The story, "Flowers for Algernon", by Daniel Keyes, articulates a vacuous man's journey as he undergoes an operation which will lead him to being a genius. Charlie Gordon was born mentally challenged, but precedes an honest, kind, and simple mien. Throughout his journey, Charlie saw the world in a different view as his intelligence increases, but it had drew a wedge between him and the world. As a man who no longer owns the enjoyment of life, Charlie turned into a somber loner. Daniel Keyes used this story to convey that people are each created beautifully and uniquely; intrusions will only take away the arcane happiness inside life's marrow.
Charlie's childish naiveté made him a target for people to laugh at. Nevertheless, he didn't know the sophistication of people's words and was simply enjoying tangible things. "Everybody laughed and we had a good time...I don't know what that means, but everyone likes me and we have fun." (pg.
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Strauss and Dr. Nemur worked as cunning opportunists who intervened Charlie's life just to prove their hypothesis. In their specialization of psychology, they decided to perform an operation on Charlie to improve his intelligence. However, the operation had changed people around Charlie. He said, "Everybody seems to be frightened of me...People don't talk to me much anymore or kid around the way they used to. It makes the job kind of lonely." (pg. 232, C2, paragraph 4&5). Although before the operation people laugh at Charlie, but in his eyes they're being friendly. While after the operation people tend to avoid contact with him. Earlier in the story, Daniel Keyes foreshadowed Charlie after the operation using the book "Robinson Crusoe". Charlie showed sympathy from Crusoe as he wrote, "Only I feel sorry because he's all alone and has no friends...I hope he gets a friend and not be lonely. "(pg.229, C2, paragraph 1).Therefore, it's better to leave Charlie as he was before than to intervene and take his friends
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.
The operation caused Charlie’s life to change traumatically, including his social environment. Social issues became a reality for Charlie. Over time he found out that Joe and Frank are not as friendly as he thought they were. Furthermore, Charlie received a petition from his coworkers against him, because they did not accept that he was different, which caused him to be fired. Additionally, he realized that when people said “pulled a Charlie Gordon” it was not humor, but an insult.
For that reason, Charlie was determined to commence with the operation and willing to overlook what risks he was aware of and unable to examine those he was unaware of. The doctors exploited Charlie’s loneliness and desperation and made him feel like being chosen was an honor, whereas they were conscious of the dire consequences. They performed the same surgery that doomed countless mice on Charlie with complete disregard for his life, as if he were just another mouse. The doctors’ pretense was to cure man kind of lower-level brain function in people like Charlie. However, the doctors’ true motive was to gain prestige in the field of psychology, so they recklessly sacrificed Charlie for their goals.
Charlie has an operation done to him to make him smarter. In order to get this operation done Charlie has to take a series of tests. Charlie's doctors, Dr. Nemur and Dr. Straus, need him to take the tests to see if he is the right person to use for the operation. They do use him for the operation, the operation they give him is supposed to make him very smart. When the doctors preform the operation they are supposed to make very ethical medical decisions.
They only cared about what they would get from the experiment, It didn’t matter what happened to Charlie. Charlie Gordon's doctors also didn’t think of what would happen to his after the surgery, Charlie ended up losing his job because people found it wrong for Charlie to end up learning all this information so quickly. He also
His new friend was Fanny she was the only person at work who did not sign the petition . It made Charlie feel good that there was someone who did not think that he should be fired. That there was someone that thought he should have the right to
Charlie was blind to the hardships he would face. These hardships are extremely difficult to overcome by a mortal man. The thoughts of being rejected by society, becoming a human guinea
Charlie Feehan is the main protagonist in the novel, The Runner. Charlie changes how he sees the world from three experiences. Charlie changed when his father dies. Charlie also changed after he fought Mr Peacock and Finally, Charlie changed when he shows empathy towards Squizzy’s debtors.
Charlie did not even benefit that well from being a test subject in the experiment. Similarly, the treatment of Charlie was not very ethical because he was not treated specially for his mental state of disability. Lastly, this surgery did not provide enough benefits to even dent the weight of his unethical death. In the story Charlie was used because of his inferior intelligence and not treated well enough as he should have which led to his wrongful death. This story was fictional, but the use and abuse of human test subjects is
After some time, Charlie figured out that he should be who he was instead of trying to fall under society's standards. Charlie did not want to accept this and tried his best to find a solution, though he had to accept the fact that he was
Charlie makes a discovery for science and he wants Dr. Strauss and Dr. Nemur to appreciate his discovery. They had been previously researching artificially increased intelligence, and Charlie wanted to research it too because he wanted to find out what had happened to Algernon. He became smart enough to research the topic of increased artificial intelligence and come up with a full report explaining artificially increased intelligence. The words “I feel” show that Charlie has emotions and feelings which make him feel strongly about the hypothesis he concluded from the report, and he feels that it is important. From this report, Charlie makes a lasting mark on the world.
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.
This reveals that Charlie has relationships at work. However, this quote reveals that the people he has relationships with only make fun of him and on not really his friends.
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
He also became bitter which made him all alone without friends or family at the end of the story. The surgery was a disturbing encounter physical and intellectually and just caused Charlie to feel isolated. If the knowledge was permanent the surgery could have