Was Flowers For Algernon: Was Charlie Better Off Before Or After The Surgery?

Was Charlie Better Off Before or After the Surgery? In “Flowers for Algernon,” Daniel Keyes wrote that Charlie Gordon has an IQ of 68, and is in Mrs. Kinnian’s night class for slow adults. Charlie may be dumb, but he was so happy before the surgery and he had a job and “friends.” The reason that Charlie Gordon was better off before the surgery is because he had the motivation to become smart, and after the surgery he becomes depressed and realizes that the world plus the people in it are cruel. 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

For example, on page 299, “I felt sick inside as I looked at his dull, vacuous smile, the wide bright eyes of a child, uncertain but easy to please. And I had been laughing at him too. Suddenly, I was furious at myself and all those who were laughing at him.” Here, Charlie was realizing that people were mean and rude to people who weren’t like them. That people looked down to people who were different than them or not as smart. Although, if Charlie did not have the surgery, he would not have had the experience of becoming super smart.
Charlie would agree with me that he did not feel happy with himself that he had the surgery. He decided that he wanted to leave New York because he was so embarrassed about pulling a “Charlie Gordon.” Charlie should not have had the surgery because, before the surgery, he had the motivation to become smart, and after the surgery, he became depressed and realized that the world plus the people in it are