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Who Is Charlie's Chronicle In Flowers For Algernon

953 Words4 Pages

Justin Pham
3/14/23
Period 2, Language Arts

Charlie’s Chronicle

What would you do if you were given the opportunity or chance to increase your knowledge triple the time it is now, but it came at a near cost of death? Would you risk it? For instance, in the story, “Flowers for Algernon,” written by Daniel Keyes. Charlie Gordon is the main character who wants to become intelligent and has experimental brain surgery. After the surgery, Charlie’s rate of intelligence increases drastically after reading more books as he progresses, but he also realizes that his friends are all frauds and they end up distancing themselves away, leaving Charlie all alone. He also falls in love which soon gets seized away due to the peak of his intelligence, …show more content…

Moreover, we can see this event happening when Charlie insists he’s going to try really hard to get smarter than before when he moves away to New York. Charlie claimed, “I’m taking a cuple books along and even if I cant reed them Ill practise hard and maybe I wont forget every thing I learned. If I try reel hard maybe Ill be a littel bit smarter than I was before the operashun”(Keyes 11). By looking at this evidence, we can acknowledge and understand that Charlie is still motivated to keep learning instead of losing all his motivation after the incident. This shows how stronghearted and benevolent Charlie is. On the contrary, some may think that before the surgery, he was already learning and that the surgery side effects took away some of his IQ. Even though Charlie lost a little bit of his IQ, he can always get back his IQ by learning which he is now more determined than ever to …show more content…

Therefore, we can see this event happening when Charlie starts to notice how beautiful Miss Kinnian was as he progresses and he starts to fall in love. Charlie praises,“I don’t understand why I never noticed how beautiful Miss Kinnian really is. She has brown eyes and feathery brown hair that comes to the top of her neck…Now, everytime I see her she grows younger and more lovely”(Keyes 6). In this quote, we can see that Charlie has felt love for the first time in his life. Charlie wouldn’t have felt love for the first time if it wasn’t for the surgery since he gained a sense of awareness. Nevertheless, some may say that Charlie had his heart broken later in the story and it made him feel torn apart. Charlie at least had the sensation of love which he had never felt in his life, and it would probably be better to feel love once in your life rather than not having the feeling of it at

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From his normal life and he didn’t understand everything to knowing more sophisticated language then before, learned how to read faster, found out that there were people that liked him a lot and he got to live several days being almost 4 times as intelligent as he was before. “If you ever reed this Miss Kinnian dont be sorry for me im glad I got a second chanse to be smart becaus I lerned a lot of things that I never even new were in this world and im grateful that I saw it all for a littel bit.” Charlie remembers the beginning when Miss. Kinnian says that he always has a second chance if he doesn’t want to be tested on. which is why he most likely said yes to be tested

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In his final entry, a farewell letter to Miss Kinnian and Dr. Strauss he states “If you ever reed this Miss Kinnian dont be sorry for me Im glad I got a second chanse to be smart becaus I lerned a lot of things that I never even new were in this world and Im grateful that I saw it all for a little bit {sic},” (Keyes 28). Even with all the agony that came with his experiment, from both the rejection of his friends and from his depressing loss of the knowledge he gained, Charlie thinks it was still worth it. Instead of being bitter he returns to the optimistic person in the beginning who believed he could turn smart if he worked hard enough. Charlie wasn’t spiteful to the scientists who performed the surgery or hostile to Miss Kinnian who recommended him for the surgery because of his optimism. He always wanted to be smart and he got his wish.

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His intelligence came with a price that made him rethink his entire situation. Charlie was happier with an IQ of 68 because he was oblivious to what was going on around him, people would treat him differently after the surgery, and he struggled with his identity. Charlie was happier when he was oblivious to what was going on around him. Being oblivious and ignorant is not a good thing, but in Charlie's case, not knowing

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But when Charlie got the surgery, he realized when his intelligence was wearing off, he got super depressed but he powered through the depression. One quote from the book that indicates depression is “please... please let me not forget how to read and write.” (keyes 25). Even though he is forgetting how to read and write and he is getting depressed, he powers through the depression. On the last page he says “im taking a cuple of books along and even if i cant reed them ill practise hard and maybe i wont forget every thing i learned.

