Response To Literature: Flowers For Algernon By Daniel Keyes

Decent Essays
Rilan Fregeau
Mr. Griffith
ELA 8B
October-12-2017
Response to Literature
Have you ever read the book Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes? Flowers for Algernon is about a mentally challenged man (Charles) that has a operation that triples his IQ. But after he start to get smarter he starts to notice that he is becoming dumb again because the surgeons don't know if it will last forever. Charlie Gordon shows determination and sadness throughout the story in these ways.
Charlie shows determination through the story because before he has the operation to triple his IQ he keeps on trying to become smarter. He is also determined because he keeps trying to be friend with the people that hate him and thinks he is weird and annoying.At these points

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Do you know anyone mentally handicapped? Chances are you do. But have you ever wondered what it would be like to be them? Well, Charlie Gordon in “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes, is mentally handicapped. But an operation gave Charlie unbelievable intelligence.…

    • 403 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    To begin with, a couple of weeks after Charlie, a 32-year-old man with an I.Q. of 68, has an operation to make him “smart”, he doesn't see any progress in his intelligence. After work one day, Frank and Joe, Two employees at Donner’s Bakery who often pick on Charlie, take Charlie to a bar, where they urge him to dance like a buffoon and then abandon him, but charlie is unaware of that and thinks they're all having a good time. “Everyone laffed and we had a good time and they gave me lots of drinks and Joe said Charlie is a card when hes potted” (190). This demonstrates that Charlie’s limited self-awareness is leaving him vulnerable for others to take advantage of. He’s limited self-awareness is making him unaware that Frank and Joe are picking on him and using him just for a laugh.…

    • 390 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The term hillbilly refers to an unsophisticated country person, associated originally with the remote regions of the Appalachians. However, J.D. Vance uses the word to describe a community of people who are a product of their environment. Throughout the book he lets us into his life, telling many different stories about his life as an adolescent. Facing drug abuse, domestic violence, and an unstable family structure he speaks of his struggles to overcome the tough times and trails he faced growing up in a place where nothing ever changed. He proves to the readers that even though society may view him as destined to fail where you come from doesn’t always define where your headed.…

    • 651 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    People tend to want to be smarter than they are. This is a feeling Charlie Gordon is very familiar with. Charlie is a thirty- seven year old man with an IQ of 68. He attends an adult learning center taught by Miss. Kinnian.…

    • 710 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    If anyone could gain extreme knowledge, even for a small period, that would open their eyes to reality, would it not be reasonable? On the other hand, wouldn’t that make every passing minute filled with intellect worth the hardship and pain that would eventually follow? To tell the truth, some may think that in the end Charlie gained little for how much he lost, but sometimes, the little we gain in life is of much more importance than what it may seem that in the end we lose. In the short story “Flowers for Algernon” written by Daniel Keyes, considered Science fiction, the main character Charlie has Down's syndrome and is selected to have a surgery on his brain to make him smarter. Throughout the book he writes progress reports that show how he progresses after his operation.…

    • 900 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Charlie Gordon is the main character in the story “Flowers for Algernon”. He’s a 37 year-old adult with an IQ of 68. He is mentally challenged but he desperately wants to be smart. Charlie is asked to have a surgery that the doctors think will make him smarter but the results are not guaranteed. Charlie will do anything to gain more intelligence and therefore agrees to have the surgery and take part in the scientists’ experimentation on him and his advances.…

    • 768 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Don’t you want to know what flowers for algernon means. In the story flowers for algernon Charlie Gordon, had a disability and an i.q of 68. But then he got a special surgery. That can increase his intelligence to 204. It was called the artificial intelligence surgery.…

    • 173 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Give it Your All You never know what you have until it is gone. “Flowers for Algernon” is a story about a middle aged man named Charlie. Charlie is living a battle between his level of knowledge and his mental condition. In the story Charlie is offered the chance to have an operation performed on himself.…

    • 827 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    “Dr Strauss says I shoud rite down what I think and remembir and evrey thing that happins to me from now on” (Keyes 1). In Flowers for Algernon, the intelligent Charlie connects with the old Charlie. This story is told in first person narration, revealing Charlie’s inner thoughts and feelings. Charlie’s telling the story in first person, helps the audience understand his flashbacks. Different situations from the present trigger Charlie’s flashbacks.…

    • 935 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Our Actions and Their Consequences Have you ever wanted to change yourself? You may want to rethink that. During the short story “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes, Charlie undergoes a experimental surgery to increase his intelligence. The story is a collection of all of Charlie’s progress reports from before to after his surgery. He continually writes better and with more intellect, and then he begins to decline.…

    • 992 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    As the novel progresses the journal entries clearly show how Charlie’s intelligence, emotions, and relationships change after the experimental surgery he undergoes. In the beginning of the book, Charlie’s writing is poor, because he suffers from some sort of mental retardation. This poor writing shows his intelligence level and gives the reader a feeling of what a conversation with Charlie would actually be like. After the experimental surgery,…

    • 336 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Flowers for Algernon Essay “There are so many doors to open. I am impatient to begin,” said Charlie Gordon. Charlie, was a mentally challenged man. He could not read, write, he did not remember his childhood, but he had a lot of flashbacks.…

    • 519 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the book Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes and the movie are both about a boy named Charlie Gordon has a learning disability, so his IQ is lower than other people. He attends a school for adults who also have learning disabilities. Charlie gets a surgery that can triple his IQ. The movie and book have many differences. In the book the movie takes place in the 60s but in the movie it takes place in the 80s.…

    • 381 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    ‘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…

    • 1003 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Flowers for Algernon Argumentative Essay Being smart is not always a good thing. You might be happier being dumb rather than being smart. In the story “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes, a man named Charlie Gordon undergoes surgery to become smart. The surgery was a success and is tripled Charlie’s IQ of 68. As Charlie progressed, he learned that who he thought were his friends were always making fun of him.…

    • 717 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays