‘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 intelligence through the plot’s chronological
…show more content…
Keyes may have introduced tests such as the thematic apperception test, which Charlie fails, “That mixd me up. She said makeup storys about the pepul in the picturs. I told her how can you tell storys about pepul you never met,” to convey his characterisation of a mentally disabled man as well as to depict Charlie’s inability to adapt to different functions, comprehend contexts or to visualise things such as stories. Additionally, Keyes also uses a unique convention of progress reports from Charlie’s viewpoint to depict his poor literacy skills and make Charlie’s pre-surgery low intelligence apparent to the audience. It is evident when Charlie states, “I asked pepul and sum body told me where I shud go to lern to read and spell good,” that Keyes uses the literacy skills consisting of: very simple sentences; simple conjunctions like ‘and’; spelling errors displaying Charlie’s inability to differentiate phonetic sounds; grammatical errors such as misused commas, full stop, as well as apostrophes; and unsophisticated vocabulary to illustrate Charlie’s poor pre-surgery intelligence. Hence, by displaying Charlie’s inability to perform well in tests as an element of the plot and by having the writing style consist of low literacy skills, Keyes portrays …show more content…
Keyes begins to slowly show regression in Charlie’s memory to show erosion in Charlie’s ability to cognitively function, abstractly think and understand his own past findings, “The last things learned are the first things forgotten. Or is that the pattern? I'd better look it up again.” Additionally, Keyes begins to slowly clarify to the audience of Charlie’s regression in literacy skills, “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..,” through sequencing Charlie’s loss in his ability to understand other languages, ability to read and write complex words as well as by gradually declining his writing through adding inaccurate spellings, inaccurate grammar and structural errors, Keyes portrays that Charlie’s intelligence l to have regressed and once again reverted to the pre-surgery level. These techniques allow Keyes to gradually regress Charlie’s cognitive functioning abilities using his memory rather to contrast his ability to visualise the Robinson Crusoe book cover test as well as use the writing style and literacy to
Keyes may have introduced tests such as the thematic apperception test, which Charlie fails, “That mixd me up. She said makeup storys about the pepul in the picturs. I told her how can you tell storys about pepul you never met,” to convey his characterisation of a mentally disabled man as well as to depict Charlie’s inability to adapt to different functions, comprehend contexts or to visualise things such as stories. Additionally, Keyes also uses a unique convention of progress reports from Charlie’s viewpoint to depict his poor literacy skills and make Charlie’s pre-surgery low intelligence apparent to the audience. It is evident when Charlie states, “I asked pepul and sum body told me where I shud go to lern to read and spell good,” that Keyes uses the literacy skills consisting of: very simple sentences; simple conjunctions like ‘and’; spelling errors displaying Charlie’s inability to differentiate phonetic sounds; grammatical errors such as misused commas, full stop, as well as apostrophes; and unsophisticated vocabulary to illustrate Charlie’s poor pre-surgery intelligence. Hence, by displaying Charlie’s inability to perform well in tests as an element of the plot and by having the writing style consist of low literacy skills, Keyes portrays …show more content…
Keyes begins to slowly show regression in Charlie’s memory to show erosion in Charlie’s ability to cognitively function, abstractly think and understand his own past findings, “The last things learned are the first things forgotten. Or is that the pattern? I'd better look it up again.” Additionally, Keyes begins to slowly clarify to the audience of Charlie’s regression in literacy skills, “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..,” through sequencing Charlie’s loss in his ability to understand other languages, ability to read and write complex words as well as by gradually declining his writing through adding inaccurate spellings, inaccurate grammar and structural errors, Keyes portrays that Charlie’s intelligence l to have regressed and once again reverted to the pre-surgery level. These techniques allow Keyes to gradually regress Charlie’s cognitive functioning abilities using his memory rather to contrast his ability to visualise the Robinson Crusoe book cover test as well as use the writing style and literacy to