Transitioning into adulthood isn’t easy, especially when physically you are thirty seven, but mentally you are barely a teenager. In the short story Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, a man named Charlie Gordon has a mental disability that makes him have a younger mental age than his actual age of 37. He then gets an operation to make him smarter also to increase his mental age. The doctors put him through tests with a mouse who had the same operation done, named Algernon, whom he has a deep connection with. Charlie starts to become very intelligent and starts to transition into what you would call a normal adult life for a very intelligent man. Algernon soon dies and Charlie begins to go back to his starting mental age and realizes he will
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Innocence is lack of understanding of the evil in the world and simplicity. An example of Charlie losing his innocence is when he finds out that his friends are not actually his friends when they are out at the bar one night. His co-workers encourage him to dance and then proceed to trip him and laugh (340-351). When Charlie’s “friends” bring up how much fun they had ditching him on a prior occasion, it clicks in Charlie’s mind that they are doing the same thing at that moment. For the first time, Charlie makes the realization that not all people are as nice as he thought. Charlie is no longer free from deceit and simplicity, which is evidenced when he says, “I am ashamed” (352). Due to Charlie’s increase in knowledge and his heightened awareness of those who surround him, he begins to lose the innocence he once …show more content…
Charlie’s mentor, Miss Kinnian, showed him how to get a normal life with the intelligence he has received. Miss Kinnian is one of the people who encouraged him to get the operation done in the first place. She explains to him all the good things getting the operation can do. She even tells him that he earns it by saying “Don’t be scared Charlie you have done so much with so little I think you deserve it all.” (83-84) A mentor is someone who advises others and that is exactly what Miss Kinnian does. The citation above shows that Miss Kinnian is the one who advised him to get the operation. Later in the story she still is with Charlie even though she can no longer teach him because he has a greater intelligence than she does. (481-482)This shows that she taught him many things like not giving up on people because sometimes Charlie becomes very isolated and angry with the world, but she was still his friend. She was also his teacher so she taught him school related material as well. When you teach others you are being a mentor in their life, Miss Kinnian demonstrated how one person can mentor another and help them prosper in life intellectually and as a
Innocence is lack of understanding of the evil in the world and simplicity. An example of Charlie losing his innocence is when he finds out that his friends are not actually his friends when they are out at the bar one night. His co-workers encourage him to dance and then proceed to trip him and laugh (340-351). When Charlie’s “friends” bring up how much fun they had ditching him on a prior occasion, it clicks in Charlie’s mind that they are doing the same thing at that moment. For the first time, Charlie makes the realization that not all people are as nice as he thought. Charlie is no longer free from deceit and simplicity, which is evidenced when he says, “I am ashamed” (352). Due to Charlie’s increase in knowledge and his heightened awareness of those who surround him, he begins to lose the innocence he once …show more content…
Charlie’s mentor, Miss Kinnian, showed him how to get a normal life with the intelligence he has received. Miss Kinnian is one of the people who encouraged him to get the operation done in the first place. She explains to him all the good things getting the operation can do. She even tells him that he earns it by saying “Don’t be scared Charlie you have done so much with so little I think you deserve it all.” (83-84) A mentor is someone who advises others and that is exactly what Miss Kinnian does. The citation above shows that Miss Kinnian is the one who advised him to get the operation. Later in the story she still is with Charlie even though she can no longer teach him because he has a greater intelligence than she does. (481-482)This shows that she taught him many things like not giving up on people because sometimes Charlie becomes very isolated and angry with the world, but she was still his friend. She was also his teacher so she taught him school related material as well. When you teach others you are being a mentor in their life, Miss Kinnian demonstrated how one person can mentor another and help them prosper in life intellectually and as a