Memory In Daniel Keyes Flowers For Algernon

Memory is the sum total of what one remembers, and gives the capability to learn and adapt from previous experiences as well as to build relationships. It is the ability to remember past experiences, and the power or process of recalling to mind previously learned facts, experiences, impressions, skills and habits. It can be thought of in general terms as the use of past experience to affect or influence current behaviour. In Daniel Keyes’ novel Flowers for Algernon, Charlie Gordon, a 32-year-old developmentally disabled man undergoes a surgical procedure that dramatically increases his mental capabilities. This enables him to recover lost memories of his childhood, most of which involve his mother, Rose, who resented and often brutally punished

He remembers times when he has been lost: once with his parents in a department store, and a night with his “best frends” Joe Carp and Frank Reilly. Charlie and his coworkers go to a neighborhood bar; Charlie drinks too much whiskey, and Joe and Frank tell him to walk around the corner to see if it is raining, then they ditch him. When Charlie returns he figures that they “went to find him” and Charlie “looks all over for them” but “feels bad at himself for getting lost because… Algernon could go up and down those streets a hundrid times and not get lost like he did” (30). Charlie wants people to like him, and he looks at pleasing Joe Carp and Frank Reilly as one way to get them to accept him. Although not expressly stated, at some point Charlie realizes that liking involves more than pleasing, it's connecting. Charlie connects with very few people both before and after his surgery, and his conscious mind doesn’t remember much about his family, but he has constant flashes of memory about them, and their rejection of him. His mother’s final rejection and dumping him at the Home is traumatic. Rose’s treatment also brings out the worst in Norma, his sister, who rejects him with childish insensitivity. In adulthood, Charlie does not abandon Algernon, and a small coterie of people, including Alice, never abandon Charlie and remain loyal to Charlie even during his regression. Charlie recounts a conversation he has with Nemur shortly before his operation. Nemur cannot guarantee that Charlie’s procedure will be successful, but he is trying to make Charlie feel good about his participation in the experiment, by telling him stories of fame. However, in Charlie’s words: “ I dont care so much about beeing famus. I just want to be smart like other pepul so I can have lots of frends