“Life is like a difficult puzzle, you can try to solve it all, but there’s always gonna be missing pieces” - Anonymous. In the novel, Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes shows how being smart can be difficult. Charlie has trouble with his emotions after the operation. Charlie also faces problems in his social life due to his brilliant mind. Therefore, Charlie’s life is more difficult now that he is intelligent.
Firstly, Charlie experiences many challenges with his emotions once he becomes intelligent. To begin, Charlie starts to recall throbbing things that he went through in his past, which he never knew about before he gained any knowledge. Due to the intelligent Charlie has become, he has bad memories of his life before “Seeing Charlie …show more content…
I would make her see how much she was hurting me,”(Keyes 171). Through this quote, Charlie shows that he wants to change his past memories because now he knows how the painful things were and he just wants to forget about them.Coupled with, this also shows the challenges he faces with his emotions because he remembers things after the operation, so his intelligent that he has gained is affecting him. In addition, Charlie has become more emotional and sexual with Fay, but she disturbs him in the work he has to do. This happens when Charlie is talking to Alice, she says “... if you’ve got to drink with her and spend all of your time with her in nightclubs and cabaret dancing, then she’s in your way. And that’s a problem only you can solve,”(Keyes 235). This expresses that Charlie relationship with Fay is really strong and he has changed due to how much he drinks and how much time he spends with her, so basically he has fallen in love with her which he never did before his intelligence. Lastly, the old Charlie continues to hinder the new Charlie's relationship with Alice. When Charlie is talking to Alice, he says …show more content…
To add on, Charlie now understands that the individuals that are supposed to be his friends are really embarrassing him. When Charlie goes to the party he realizes why the people always laugh at him, he says “I never knew before that Joe and Frank and the others liked to have me around just to make fun of me. Now I know what they mean when they say “to pull a Charlie Gordon,” (Keyes 42). Uniquely, this shows that Charlie finally realized that he is always a person they laughed at and that they were not his friends after all. This is all because of his intelligence and how he thinks about the things that people say around him. Similarly, Charlie begins to be disengaged from everyone around him. Charlie does not know why everyone stops talking to him, he says “Everyone seems frightened of me… Nobody at his place talks to me anymore, or kids around the way they used to. It makes the job kind of lonely,”(Keyes 59). This proves that he has problems socially because now people know that he is smart and that he might remember what they did to him, so they are trying to avoid him and not get confronted by Charlie. As well as, Charlie has begun to have issues communicating socially with others and making new companions. Charlie is not able to talk to anyone, he says “I started out the evening with every intention of being pleasant and making friends, But these days I have trouble getting through
Firstly, Charlie experiences many challenges with his emotions once he becomes intelligent. To begin, Charlie starts to recall throbbing things that he went through in his past, which he never knew about before he gained any knowledge. Due to the intelligent Charlie has become, he has bad memories of his life before “Seeing Charlie …show more content…
I would make her see how much she was hurting me,”(Keyes 171). Through this quote, Charlie shows that he wants to change his past memories because now he knows how the painful things were and he just wants to forget about them.Coupled with, this also shows the challenges he faces with his emotions because he remembers things after the operation, so his intelligent that he has gained is affecting him. In addition, Charlie has become more emotional and sexual with Fay, but she disturbs him in the work he has to do. This happens when Charlie is talking to Alice, she says “... if you’ve got to drink with her and spend all of your time with her in nightclubs and cabaret dancing, then she’s in your way. And that’s a problem only you can solve,”(Keyes 235). This expresses that Charlie relationship with Fay is really strong and he has changed due to how much he drinks and how much time he spends with her, so basically he has fallen in love with her which he never did before his intelligence. Lastly, the old Charlie continues to hinder the new Charlie's relationship with Alice. When Charlie is talking to Alice, he says …show more content…
To add on, Charlie now understands that the individuals that are supposed to be his friends are really embarrassing him. When Charlie goes to the party he realizes why the people always laugh at him, he says “I never knew before that Joe and Frank and the others liked to have me around just to make fun of me. Now I know what they mean when they say “to pull a Charlie Gordon,” (Keyes 42). Uniquely, this shows that Charlie finally realized that he is always a person they laughed at and that they were not his friends after all. This is all because of his intelligence and how he thinks about the things that people say around him. Similarly, Charlie begins to be disengaged from everyone around him. Charlie does not know why everyone stops talking to him, he says “Everyone seems frightened of me… Nobody at his place talks to me anymore, or kids around the way they used to. It makes the job kind of lonely,”(Keyes 59). This proves that he has problems socially because now people know that he is smart and that he might remember what they did to him, so they are trying to avoid him and not get confronted by Charlie. As well as, Charlie has begun to have issues communicating socially with others and making new companions. Charlie is not able to talk to anyone, he says “I started out the evening with every intention of being pleasant and making friends, But these days I have trouble getting through