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Self Acceptance In Flowers For Algernon

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The classic book Flowers for Algernon, which was written by Daniel Keyes in the late 1900’s, explains the story about a middle-aged man named Charlie Gordon and the struggles he faces from having a mental disability. Charlie Gordon worked at Donnegon’s Box Company, but while working there, he was made fun of and called stupid for something he can’t control. Charlie had a wish for all people to love and accept him, but couldn’t understand that there is always going to be someone that wouldn’t like him which made him feel unwanted and unappreciated. Throughout Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes develops a theme of self-acceptance to explain how people shouldn’t change themselves to fit in with others. Charlie demonstrated self-acceptance throughout …show more content…

Mr. Donnegan thought it was for the best to let Charlie go. There was a petition going around to get Charlie fired. There was 840 names on the petition and Charlie noticed that a certain person didn’t sign it, Fanny Girden. Charlie got upset when Fanny questioned him on how he got so smart so fast. He got angry because she was saying how it wasn’t possible for it to happen so quickly and Charlie just wanted to prove her wrong. On page 366, Fanny says, “that I don’t think there’s something mighty strange about you, Charlie. Them changed. I don’t know. You used to be a good, dependable, ordinary man-- not too bright maybe, but honest. Who knows what you done to yourself to get so smart all of a sudden. Like everybody around here’s been saying, Charlie, it’s not right.” Charlie’s response to that was, “But how can you say that, Fanny? What’s wrong with a man becoming intelligent and wanting to acquire knowledge and understanding of the world around him?”Charlie was disappointed in Fanny when she said that it wasn’t very possible for Charlie to become smart that quickly. This is another very important event that happens in this story because Charlie tries to change himself to fit in and then realizes that’s not what matters. What matters is that he’s happy and it doesn’t matter what other people

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The short story Flowers for Algernon is about a 37 year old man with learning disabilities. He agrees to take on an operation which will enhance his speed of learning and hopefully will make him 2 times smarter. Although the operation goes as planned in my opinion the man, Charlie, has changed negatively through it. In the beginning of the short story Charlie has poor social skills and thinks people who are working with him in a factory are his friends, but they are only mocking him. " Sometimes somebody will say hey look at Joe or Frank or George he really pulled a Charlie Gordon.

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It is better to have great intellect and to be alone than to be happy but dumb. To begin, Charlie is better off with increased intelligence than his natural intelligence. With increased intelligence, Charlie’s first advantage is that he

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By the end of the novel, Charlie realizes that there is more to life and that feeling a connection with someone else is truly what was important to him, not being smarter. Keyes connects this to how our own society should function. He believes that we should shy away from the societal norms and build a society based on love and affection. He broadcasts this through the novel, as Charlie felt loved and was quite happy without all the intelligence. In contrast, after he became smarter, he struggled to find himself and ironically alienated himself from the rest of society.

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