Happy Risks
Authors use genres and characters to develop a theme. Sometimes different main characters can be used to build the same theme. In the poem, “the lesson of the moth,” poet Don Marquis uses the main character, a moth, to teach the narrator Archy, a cockroach, what it is like to have a dream worth dying for. Similarly, Daniel Keyes, author of “Flowers for Algernon,” uses the protagonist Charlie Gordon, a mentally challenged person, who longs to be more intelligent, to develop the idea that good things are worth dying for. Both the poet and the author use the main characters in their literary work to contribute to the idea that the chance for great happiness is worth taking great risks.
In the poem “the lesson of the moth,” poet Don …show more content…
In the story, “Flowers for Algernon,” Charlie risks everything to be smart and “fit in,” even though he has no idea that being smarter is going to take him even farther apart from other people. He is going to get an operation to triple his intelligence (which is measured by his IQ) and he knows that many things can go wrong since he is the first human to have the operation performed on him and the only animal that had the operation and stayed smart long-term was Algernon, a white lab mouse that Charlie is compared with. He is so obsessed with this operation, he even says “ I don't care if it hurts,” indicating that he is willing to take that huge risk if he is going to get smarter. One huge problem that he faces is losing his two best friends, Joe Carp and Frank Reilly because he finds out that they are not his friends, but that they are hanging out with him just to make fun of his ignorance and his naiveté. When Charlie starts getting smarter, Joe and Frank start to get scared of how much his intelligence has increased, and they start to stay away from him. Additionally, Charlie starts to alarm most people at the factory he works at because he helps his boss make the factory more efficient, which means Mr. Donnegan can fire some people to save money on labor. As a result, almost all of the people at the factory, except Fanny Garden, sign a petition for him to be fired. Similarly, his relationship with Miss Kinnian suffers at the peak of his intelligence. He is starting to get smarter than her and she can’t understand what he is saying. This makes Charlie annoyed at her and can’t understand why she is not comprehending what he says because he is trying to talk about common things but he is not succeeding at doing so.
Authors use genres and characters to develop a theme. Sometimes different main characters can be used to build the same theme. In the poem, “the lesson of the moth,” poet Don Marquis uses the main character, a moth, to teach the narrator Archy, a cockroach, what it is like to have a dream worth dying for. Similarly, Daniel Keyes, author of “Flowers for Algernon,” uses the protagonist Charlie Gordon, a mentally challenged person, who longs to be more intelligent, to develop the idea that good things are worth dying for. Both the poet and the author use the main characters in their literary work to contribute to the idea that the chance for great happiness is worth taking great risks.
In the poem “the lesson of the moth,” poet Don …show more content…
In the story, “Flowers for Algernon,” Charlie risks everything to be smart and “fit in,” even though he has no idea that being smarter is going to take him even farther apart from other people. He is going to get an operation to triple his intelligence (which is measured by his IQ) and he knows that many things can go wrong since he is the first human to have the operation performed on him and the only animal that had the operation and stayed smart long-term was Algernon, a white lab mouse that Charlie is compared with. He is so obsessed with this operation, he even says “ I don't care if it hurts,” indicating that he is willing to take that huge risk if he is going to get smarter. One huge problem that he faces is losing his two best friends, Joe Carp and Frank Reilly because he finds out that they are not his friends, but that they are hanging out with him just to make fun of his ignorance and his naiveté. When Charlie starts getting smarter, Joe and Frank start to get scared of how much his intelligence has increased, and they start to stay away from him. Additionally, Charlie starts to alarm most people at the factory he works at because he helps his boss make the factory more efficient, which means Mr. Donnegan can fire some people to save money on labor. As a result, almost all of the people at the factory, except Fanny Garden, sign a petition for him to be fired. Similarly, his relationship with Miss Kinnian suffers at the peak of his intelligence. He is starting to get smarter than her and she can’t understand what he is saying. This makes Charlie annoyed at her and can’t understand why she is not comprehending what he says because he is trying to talk about common things but he is not succeeding at doing so.