ipl-logo

How Does Daniel Keyes Use Direct Characterization In Flowers For Algernon

590 Words3 Pages

The story, "Flowers for Algernon", by Daniel Keyes, articulates a vacuous man's journey as he undergoes an operation which will lead him to being a genius. Charlie Gordon was born mentally challenged, but precedes an honest, kind, and simple mien. Throughout his journey, Charlie saw the world in a different view as his intelligence increases, but it had drew a wedge between him and the world. As a man who no longer owns the enjoyment of life, Charlie turned into a somber loner. Daniel Keyes used this story to convey that people are each created beautifully and uniquely; intrusions will only take away the arcane happiness inside life's marrow.

Charlie's childish naiveté made him a target for people to laugh at. Nevertheless, he didn't know the sophistication of people's words and was simply enjoying tangible things. "Everybody laughed and we had a good time...I don't know what that means, but everyone likes me and we have fun." (pg. …show more content…

Strauss and Dr. Nemur worked as cunning opportunists who intervened Charlie's life just to prove their hypothesis. In their specialization of psychology, they decided to perform an operation on Charlie to improve his intelligence. However, the operation had changed people around Charlie. He said, "Everybody seems to be frightened of me...People don't talk to me much anymore or kid around the way they used to. It makes the job kind of lonely." (pg. 232, C2, paragraph 4&5). Although before the operation people laugh at Charlie, but in his eyes they're being friendly. While after the operation people tend to avoid contact with him. Earlier in the story, Daniel Keyes foreshadowed Charlie after the operation using the book "Robinson Crusoe". Charlie showed sympathy from Crusoe as he wrote, "Only I feel sorry because he's all alone and has no friends...I hope he gets a friend and not be lonely. "(pg.229, C2, paragraph 1).Therefore, it's better to leave Charlie as he was before than to intervene and take his friends

Show More
Related
831 Words | 4 Pages

In his final entry, a farewell letter to Miss Kinnian and Dr. Strauss he states “If you ever reed this Miss Kinnian dont be sorry for me Im glad I got a second chanse to be smart becaus I lerned a lot of things that I never even new were in this world and Im grateful that I saw it all for a little bit {sic},” (Keyes 28). Even with all the agony that came with his experiment, from both the rejection of his friends and from his depressing loss of the knowledge he gained, Charlie thinks it was still worth it. Instead of being bitter he returns to the optimistic person in the beginning who believed he could turn smart if he worked hard enough. Charlie wasn’t spiteful to the scientists who performed the surgery or hostile to Miss Kinnian who recommended him for the surgery because of his optimism. He always wanted to be smart and he got his wish.

Read More
1033 Words | 5 Pages

Charlie did not even benefit that well from being a test subject in the experiment. Similarly, the treatment of Charlie was not very ethical because he was not treated specially for his mental state of disability. Lastly, this surgery did not provide enough benefits to even dent the weight of his unethical death. In the story Charlie was used because of his inferior intelligence and not treated well enough as he should have which led to his wrongful death. This story was fictional, but the use and abuse of human test subjects is

Read More
536 Words | 3 Pages

The operation caused Charlie’s life to change traumatically, including his social environment. Social issues became a reality for Charlie. Over time he found out that Joe and Frank are not as friendly as he thought they were. Furthermore, Charlie received a petition from his coworkers against him, because they did not accept that he was different, which caused him to be fired. Additionally, he realized that when people said “pulled a Charlie Gordon” it was not humor, but an insult.

Read More
755 Words | 4 Pages

His new friend was Fanny she was the only person at work who did not sign the petition . It made Charlie feel good that there was someone who did not think that he should be fired. That there was someone that thought he should have the right to

Read More
791 Words | 4 Pages

After some time, Charlie figured out that he should be who he was instead of trying to fall under society's standards. Charlie did not want to accept this and tried his best to find a solution, though he had to accept the fact that he was

Read More
683 Words | 3 Pages

For that reason, Charlie was determined to commence with the operation and willing to overlook what risks he was aware of and unable to examine those he was unaware of. The doctors exploited Charlie’s loneliness and desperation and made him feel like being chosen was an honor, whereas they were conscious of the dire consequences. They performed the same surgery that doomed countless mice on Charlie with complete disregard for his life, as if he were just another mouse. The doctors’ pretense was to cure man kind of lower-level brain function in people like Charlie. However, the doctors’ true motive was to gain prestige in the field of psychology, so they recklessly sacrificed Charlie for their goals.

