In life people tend to treat you different based on your knowledge level. They will either respect you or use you as a punchline. In the novel Flowers for Algernon, Charlie Gordon is a mentally challenged man who undergoes an operation to make him smart. Before his operation his friends would treat him different than everyone else. Charlie's conflict with his inability to learn like everyone else teaches the reader the importance of knowledge through the way Charlie's parents and co workers treated him before his operation. Charlie is dealing with his struggle to learn like everyone else due to his learning disability. His co-workers would make fun of him but Charlie thought they were praising him. "I never knew before that Joe and Frank and the others liked to have me around just to make fun of me. Now I know what they mean wen they say 'to pull a Charlie Gordon.' I'm ashamed"(Keyes 30). Before Charlie got his operation he took the phrase “'to pull a Charlie Gordon” as an accomplishment, but after his operation he understood they were using him as a joke. Once Charlie gained his knowledge, he gained a life lesson that not everyone you talk to is your friend. …show more content…
“I dont really remember how the party was over but they asked me to go around the corner to see if it was raining and when i came back there was no one their” (Keyes 22). Charlie was out drinking with his friends from the bake shop, and while they were drunk, they told charlie to go around the corner.they ditched him and everyone laughed about it. Then they brought it up at work. Charlie didn't understand it until after his operation that they used him as a