“Flowers for Algernon” Argumentative Essay

is a main character in the novel Flowers for Algernon. Been intelligent is Charlie's most important desire. He did not care about the coped with operations in order to make his dream happen. He struggled and persevered throughout a big portion of his life to improve upon his limited abilities. After Charlie wet though the operation, he became very bright, but he experienced loneliness and physiological distress (Yalç?n 10). Charlie emotionally had upset because of his flashbacks from childhood and because his intelligence he grew faster than his emotional intelligence charged .The story were bee narrated o how the intellectual and emotional rise and fall of Charlie Gordon born with an unusually low Intelligence Quotient (IQ) but he becomes the first human pilot-study for an ambitious brain experiment. This is the clear evidence to show that the the kind of man who works hard to achieves though accomplishments of their wish without giving up. Charlie used to write things on the chalkboard. This helped him to recall that day he will run amazed with Algernon. Algernon is a mouse. He wants to win the amazed always. He liked the teeter-totter when he is up in the air ad free. He likes to make funny faces in the mirror. Miss Kinnian showed him a raw shock test but he failed (Yalç?n 10). He still wanted to become smart.

The novel Flowers of Algernon by Keyes have several thematic augments which we shall discuss in this paper. The first one is the mistreatment of the people who are mentally disabled. The fictional idea in the novel of artificially diminishing or augmenting intelligence has enabled Keyes to be able

to provide a portrayal of the society telling or showing how the mentally disabled are mistreated. After Charlie has been operated he becomes more intelligent and he transforms effectively from the known man who is mentally retarded and becomes a genius. It’s during this period when he realizes that the people in the society have been having attitudes towards him because of his superiority (Yalç?n 10). For the better part, most people have been treating Charlie as intellectual inferior as well as a less of a human being after comparing themselves to him. While others, like his coworkers at the bakery have treated him with a cruelty, while others seems to be so kind to him though he has been condescending in their charity.

After the completion of the Charlie’s operation, he drifts into a disrespectful and condescending attitude towards the people who are disabled to a certain extend. He consciously wants too to treat all his intellectual inferiors the way he wished they had treated him before. At some point he forced patrons who were laughing at a mentally retarded busboy at diner to recognize the boy’s humanity. When he visited the Warren state home he was so horrified by seeing the dim faces of the people who he met and they were disabled and he was not capable of gathering any warmth to them. He feared the patients he saw at the warren state because he was in denial if he was like them one day and he thought he might be like them soon (Yalç?n 10). To my interpretation is that the same reaction of fear the Charlie has might be the same

which made her mother to be mad.

Therefore, as Keyes condemns the behavior of mistreating those who are mentally incapable , he also displayed an exceptional understanding of the reason as to why the mistreatments occurs thus enabling his readers to be able to see through the eyes of a person who has ever experienced such mistreatment as ridicule in the first place. Charlie struggle with the behavior against the same condescension and prejudice as he had seen in other people. However, his dual perspective gave him a chance to understand that he is also a human being as any other person regardless of his intelligence level.

Another fictional idea of the author is the tension which is between the emotion and the intellect. The fact is that the mental retardation of Charlie affected the development of both the emotional intellectual growth. This really illustrates the difficulty though it does not illustrate that it is impossible to develop the two aspects simultaneously without having effect in each other. At first Charlie is seen to be trusting and warmhearted before his intelligence was increased. After it was increased he grew to be arrogant, cold and disagreeable (Yalç?n 10). The more he was able to understand the world the more he moved away from the human contact. Fay and professor Nemur, they indicate the compatibility of emotion and intellect. Nemur in the novel he is seen to be brilliant though he is friendless and humorless. Conversely, Fay on the other hand she is acting illogically and foolishly just because she has been ruled by her feelings. it was only through Alice that Charlie was able to realize that there

was no need of choosing between his and his brain. At long last Charlie was capable of learning on how to integrate between the emotion and intellect (Yalç?n 10). He found emotional pleasure in both his relationship as well as in his work. It was during this period that he found the true fulfillment in his love Alice.

The other theme in the novel, Flowers of Algernon is the persistence of the past in the present time. Charlie’s recovery from his childhood memory after the operation was done on him it illustrates how important his past was embedded for him to understand the present. His past resurfaces at some key points in his experience in the present time thus making him to take the form of his old him Charlie though he perceived the new Charlie as a separate entity that lived outside him.

Work Cited

1. Yalç?n, Ceren. To what extent is happiness related with intelligence over the character Charlie Gordon of the novel ‘Flowers for Algernon’?. Diss. TED ANKARA COLLEGE FOUNDATION PRIVATE HIGH SCHOOL, 2013 : 7-14