Doctors save many people's lives, they can make their lives even better than they are now. In the short story "Flowers for Algernon," by Daniel Keyes, Charlie Gordon performs an operation to make him a genius. Charlie Gordon is a mentally challenged 37 year old man, who is trying to become smart. Being mentally challenged has been hard for Charlie, but this is his chance to forever change his life. The experiment was an incredible thing for Charlie because he realized he is in love with Miss Kinnian, figured out the flaw in the experiment, and got the experience of what it is like to be smart. The first reason that the operation was positive was because Charlie learned that he was in love with Miss Kinnian. Miss Kinnian and Charlie were having a dinner when Charlie knew that he liked her, "I don't understand why I never noticed how beautiful Miss Kinnian really is" (Keyes). Once Charlie became more intelligent, he realized something that he never would have noticed before. Without performing the operation on Charlie, he would had always seen her as a teacher …show more content…
Charlie was very happy that he was becoming smart, "Anyway, now I know I'm getting smarter every day. I know punctuation and I can spell good. I like to look up all the hard words in the dictionary and I remember them" (Keyes 231). All of his life, he had wanted to be smart, and now he finally is. Not only did the operation make him smarter, it also made him much smarter. This was new for everyone, "You're accomplishing in days and weeks what it takes normal people to do in half a lifetime. That's what makes it so amazing" (Keyes 233). He was doing things that no one else had ever done, which is amazing for him. This made Charlie finally feel like he was a normal person, which he had never felt before. Charlie had everything he had ever want for a short period of time, which the operation gifted to
“It’s a good feelings to know things and be smart. I wish I Had it right now, if I had I would sit down and read all the time. Anyways I bet i'm the first dumb person in the world who ever found out something important for science”. The operation was for Charlie to become smart permanently. It didn’t work so I agree of the operation being bad.
Many people believe that achieving great intelligence will bring them great happiness. This was what Charlie Gordon imagined for himself, that if he could only get the surgery that was supposed to make him smart, then he could finally fit in and be really happy. In the end, though, was Charlie really better off after he got the surgery? No, he wasn’t. Charlie was ultimately better off before he got the surgery to make him intelligent because if he had never done the surgery, then he would never have had to experience the trauma of having to go back to not being intelligent after knowing what intelligence felt like. Also, before the surgery, Charlie didn’t realize how un-faithful his friends were, and how naïve he actually was, which ultimately caused him a lot of shame. Finally, if Charlie had never gotten the surgery, he wouldn’t have had to leave New York.
In the novel, Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, it is focused around the ironically unforgettable journey of Charlie Gordon. He is a 32 year old man who has an extremely low IQ, that qualified him to be a subject for an experimental surgery to help him raise his IQ, by a lot. Before the surgery, he had very little memories of his childhood, was very forgetful, and his inability to read or write made his want for knowledge even stronger. I picked this character because not only was he the main focus throughout the book, he has changed and has not changed at the same time and I found that rather unusual.Charlie has changed because after the surgery he got what he wanted, to be smart. But by the end of the book he lost his intelligence, along
Have you ever wanted to be something else? Be something you dream of? In the story, Charlie Gordon , a mentally challenged man, is faced with this question in his mind and fulfills his dreams of becoming smart, so he could be accepted, to have friends, and feel normal. Charlie taught us to never make fun of someone because they have something wrong. In this science fiction story, ¨Flowers For Algernon¨ by Daniel Keyes, Charlie, a 37 year old man had the IQ of just 68, but Charlie had potential and dreams of being smart. With A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) surgery, the doctors, and Miss Kinnian, his dreams were possible. Charlie Gordonś life was better after the surgery because he had the chance to feel smart and experience the real world
After the operation, in only a couple of months, Charlie starts showing signs of new intelligence. His grammar, improved, and he is able to reflect on what his does in the past something he wasn’t able to do before. He had finally gotten something use had always desired. Then, everything and everyone turned on him. In “PROGRESS REPORT 12” April 30th (pg. 60) Charlie writes: “now, they hate me for my knowledge and understanding. What in the name of god do they want of me? They’ve driven me out of the factory. Now I more alone than ever before…” Charlie got what he always wanted, and now he lost everything he had. It was a sacrifice it sounded like he didn’t want to make. I can tell just be the tone of his writing. This shows that we should embrace everything that we have. Charlie didn’t embrace everything, although he appreciated most of the thing he never became happy not being able to just enjoy life as it is.