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The beast is first introduced to the boys early on in their time on the island when the crash acts as a scar to the boys and there is still a state of innocence in everyone. Piggy illustrates the boy with the mulberry-colored birthmark fears to the others (as he is too shy to speak on his own) his discovery of something else existing on the island to the entire assembly, “Tell us about the snake-thing... Now he says it was a beastie... Beastie?... A snake-thing.

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Its so obvious he would do anything to be smart. The only problem is that he didn't have the mental capacity to understand what the surgery would do. Charlie had a hard time with spelling simple words like write. So how could he understand what the surgery would do to him and how it would effect his life he didn’t know how to think about all the backlash for this decision. Charlie wasn't smart enough to understand what would happen to him after the

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There is an important theme in the story Flowers for Algernon By Daniel Keyes. It is a fiction novel about a thirty year old man who has been battling to overcome an intellectual deficit all of his life and has an opportunity to become more intelligent than he ever had imagined through an experimental operation. He takes the opportunity and in a few weeks he becomes a genius for a short time before his itelligence receded as fast as it increased. The author includes many important themes throughout the passage. Daniel Keyes develops the theme that intelligence doesn’t affect who you truly are through Charlie’s experiences both before and after the operation.

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His I.Q. during childhood and in the beginning of the novel is slightly less than 70. Charlie does wind up being chosen for the experiment and he receives brain surgery. The surgery is a success and Charlie’s intelligence quickly soars. He is happy for a while being able to learn many new things and have mature, adult conversations with others. However, this quickly takes a turn for the worse when his I.Q. surpasses everyone he can have a relationship with, which makes his life more boring and sad: “I am just as far away from Alice with an I.Q. of 185 as I was when I had an I.Q. of 70” (126).

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  In addition, Charlie writes in “progris riport 1- martch 5 1965”, ” Miss Kinnian says maybe they can make me smart. I want to be smart,” page 182.   This quote reveals that Charlie is motivated and determined because because he has the want to be intelligent as he explains in his first “progris riport.”

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However, after the surgery, Charlie finds intelligence was a nice treat but was far from an importance in life and only took him away from what truly mattered. One could believe Charlie was wrong to undergo the surgery because of the side effects that came with the surgery such as physical and emotional instability, and amnesia, the depresion it came with, and how he lost all of his friends and loved ones with his extreme intelligence. First off, one reason Charlie should not have gotten the surgery is the depression and suicidal thoughts it came with for

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For example, this situation occurs when he stated “I dont want to go back there because they all knew me when I was smart and maybe they’ll laugh at me”. (Keyes 5) By looking at this evidence we see that Charlie is slowly losing his memories because all his co workers knew him when he was smart and now he isn’t. And his friends weren’t the best so he didn’t want them to see him like this because they would make fun of him. Some may say, his friends made fun of him either way so it wouldn’t matter if he’s unintelligent or

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“Flowers for Algernon” Essay Intelligence is critical for living day to day and is required in all aspects of life. In this fictional short story, “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes. Charlie Gordon is a mentally challenged individual who can’t read and write well. He is given the opportunity to become a genius via operation; he takes the opportunity to become three times smarter than before and because of this he becomes lonely. He lives a while as a genius then eventually goes back to his old self.

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His doctors did not act ethically when they performed the surgery to make him smarter. When Charlie volunteered to be the patient, the doctors or any one else did not tell him what the side effects could possibly be. Even though he did benefit from the surgery for a few months he didn’t stay intelligent. He was able

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He worked as a janitor in a factory and had no friends or family, his only companion was his mouse Algernon. He had a dream of being smart and educated, but that seemed impossible with his current state. He was not able to read or write, and had difficulty communicating with others. As Charlie stated in his progress report "I am very unhappy because I am such a dull person" and "I wish I was smart like other people " This evidence shows that

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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.

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