Charlie Gordon In Lao Tzu's Flowers For Algernon

As Lao Tzu said, “If you correct your mind, the rest of your life will fall into place.” In “Flowers for Algernon,” Charlie Gordon is the subject of an experiment to correct his mind. Charlie is the ideal choice for this experiment, because his progress can be easily tracked through his writing, and his character traits make him easy to work with. Before Charlie’s neurosurgical operation, the quality of his written progress reports was poor. His spelling and grammar was horrible, and most of it wasn’t properly punctuated. This made it clear from the beginning that he wasn’t very intelligent. Despite this, the protagonist is very motivated and strives to improve. He tells doctors Nemur and Strauss that he found the adult night school that he attends by asking where he could go to learn. In addition, this was his response to a question about why he sought out a school. “I told them becaus all my life I wantid to be smart and not dumb.” (205) This shows that Charlie isn’t content to live his life with his low IQ of …show more content…
He also shuts everyone out, fearing that they’ll laugh at him, even writing this about his reaction to Miss Kinnian coming to his apartment. “I told her I didn’t like her anymore. I told her I didn’t want to be smart anymore.”(224) This was a lie. The regression was terrible and traumatizing for Charlie, but despite that, he went back to the factory to ask for his old job back. He does this so he can pay his own rent, and doesn’t have to rely on Miss Kinnian paying it for him. This shows that Charlie isn’t afraid to face his co-workers, even though they laughed at him repeatedly and petitioned to have him fired. His ultimate decision to leave New York stems from the fact that he doesn’t want anyone to feel sorry for