‘Flowers for Algernon,' written in 1958 by Daniel Keyes, is a short science fiction story about a mentally disabled protagonist called Charlie Gordon. Charlie, who is a 37-year-old man, due to his eagerness to learn, receives the opportunity to increase his intelligence through an experimental surgery. Following the experimental process, Daniel Keyes uses the techniques of the juxtaposition of events such as the thematic apperception test, as well as changes his writing style’s literacy skills via a first-person progress report format to entertainingly portray changes in Charlie’s intelligence, and his understanding of the world, to the audience. Utilising these techniques Keyes shows changes in Charlie’s intelligence through the plot’s chronological
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In comparison to post-surgery Charlie visualising the Robinson Crusoe book cover, Keyes progressively shows erosion in Charlie’s memory to depict the contrasting regression in Charlie’s ability to cognitively function, abstractly think and understand his past findings, “The last things learned are the first things forgotten. Or is that the pattern? I'd better look it up again.” Keyes using the first-person format also begins to slowly sequence Charlie’s loss of abilities to understand other languages, read as well as write complex words, “I realized I could no longer read German…..Most of the books I have are too hard forme now…..its hard to write…..Im taking a cuple of books along and even if I cant reed them..,” and additionally, to portray the regression in Charlie’s literacy, as illustrated, Keyes has gradually declined the writing through adding inaccurate spellings, inaccurate grammar and structural errors. These techniques of repeating similar events to show contrasting regression in Charlie’s cognitive functioning abilities, and the errors in the first-person format’s literacy allows Keyes to effectively, emotionally and entertainingly convey to the audience that Charlie’s intelligence that had peaked to have once again regressed and
In comparison to post-surgery Charlie visualising the Robinson Crusoe book cover, Keyes progressively shows erosion in Charlie’s memory to depict the contrasting regression in Charlie’s ability to cognitively function, abstractly think and understand his past findings, “The last things learned are the first things forgotten. Or is that the pattern? I'd better look it up again.” Keyes using the first-person format also begins to slowly sequence Charlie’s loss of abilities to understand other languages, read as well as write complex words, “I realized I could no longer read German…..Most of the books I have are too hard forme now…..its hard to write…..Im taking a cuple of books along and even if I cant reed them..,” and additionally, to portray the regression in Charlie’s literacy, as illustrated, Keyes has gradually declined the writing through adding inaccurate spellings, inaccurate grammar and structural errors. These techniques of repeating similar events to show contrasting regression in Charlie’s cognitive functioning abilities, and the errors in the first-person format’s literacy allows Keyes to effectively, emotionally and entertainingly convey to the audience that Charlie’s intelligence that had peaked to have once again regressed and