Read More
187 Words | 1 Pages

Before the operation, he acts clueless. For example, he doesn’t understand why his friends laugh at him and making the joke saying, “Don’t pull a Charlie Gordon.” He also didn’t realize that Dr. Strauss and Dr. Nemur don’t care about Charlie’s growth in knowledge after the operation, but all they want is the money. He eventually realized all these things were true after the operation. Charlie is also intellectually disabled.

Read More
255 Words | 2 Pages

“Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes is a story about a mentally handicapped man named Charlie who undergoes surgery to become smarter. However, as he grows smarter and smarter he starts to realize that being incredibly smart doesn't make life easier. Through this story, Daniel Keyes developes characterization to convey theme. Daniel Keyes develops characterization to convey the theme of the grass not always being greener on the other side. Throughout the story, we see that the smarter Charlie becomes, the worse life gets for him.

Read More
897 Words | 4 Pages

  This reveals that Charlie has relationships at work.   However, this quote reveals that the people he has relationships with only make fun of him and on not really his friends.  

Read More
702 Words | 3 Pages

However, after the surgery, Charlie finds intelligence was a nice treat but was far from an importance in life and only took him away from what truly mattered. One could believe Charlie was wrong to undergo the surgery because of the side effects that came with the surgery such as physical and emotional instability, and amnesia, the depresion it came with, and how he lost all of his friends and loved ones with his extreme intelligence. First off, one reason Charlie should not have gotten the surgery is the depression and suicidal thoughts it came with for

Read More
428 Words | 2 Pages

The operation may have made Charlie smarter, but it made him unhappy as well. According to the short story “Flowers for Algernon” it states in progress report 12-April 30 “Now I’m more alone than ever before.” This is because everyone at his job except for one person wants him gone, even the people he thought were his friends. It also states in the June 30 progress report “He feels guilty”. They all do the same.

Read More
826 Words | 4 Pages

All the while, he pushed the limits of his intelligence, never able to be as smart as an average person in the world. Starting at the beginning of the story, Charlie leads a life, though most likely not seen so by the rest of society, of content, one almost of blissfulness in his ignorance. Inferior is how the rest of the world and people around him see Charlie, simply due to his lack of intelligence, however, when Charlie starts to become smarter, another feeling creeps into their hearts. Fear. One of Charlie's co-workers, Fanny, the only one in fact who did not sign a petition to fire him from work, says on page 14 and 15, “...there's something strange about you, Charlie.

Read More
519 Words | 3 Pages

Charlie Feehan is the main protagonist in the novel, The Runner. Charlie changes how he sees the world from three experiences. Charlie changed when his father dies. Charlie also changed after he fought Mr Peacock and Finally, Charlie changed when he shows empathy towards Squizzy’s debtors.

Read More
1743 Words | 7 Pages

On its surface, the deal looks like a good one; Charlie gets to become smart, and interact with his friends in a normal fashion. However, as the story progresses, the deal doesn’t look so great after all. For one, after the operation, Charlie is unable to converse at an everyday level, falls into a downward spiral in both mental and physical health, and figures out that Joe Carp and Frank Reilly, two people he thought were his friends, just kept him around to laugh at him, which leads to him starting to suspect everyone around him. By observing the piece with a more critical mindset that acknowledges the story’s importance, and after deliberating claims and evidence from both sides, we can safely come to the conclusion that the operation merely traded one form of isolation for another, with added physical and mental deterioration. In the end, the choice is obvious:

Read More
576 Words | 3 Pages

One reason that Charlie was better off before the surgery was because he had the motivation to learn. on page 268, Charlie Gordon says, “Mrs. Kinnian told that I was her bestest pupil in the adult nite scool becaus I tryed the hardest and reely wanted to lern.” This means that Charlie had the motivation to learn to be smart and he tried harder than anyone, so that was why she

Read More

More about How Does Daniel Keyes Use Direct Characterization In Flowers For Algernon

Related Topics

Open Document