Flowers For Algernon By Daniel Keyes

Nathan Dickinson Mr. Schmidt English 1/2 5/8/24 Conscious and Subconscious “In a very real sense we have two minds, one that thinks and one that feels.” - Daniel Goleman. In the story Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes published in 1959, Daniel Keyes uses the character of Charlie Gordon to show a story about how he was previously challenged, and after surgery, Charlie's mental capacity increased. However, only his intellectual intelligence was changed while his emotional and sexual intelligence did not, to portray this Charlie's subconscious mind was occupied by a pre-surgery Charlie which would create a barrier that prevented him from being social. Daniel Keyes uses motif, foreshadowing, and symbolism in the book “Flowers for Algernon” to show that the conscious Charlie and subconscious Charlie are explanations for why

When Charlie realizes that the dumb and innocent kid he was watching is him, it opens his eyes and exposes him to the cruel world. Charlie's perspective switches also help show his innocence, “. the two of us lying in each other’s arms. I saw his trousers were open, and he was exposed.” These quotes show that Charlie still has that emotional innocence and that only his intellectual brain is developing, throughout the whole book Charlie has these perspective switches and realizes that his emotional brain is not developing and this is shown with an immature Charlie “watching him.” Secondly, Daniel Keyes uses Algernon to foreshadow what happens to Charlie Gordon. In the second half of this book, Algernon starts to regress and Charlie Gordon fears that he will also regress. What alluded me to is the reason for his regress— is it a special case? An isolated reaction to the