was furious at myself and all those who were laughing at him.” Here, Charlie was realizing that people were mean and rude to people who weren’t like them. That people looked down to people who were different than them or not as smart.
While being tested for eligibility for the operation, Charlie writes in his report, “I told them becaus all my life I wantid to be smart and not dumb. But its very hard to be smart. They said you know it will probly be tempirery. I said yes. Miss Kinnian told me.
However, after the surgery, Charlie finds intelligence was a nice treat but was far from an importance in life and only took him away from what truly mattered. One could believe Charlie was wrong to undergo the surgery because of the side effects that came with the surgery such as physical and emotional instability, and amnesia, the depresion it came with, and how he lost all of his friends and loved ones with his extreme intelligence. First off, one reason Charlie should not have gotten the surgery is the depression and suicidal thoughts it came with for
Before Charlies operation he was not able to express his feelings accurately, but Charlies temporary intelligence
His motivation doesn’t change because of his intelligence because that is who Charlie truly is as a person. Charlie is a person who strives to be accepted by the people he is
Lastly, nobody wants to die. After Charlie experienced all of these fascinating things, it will all be taken away not only by progressive amnesia, but by death, the worst cost from his adventure. Algernon the mouse died because of the surgery, and Charlie will soon come to the same fate. Charlie states, “I’ve got to try to hold on to some of it.