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Daniel Keyes Use Of Figurative Language In Flowers For Algernon

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It is difficult to fit in when you are not as smart as everybody else, but that does not stop this character from trying to become smarter. Daniel Keyes’s Flowers for Algernon is a story about 32-year-old Charlie Gordon and his determination to become intelligent. With an IQ of 68, Charlie isn’t as smart as everybody else so he attends a night school with his teacher Miss Kinnian to assist him. He hopes he’ll be chosen by Dr. Strauss for an experiment to become intelligent. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes uses rhetorical devices, diction, and figurative language, to convey the value of knowledge in American society & culture.
Daniel Keyes's word choice contains words Charlie never used until after the effects of the experiment, which …show more content…

“And the other ten times we did it over Algernon won evry time because I coudnt find the right rows to get to where it says FINISH. I dint feel bad because I watched Algernon and I lernd how to finish the amaze even if it takes me along time.” (6). This quote shows the progress of Charlie's learning because as he watched Algernon complete the maze several times, Charlie eventually learns to do it himself. “If the operashun werks good I'll show that mouse I can be as smart as he is even smarter. Then I'll be abel to reed better and spell the werds good and know lots of things and be like other pepul. Boy that woud serprise everyone.” (8)
This quote shows Charlie’s determination to become smart to impress his family and make friends. “Evry morning I think Im gone to be smart but nothing happins. Mabye the experimint dint werk. Maby I wont get smart and I'll have to go live at the Warren home. I hate the tests and I hate the amazeds and I hate Algernon.” Keyes 17
This quote is related to the topic because every morning when Charlie wakes up and expects to be smart, there is no change and he blames Algernon and the mazes. Algernon was a crucial part of Charlie’s journey to becoming

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Will the same happen to Charlie? Through the novel Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes demonstrates that despite the obstacles and hardships, hope drives that person to continue doing things through Charlie’s journey to increasing intelligence, Algernon’s decline, and Charlie’s decline at the close of the novel. Initially, Keyes utilizes Charlie’s motivation for going through with increasing intelligence to illustrate that hope drives those who might otherwise give up due to the obstacles and hardships. For example, Charlie, the disabled adult, while he conveys his hope to increasing intelligence, simply states, “I dont care so much about beeing famus. I just want to be smart like other pepul so I can have lots of frends who like me” (Keyes 13).

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