“Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.” - Ernest Hemingway. In the book, “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes, Charlie Gordon, the protagonist, has low mental ability. This story takes place in the 1960s, and during this time period, people used different ways to measure intelligence. Charlie faces the decision to artificially increase his intelligence by having a surgery performed on him. Intelligence is not worth it when your happiness is at risk. Charlie Gordon should not have had the surgery to artificially increase his intelligence.
According to the text, “Before, they laughed at me and despised me for my ignorance and dullness; now, they hate me for my knowledge and understanding.“Before the operation, Charlie …show more content…
Now that it’s definite, I don’t want it to happen.” Even if Charlie did gain a lot of intelligence, there was no point to it because he ended up losing it just like Algernon. When Charlie conducted his experiment, he found out that Algernon’s intelligence and his own would decrease. After a few days, when Algernon died, Charlie realized that his hypothesis was correct. This caused him to enter into a huge depression. He even got to the point where he had suicidal thoughts. Once Charlie’s intelligence became the same way it was before the operation and he started to forget things, it turned out even worse. Now, he actually knew what he was missing out on and he missed it very much. In a way, it’s like when you give a child a little try of some delicious candy and then you just take it away from him. Not only did he lose his intelligence, but he might of even ended up dying.
Overall, Charlie Gordon, the protagonist, should not have had the surgery to artificially increase his intelligence. The operation only lead to a series of negative events. Charlie lost many of the people he cared about, he realized that the world can be a very cruel place, and he lost all of that intelligence at the end. It’s very true what Ernest Hemingway once said, people who are very intelligent aren’t always the happiest
According to the text, “Before, they laughed at me and despised me for my ignorance and dullness; now, they hate me for my knowledge and understanding.“Before the operation, Charlie …show more content…
Now that it’s definite, I don’t want it to happen.” Even if Charlie did gain a lot of intelligence, there was no point to it because he ended up losing it just like Algernon. When Charlie conducted his experiment, he found out that Algernon’s intelligence and his own would decrease. After a few days, when Algernon died, Charlie realized that his hypothesis was correct. This caused him to enter into a huge depression. He even got to the point where he had suicidal thoughts. Once Charlie’s intelligence became the same way it was before the operation and he started to forget things, it turned out even worse. Now, he actually knew what he was missing out on and he missed it very much. In a way, it’s like when you give a child a little try of some delicious candy and then you just take it away from him. Not only did he lose his intelligence, but he might of even ended up dying.
Overall, Charlie Gordon, the protagonist, should not have had the surgery to artificially increase his intelligence. The operation only lead to a series of negative events. Charlie lost many of the people he cared about, he realized that the world can be a very cruel place, and he lost all of that intelligence at the end. It’s very true what Ernest Hemingway once said, people who are very intelligent aren’t always the happiest