The past plays a vital role in one’s development by forming a person’s identity in society. Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes shows how the protagonist, Charlie Gordon, tries to change the way he is viewed in society. Through a surgery, Charlie Gordon had been transformed from being mentally incapacitated to an individual that has a highly developed, profound mind. His intelligence gives Charlie the ability to be aware of the world by seeing concepts in new ways. When Charlie first starts to gain intelligence, he cannot discriminate if he is a man from new beginnings or if he is being viewed by others differently. Charlie shows this when he describes his feelings of not remembering his former upbringings: “One of the things that confuses
…show more content…
After Professor Nemur asked Charlie why he wanted to read and spell Charlie replies, “I tolld him because all my life I wantid to be and not dumb and my mom always tolld me to try and lern just like Miss Kinnian tells me but its very hard to be smart and even when I learn something in Miss Kinnians class at the school I ferget alot”.(4) Charlie wants to get the surgery as he wants to be treated the same way he was treated before Norma, his sister, was born. “That was before she changed toward me, and now I realize it was because she had no way of knowing yet if Norma would be like me or not. It was later on, when she was sure her prayers had been answered, and Norma showed all signs of normal intelligence, that my mother’s voice began to sound different. Not only her her voice, but her touch, her look, her very presence--all changed. It was as if her magnetic poles had reversed and where they had once attracted now repelled. I see now that when Norma flowered in our garden I became a weed, allowed to exist in only in dark places.” (155) Although Charlie knows he cannot change his past, he still can overcome it by seeing the people who given up on him in the past. “What I mean to say is that Charlie exists in the past, and the past is real. You can’t put up a new building on a site until you destroy the old one, and the old Charlie can’t be destroyed. He exists. At first I was searching for him: I went to see his--my-- father. All I wanted to do was prove that Charlie existed as a person in the past, so that I could justify my own existence.”(186) Charlie feels that his past kept him from what he wants to accomplish in life; therefore, he is filled with blame so as a result, he makes an effort to visit his parents to show that he has done something productive with his
After Professor Nemur asked Charlie why he wanted to read and spell Charlie replies, “I tolld him because all my life I wantid to be and not dumb and my mom always tolld me to try and lern just like Miss Kinnian tells me but its very hard to be smart and even when I learn something in Miss Kinnians class at the school I ferget alot”.(4) Charlie wants to get the surgery as he wants to be treated the same way he was treated before Norma, his sister, was born. “That was before she changed toward me, and now I realize it was because she had no way of knowing yet if Norma would be like me or not. It was later on, when she was sure her prayers had been answered, and Norma showed all signs of normal intelligence, that my mother’s voice began to sound different. Not only her her voice, but her touch, her look, her very presence--all changed. It was as if her magnetic poles had reversed and where they had once attracted now repelled. I see now that when Norma flowered in our garden I became a weed, allowed to exist in only in dark places.” (155) Although Charlie knows he cannot change his past, he still can overcome it by seeing the people who given up on him in the past. “What I mean to say is that Charlie exists in the past, and the past is real. You can’t put up a new building on a site until you destroy the old one, and the old Charlie can’t be destroyed. He exists. At first I was searching for him: I went to see his--my-- father. All I wanted to do was prove that Charlie existed as a person in the past, so that I could justify my own existence.”(186) Charlie feels that his past kept him from what he wants to accomplish in life; therefore, he is filled with blame so as a result, he makes an effort to visit his parents to show that he has done something productive with his