Comparing Flowers For Algernon And Charly

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Differences in “Flowers for Algernon” and Charly

In the short story, “Flowers for Algernon,” and the movie “Charly,” both by Daniel Keyes, present a mentally challenged man named Charlie Gordon. During the story, he goes through an operation that makes him three times smarter than the average man. This however, is temporary and he grows intelligent, but he returns into his old self in the end. The movie, Charly, the changes the foreshadowing, point of view, and symbolism of the story, “Flowers for Algernon,” which makes the theme more effective. Firstly, one of the differences of both of the movie and short story is the foreshadowing of the two parallel characters Charlie and the mouse Algernon. For example, in the short story, Charlie loses his motivation and intelligence overtime, since it happened to Algernon died. In the movie, Algernon does not show any form of regression. Charlie finds him backstage dead instead of seeing him slightly demotivated and neglective. These makes a difference to the main story because the viewer wouldn’t pick up on any signs that Charlie’s intelligence would be temporary. This also doesn’t prepare the viewer for upcoming events and make important situations abrupt. …show more content…

For instance, the short story reveals that Dr. Nemur and Dr. Strauss, the doctors who operated on Charlie, gave Charlie a task; which is to write about his experiences in a journal to track his progress. As for the movie, it was presented in a 3rd person objective point of view. As a result, the viewers of the movie couldn’t grasp Charlie’s emotions and thoughts in depth. However, in the short story, readers can comprehend exactly what Charlie is thinking and feeling in all the events that happened during the