Surgery In Flowers For Algernon By Daniel Keyes

You are the best you you can be, altering yourself can result in repercussions. The book “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes takes place during 1965 in New York. The book regards a man who undergoes a procedure to acquire advanced intelligence. The man's name is Charlie and he is 37 with an Intelligence Quotient of 68. Charlie desperately wanted to be normal, in order to achieve that he agreed to have an operation performed on his brain. He realized even after the procedure he was still viewed as unusual and continued to be ostracized by his peers. The effects of the surgery were drastic and negative. At first it helped him achieve his goal, although it then continued to grow until it fell apart, leaving him worse than before. The procedure caused more harm than good, and almost compromised Charlie's mental and physical state.

After, however, he was hit with the harsh realization. Charlie’s friends constantly produced jokes about him, and degraded him. He didn’t understand that they were being mean, so when they said “you pulled a Charlie Gordon” he thought it was funny, not a way of expressing someone’s idiocy. He registered his former friends uncivil actions: “Everyone was looking at me and laughing and I felt naked… It’s a funny thing I never knew Joe and Frank and the others likes to have me around all the time to make fun of me” (352). If Charlie continued his life without getting the operation his mental health wouldn't have taken such a toll. The surgery, although it fulfilled his hope for the knowledge, took away the only friends he