His findings also make him feel happy which is great to come from a discovery which he made after the surgery. In Charlie’s last progress report when he is saying personal goodbyes to everyone who helped him on the journey to becoming smart, he mentions, “Evry body feels sorry... I dont want that... Im going someplace where nobody knows that Charlie Gordon was once a genus and now he cant even reed a book or rite good [sic],” (Keyes 27). Charlie is moving out of New York because he does not want people to feel sorry for him anymore.
In his final entry, a farewell letter to Miss Kinnian and Dr. Strauss he states “If you ever reed this Miss Kinnian dont be sorry for me Im glad I got a second chanse to be smart becaus I lerned a lot of things that I never even new were in this world and Im grateful that I saw it all for a little bit {sic},” (Keyes 28). Even with all the agony that came with his experiment, from both the rejection of his friends and from his depressing loss of the knowledge he gained, Charlie thinks it was still worth it. Instead of being bitter he returns to the optimistic person in the beginning who believed he could turn smart if he worked hard enough. Charlie wasn’t spiteful to the scientists who performed the surgery or hostile to Miss Kinnian who recommended him for the surgery because of his optimism. He always wanted to be smart and he got his wish.
The league of Women Voters and the DAlton Junior Women’s club open up at shelter in 1978. The first facility was at a First Baptist Church the doors to the shelter open in 1980. Betty Higgins was the director in 1980 she retired not to long ago and now Katora Printup is the director. I also found that the crisis center has outreach for Murray and Gordon
What if I told you, having an alternate timeline where Charlie had never become smarter is the better choice? In my opinion, having Charlie stay as the little dumb goofball would be more beneficial for him. When his brain started regressing, his smartness started to deteriorate and so did his memories. The operation even made him forget the most obvious things such as his name and where he lives (“A policeman had to take me home.”). Furthermore, the worst part is that he is well aware of this happening and is watching himself decay each day knowing he cannot escape the inevitable.
Do you ever wish that you could just suddenly change into someone you think is “Perfect?” Where you have gone to your breaking point? Well that’s how Charlie Gordon feels, a 37 year old special man, in the story “Flowers for Algernon.” But the thing is Charlie had the opportunity to change all that, with an operation. The catch is the operation could have temporary side effects.
His IQ goes down because he wants his old life back and his old friends, no matter what they did to him in the past. Another quote, which demonstrates and reinforces the second argument is the following, “I figured out a new way to set up the mixing machines in the bakery to speed up production.” (p.59). In this quote, Charlie Gordon says that he found a new way to set up the mixing machines in the bakery to speed up production. This happens in the middle of the book when Charlie has an IQ of 185.
The Operation I’M SO DUMB!!!!! “I’m not so fast sometimes. I’m a slow reader too in Miss Kinnians class for slow adults, but i’m trying very hard” Daniel Keyes page 54. This is a character from the book “Flowers for Algernon” the character is Charlie Gordon he is a grown man that goes to a class to help him he is very slow in the brain. But his teacher Ms. Kinnian says that he has an opportunity to have an operation done on his brain to try to make him smarter but there is a bit of a problem.
How much are you willing to take to increase your intelligence? “Flowers for Algernon”, by Daniel Keys, was a story about a man with a mental disability. His name was Charlie Gordon, and through a surgery, tripled his IQ. Even though Charlie lost his intelligence, he was improved because of the experiment, and achieved his dream of being brainy. Charlie desired nothing more than to be “normal”, but this experiment made him supernatural, but achieved many great things.
Daniel Keyes betrays the theme that intelligence doesn’t affect who you truly are. Before the operation, Charlie has a motivated characteristic and it is still there after the operation when he was getting more intelligent. I know this because in the passage it says, “ I’ll show that mouse I can be as smart as he is (Keyes p. 352),” which shows that Charlie is motivated before the operation . The test also says, “ Miss Kinnian teaches me to spell better (Keyes p. 358),” which shows that Charlie was still motivated and still working to get smarter after the operation. Charlie is a motivated character and that doesn’t change after the operation.
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
When Charlie is below average no one understands him, his family kicks him out, and his friends at work make fun of him. For example they often say “ to pull a Charlie Gordon” (Keyes 42), when they have done something stupid. When Charlie gains intelligence, still no one wants to be his friend because they do not understand him and they almost fear him. Not only does Charlie’s friends see him change but Charlie, himself, sees himself changing, “ I’m not myself.
At the beginning of the book, Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, Charlie Gordon, a bright man with a low IQ was always ecstatic to learn and appreciate those around him who helped him, such as his teacher Ms.Kinnian and his friends at the bakery. However, when Charlie is presented with the chance of a lifetime, the ability to participate in an experimental surgery that will exponentially raise his IQ he couldn’t refuse. Charlie goes from a hard-working, kind, passionate man to a greedy, selfish individual. In Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, it is evident that selfishness ultimately leads to a deterioration of character.
With an IQ of sixty-eight, Charlie never could become smart like he wanted to. He even stated in his first progress report, “I want to be smart” March 5. After the procedure, he was finally able to accomplish his dream of becoming smart. Even though now, Charlie still doesn’t fit in, he is still much happier than he was before. He even stopped hanging out with Joe and Frank, because now, he was smart enough to figure out they were always just tormenting him.
During the story, Charlie believes intelligence is very important, so he takes the risk of having the surgery, but when he figures out that he will lose the knowledge it causes him distress. Charlie says ’Oh god, please don’t take it all away’(Keyes 23). This statement explains how Charlie must be feeling about the surgery now because he is going to lose it all in the end. As the story progresses, Charlie becomes smarter and understands more about the side effects and about the way Algernon turned and how he died. Charlie decides to research what went wrong with Algernon and whether it was the surgery or just natural causes so because Charlie was so advanced academically, he found out a lot of information which helped him to find out whether his knowledge would be permanent or not.
When Charlie got brain surgery he began to understand his past. Charlie's memories caused him to break inside and gave him awareness of his troubled childhood. He was mistreated by the people he called friends and he never understood why. When he was given brain surgery he lived life like a real person. Charlie’s
