Charlie In Daniel Keyes Flowers For Algernon

Daniel Keyes science fiction story, “Flowers For Algernon, ” takes place in New York and is about Charlie Gordon. He is a 37-year-old but is not very intelligent. His dream is to become smarter. It is all he can wish for. Charlie is tired of not understanding others and is sick of not fitting in with them. He only has a few real friends who respect and care about him. When Charlie gets asked by scientists to have an operation on his brain, he jumps at the idea. He is relieved and overly excited. Along the way, Charlie meets a genius, white, lab mouse named Algernon, who had the same experiment that Charlie was going to get. Just like Algernon, after the operation, Charlie becomes a genius. However, this new intelligence only gave him a few more friends. Since Charlie is …show more content…
They said something that was not very smart, similar to something that Charlie would say. Joe and Frank mocked Charlie and said, “wow, you really pulled a Charlie Gordon that time!” Charlie didn’t understand what it meant until after the operation. Then he was ashamed with himself (PR8 March 25). This is significant because now Charlie recognizes that the co-workers aren’t his real friends. When Charlie wasn’t smart in the beginning and they joked about it, he would just laugh along with them. He couldn't stand up for himself because he didn’t even realize they were making fun of him. They were saying it right to his face, but he couldn’t tell. However, after the operation when he became smarter, he noticed that they were mocking him. This taught him that they were not really his friends and were only using him as a joke. This is a friendship that Charlie had that changed over time. As Charlie became more intelligent, some of his friendships changed. When he recognized they were fake, Charlie moved on and didn’t hang out with them anymore. The friendship changed and faded