Diction In Flowers For Algernon

Heaven Dcruze

Ms.Castonguay

Am Lit Psychology

1/19/23

How would one react to gaining consciousness and having to adjust to society's standards? Charlie, a thirty-three year old man with mental retardation, is recruited for an experiment to increase his iq. He thought gaining intelligence would make him more liked, however he soon realizes that society tends to favor those that are below them. Struggling with seeing how society now treats him, and how he used to be treated he sees how nobody truly is kind-hearted. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes uses symbolism and diction to convey how American society views the value of knowledge.

Keyes’ use of diction describes how American society at times favors people of knowledge, but also resents

Starting with how Matt, Charlie's father, accepts his low intelligence, "That's not true! But I realize there's nothing we can do. When you've got a child like him it's a cross, and you bear it, and love it. Well, I can bear him, but I can't stand your foolish ways. You've spent almost all our savings on quacks and phonies-money I could have used to set me up in a nice business of my own.” Matt symbolizes the doctors that they had taken Charlie to all as good for nothing dopes that didn’t do anything but take their money “fixing” his son. He also states that although he loves their son, he has accepted that he cannot be changed. And now Charlie, seeing Rose, his mother, threatening him “Seeing Rose standing there with the knife brought back the picture of that night she had forced Matt to take me away. She was reliving that now. I couldn't speak or move. The nausea swept over me, the choking tension, the buzzing in my ears, my stomach knotting and stretching as if it wanted to tear itself out of my body. She had a knife, and Alice had a knife, and my father had a knife, and Dr.Strauss had a knife…” Although there is an example of repetition, I can connect it to symbolism. Throughout how Charlie is reminiscing his time as a child at how Rose is angered at him and how he feels nauseous. On another note, Charlie thinks that “Each time I