Intelligence In Daniel Keyes Flowers For Algernon

The role of intelligence in our society Intelligence is an adjective commonly used to describe people who obtain the ability to develop and apply their own knowledge and skills in a general setting. In Daniel Keyes science fiction novel Flowers for Algernon, we live vicariously through Charlie Gordon, a middle aged man with learning disabilities that prohibit him from living the life of a completely able person. In the novel, Charlie encounters two scientists who offer to do a surgery on him that will potentially make him intelligent. The surgery goes as expected, and Charlie gradually becomes the smart man that he always dreamed to be. As the story progresses we start to see Keyes’ perspective on what it means to be intelligent, and the effect intelligence has on our society, through Charlie’s encounters with people after the surgery. Throughout the novel, Keyes crafts a concrete statement on the role human intelligence has on our lives, and how our society reacts to it. Ernest Hemingway once said “happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.” The same could be said for Charlie Gordon after the surgery. Prior to the surgery, Charlie is a disabled person who is known as a genuine and authentic person who …show more content…
In the book Flowers for Algernon , Keyes tells the progressive story of man with learning disabilities, undergoing to surgery to become an intelligent man. Keyes crafts a story that tells the role intelligence has in society. He implicitly says that intelligence while being a good thing, can also sometimes be the one thing that can harm us. Ignorance is bliss in his opinion, and not knowing everything is sometimes more beneficial than we think it is. Questioning the things that are never questioned can the be key to the betterment of humans, and