Flowers For Algernon Response

Have you ever related yourself to someone or something else? Did you see yourself in a situation and play it out in your head before you actually do anything? Having these thoughts, or ideas are nothing new; in fact, we use this to envision our daily goals in life. Algernon was seen as a ¨mirror image¨ of Charlie Gordon's progress in the book Flowers for Algernon.
To test the intelligence of the mouse and Charlie they gave them tests to pass, one was a Rorschach test. The test is ¨meant to produce a profile of people with schizophrenia (or other mental disorders) based on score frequencies.¨ The Rorschach test requires an imaginative mind although Charlie did not have a very active imagination himself; he was a literal person at the beginning of the book. Perhaps they had tried a similar test with Algernon before the surgery besides the maze afterward. After the surgery, Charlie was given a T.V. to use when he was sleeping to improve learning capability. It was not until recent years that we have had any progress in this field. What was shown in the book is the progress of Charlie because of constant opportunities to learn awake or asleep. In reality, our brain will allow us to learn when we …show more content…
For Algernon, he ran the maze to earn his food, that is it. He runs the mazes to show his level of his intelligence. Consequently, Charlie was constantly running a maze that only ended in dead ends until his surgery; after that, he found new ways to try and get closer to the end. As both of the characters regress near the end of their stories; each time they ran into a dead end, they panic, go into a frenzy, curl up and hope it is all a dream. We have seen how regression has affected Algernon, ending in his death. Charlie- experiencing almost the same manner as Algernon - saw Algernon as