Charlie Monologue

Most people don’t have to try very hard to become smarter, but some cannot at all.

After Charlie’s operation, he begins to have memories from his past. One of those memories is

from his childhood, during school: “Gus pushes him.’ You little bastard did you write this dirty note to my

sister?’Charlie says he didn’t write any dirty notes. ‘I just gave her a valentime’... ‘You keep away from

my kid sister, you degenerate” (54). When Charlie was young, he asked a kid to write a valentine card that

he could give to a girl because he couldn’t, but the kid didn’t write what Charlie asked him to write and

instead wrote a dirty letter, causing Charlie to get beat up.

Another one of Charlie’s memories is also from his childhood,

Charlie’s family brought him to a doctor to make him smarter. Charlie’s

father, Matt, didn’t think that the doctor could make Charlie smart, but Charlie’s mother, Rose, disagreed.

After Matt said the doctor couldn’t do anything, Rose yelled, “Don’t tell me there’s nothing they can do.’...

‘He’s going to be normal, whatever we have to do, whatever it costs” (135). When Charlie was a child, his

mother didn’t care about Charlie, but instead cared about him being “normal”.

Before the operation, Charlie has no knowledge of his past, but after, he remembers he was

treated poorly which hurts him emotionally.

Another way Charlie changed throughout the story is his social interactions.

Before the operation, Charlie enjoyed time with his “friends” at the bakery. He never realized that

they we’re making fun of him all the time: “Joe Carp said hey look where Charlie had his operashun what

did they do Charlie put some brains in… Their my frends and they really like me” (22). Right

Charlie now understands that everyone at the bakery made fun of him and

played pranks on him. He also realized that he was fired because his co-workers felt dumber than him and

they couldn’t make fun of Charlie anymore. Charlie wasn’t smart enough to realize his friends really

didn’t like him and entertained themselves by making fun of him, but the operation changed that.

Another way Charlie changed throughout the story is Before Charlie’s operation, he was always

nice to others and cooperative, but that changes as the story progresses. In the beginning of the story,

Charlie was doing the Rorschach test, and he said “I saw ink spilld on a wite card. Burt said yes and he

smild and that made me feel good” (2). During the test, Charlie was kind and did what he was told.

After Charlie’s last test, he gets mad and yells at Burt, something Charlie has never did before the

operation: “No, you don’t understand because it isn’t happening to you, and no one can understand but

me”(288). After Charlie finishes his tests, he tells Burt that he doesn’t want to do any more tests. Burt

says that he understands why, but Charlie gets irritated, yelling that he doesn’t understand because