Charlie's Dynamic Character In Daniel Keyes Flowers For Algernon

In “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes, the main character Charlie is an individual with mental disabilities who has been given the opportunity to undergo an operation that would improve his learning capacity. Charlie decides to have the surgery, but as he gets smarter, he realizes he will lose all of his progress, and he must learn how to cope with that difficult process. Throughout the story, the reader clearly knows that Charlie is a round character as when the workers at the factory made fun of him he “[didn’t] understand why he said that” (39). Because the reader knows what Charlie is thinking, it is clear that he is a round character through the way he expresses himself in his writing. While Charlie was beginning to get smarter he

The change in Charlie is undeniable when Charlie starts beating the mouse Algernon, and he knows that he “must be getting smart to beat a smart mouse like Algernon” (41). In addition to the reader’s ability to see Charlie’s progression, Charlie himself can see that he is getting smarter. This detail proves that Charlie has changed since the beginning of the story because just nine days after he complained that he was not getting smarter, he can see his own improvement. Later on, in Charlie’s arduous journey, he finds through his own research that his brain is going to regress to the point where he will no longer be able to function. Previously, he had pushed himself to learn as much as he could in a very short time period, causing his brain to retrograde at a rapid speed. In the resolution of the story, Charlie decides that he cannot take the pity from the people around him, and he must leave New York to escape the offers of philanthropy that surrounded him (62). Charlie’s decision to leave reflects the major effect of his stark regression, and explains his feelings on what was going to happen to him. Charlie is a round, dynamic character whose personality and views speak deeply to the