His IQ was originally sixty-eight. But, because of the surgery, Charlie was able to learn a lot more, and he was able to comprehend and read things correctly. He eventually got smart enough to the point he was smarter than his own doctors. “Dr. Nemur appears to be uncomfortable around me. Sometimes when I try to talk to him, he just looks at me strangely and turns away. I was angry at first when Dr. Strauss told me I was giving Dr. Nemur an inferiority complex. I thought he was mocking me and I’m oversensitive at being made fun of. How was I to know that a highly respected psychoexperimentalist like Nemur was unacquainted with Hindustani and Chinese? It’s absurd when you consider the work that is being done in India and China today in the very field of this study.” “Page 130”
One of the reasons Charlie is better off after the experiment is because he becomes more self-aware. One part of the story that shows this is when Charlie goes to a party with his friends Joe and Frank, and everyone laughs at Charlie trying to dance. Charlie is now smart enough from the experiment to realize Joe and Frank just keeps him around for some entertainment, and not as real friends, so now he knows “what it means when they say ‘to pull a Charlie Gordon’” (7). Here, Charlie is benefiting from the surgery because he is now intelligent enough to be able to tell whether he has real friends or not. He realizes that they are just making fun of him, because he knows he used to be very unintelligent, which is why they say he can pull a Charlie Gordon. Now, Charlie can be more aware of who he chooses to be with, and know whether or not they are actually caring of him. He has become more self-aware in his choice of friends, and by doing so, improve his emotional situation. Another
If Charlie would have accepted himself the way he was before the operation, he would have avoided all the trouble. His loved one Alice could not stand him anymore because he made her feel uncomfortable and strained due to all the absurd things he was talking about, for example neo-Boulean mathematics and post-symbolic logic. He realized that having a high I.Q is not just a bed of roses. For example, While arguing Alice told Charlie that, “There’s more to it than just having a high I.Q” (300). This shows how much Charlie had actually changed since the surgery, and not necessarily in a good
Another reason Charlie is better off without the surgery is because he doesn’t gain anything from the surgery. Even though Charlie does get smart and his intelligence boosts, it declines in the end of the story. When this happens, Charlie doesn’t remember to how to write or think in depth as well as he did before, so he is just the same as he was before surgery. Charlie even stated it himself in his July 10th progress report, “I try to read a little bit every day, mostly stories, but sometimes I have
Not only could he understand social cues but he began to have feelings for Mrs. Kinnian. “Now every time I see her she grows younger and more lovely” (295 Keyes). In this quote charlie is talking about Mrs. Kinnian, he starts to have feelings for her, this really shows his improvement after the surgery. Overall not only does he become smarter but he has better social
The surgery was worth the experience because it helped him contribute to the world of science. He contributed by desperately wanting to be in the experiment and wanting to make discoveries, “I hope they use me. Miss Kinnian says maybe they can make me smart. I want to be smart.” (Keyes190). He was the first human to really want to contribute to this experiment. Just by getting the surgery he helped science. Without Charlie they couldn’t have gotten the results and shown
Moreover, by having this surgery it can make people smarter than a normal person. Likewise, Charlie was smarter than his doctors. The surgery was helpful because after not being smart it made him smart. Although he lost some friends because of his smartness, he could outsmart them. It was a great way to become smart easily.
In the modern world, patients expect their doctors to aid them and to support them. In the short story, “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes, Dr. Strauss and Dr. Nemur conducted an intelligence enhancement experiment on a man named, Charlie Gordon and changed his life. With an IQ of sixty-eight, the scientists altered him and tripled his IQ. However, this operation has not been ethical because the procedure was abstruse to Charlie, the doctors were rushing, and Dr. Nemur and Dr. Strauss were acting selfishly.
I do believe that Charlie was much happier when he was dumb than when he was a genius. Charlie Gordon is a mentally retarded person who was the most happy go lucky person in the world. When Charlie got the operation he rapidly became smarter and smarter until he was smarter than the doctors them selves. Charlie was so excited and happy to be smart but when he was smart he didn't seem to be happy at all and was actually depressed. When he was dumb he didn't have a care in the world and when ever something bad happened he didn't think anything of it, but not when he was smart. Overall when Charlie was smart he was depressed lonely and overall a wreck. On the other hand when he was dumb he was the most happy go lucky person out there and did seem
In the modern day world, patients expect their doctors to aid them and to support them. In the short story, “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes, Dr. Strauss and Dr. Nemur conducts an intelligence enhancement experiment on a man named Charlie Gordon and changes his life. With an IQ of sixty-eight, the scientists alter him and triple his IQ. However, their decision to operate on him is not ethical because the procedure is abstruse to Charlie, the doctors act rashly, and Dr. Nemur and Dr. Strauss behaves selfishly throughout the experiment.