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How Does Daniel Keyes Use Hope In Flowers For Algernon

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Do mentally disabled people have more hope than one who is normal? In the novel, Flowers for Algernon, the main character, Charlie Gordon is a disabled adult. Finds hope in people to assist him in getting smarter than his old self. The author, Daniel Keyes, concludes that one may recognize the struggle against a disabled adult whose hope is to become intelligent. Keyes wrote Flowers for Algernon from Charlie’s perspectives through his Progress Reports, a disabled adult with an unusually low intelligence, who undergoes a procedure that has already been highly successful when tested on a lab mouse named Algernon. As the experiment takes an impact, Charlie’s knowledge expands until it surpasses that of the doctors who prepared his surgery. The …show more content…

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). This indicates that …show more content…

Specifically, Charlie, the adult who embarks upon an unprecedented journey, while concluding himself forcing to write, simply asserts, “I keep putting it off for most of the day, but I know how important it is, and I’ve got to do it. I’ve told myself I won’t have dinner until I sit down and write something–anything” (Keyes 285). This clearly mentions that Keyes further demonstrates Charlie’s hope to increase his knowledge to better understand. In other words, he is forcing himself to write as he does not agree with being forced but feels that is his only possibility. Keyes draws a comparison between this early image of Charlie and Algernon being force fed. Additionally, Charlie, while seeking methods that will assist him, simply remarks, “I’ll do anything else you want. Just no more mazes–that’s all” (Keyes 286). Charlie thoughts about the mazes imply that Charlie has hope to further expand his knowledge by doing something other than completing mazes; practicing mazes will not expand his knowledge. Keyes characterizes Charlie as having difficult and getting frustrated and finds himself perplexed by the analysis. Keyes draws comparisons between Charlie and Algernon when Algernon did not want to complete the mazes

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