Flowers for Algernon

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes is one of those books which every literate person in America should be familiar with, at least to the extent of knowing the basic plot. It has been taught in schools, and has been challenged for being inappropriate. Flowers for Algernon has won awards and been adapted for the television, radio, and film. There aren't many science fiction novels which have had the kind of influence that Flowers for Algernon has had. The plot is straightforward enough. Charlie Gordon is a thirty-two year old retarded man who works in a bakery. All his life, he has desperately wanted to be smart. He gets his chance when he is selected to be the first human subject for an experimental technique for raising intelligence. This new procedure has already proved to be effective on a mouse named Algernon and the scientists have good reason to believe that it will be just as effective on a human being. The procedure is successful and soon Charlie is as far above average in IQ as he was below. Charlie discovers, however, that high intelligence is not without its own problems. He becomes bitter and anti-social when he learns that his "friends" at the bakery only liked him because they laughed at him and took advantage at him. The scientists he believed were geniuses turn out to be knowledgeable only in narrow fields. Charlie is as much as outsider with a genius level IQ as he was when he was retarded and this time he knows it. Worst of all, Charlie's own research reveals that the success of the procedure is only temporary. He will lose his intelligence as quickly as he gained it. In the end, Charlie is back to the level he was at the start of the book, except perhaps a little wiser than he was even at his height. He can no longer understand the contribution he made to science but he at least regained the humanity he came near to losing, and he understands what it is to be smart a little better. Daniel Keyes did a wonderful job conveying Charlie Gordon's growth and decline through the medium of Charlie's journals or progress reports that he is required to write as part of the experiment. The earliest entries show a naïve and simple Charlie with misspellings and grammatical mistakes. Charlie really doesn't understand what is going on around him, yet he wants to be liked. People do like him, even his friends who laugh at him, because of his determination to learn as much as he can despite his limited intelligence. As Charlie gains in intelligence, his spelling and punctuation become more correct and he begins to use a more advanced vocabulary. He also begins to be less likable and more arrogant. As Charlie begins to revert to his earlier state, the language he uses in writing the progress reports also deteriorates. This last section of the book is heartbreaking and more than a little terrifying. There are few things that most people dread more than losing their minds. Even death is seen as preferable and fear of death is often really fear of oblivion or mindlessness. Keyes is very good at expressing Charlie's dread and fear as he sinks back into subnormal intelligence. Flowers for Algernon, then, is a book well worth rereading, or reading for the first time if you have somehow managed to avoid it all these years. The novel was published in 1966 and was an expansion of a short story Keyes wrote in 1958 so it may be somewhat dated. One hopes that people like Charlie Gordon are somewhat better treated today, though substitution intellectually challenged for retarded is not really an improvement if the people saying intellectually challenged still regard them as subhuman. These dated parts do not detract in the enjoyment of the book and are scarcely noticeable in a book that has become a classic

Truly an extraordinary read. It starts slower, but still intriguing with the style of writing and trying to keep up with how the narrator, Charlie, speaks. The perspective change throughout the story is quick and exciting, going from 0-100 before you realize and watching how the parallels from his previous standing before the surgery, to after and moving up the “high life”, I also agree with other reviews stating it’s a sort of take and poke at Plato’s Allegory of the Cave which is a fun, challenging concept. This story knows how to tug at your heart throughout every part and make you feel bad for multiple characters at different points, then seeing a different side of them as the story progresses. Another wonderful comparison could equate to Charlie’s change in IQ with growing older and getting dementia and/or alzheimer’s. It open’s open a rabbit hole of thought of how this could happen to anyone from disease, injury, etc. Easily this book has become an absolute favorite of mine and would 100% reread it in the future.

In the novel, Flowers for Algernon, 30 year old Charlie is chosen to take part in an experimental operation to raise his IQ. Charlie has a mental illness, which is undefined in the book because of the lack of knowledge about mental illness at the time the book was written. Charlie receives a series of operations that gradually increase his intelligence throughout the book, but as his IQ goes up, his social life drastically changes. Charlie had been a joyfully oblivious “friend” to everyone, though these supposed friends just used him as a puppet for their own amusement, and took advantage of him for the sake of comedy. As Charlie starts to become smarter, he realizes that most of the people in his life have been laughing at him instead of with him, and this new awareness sends them running. Charlie’s progress throughout the experiment is tracked by his capability to outsmart a small white laboratory mouse, Algernon. The book concluded in a tragic turn of events, and Charlie learns that even though he had a taste of the intelligent life, nothing lasts forever. Overall, I enjoyed this book a lot. I enjoyed the overall understanding of mental illness it provided, certainly not factual understanding, but emotional understanding. The novel was written in the form of journal entries written by Charlie, leaving the reader with an emotional but in depth account of his feelings throughout the story. The extremely intimate writing style made the book very relatable, but much more devastating that if it was written in a third person format. For example, the letter format allowed the reader to experience the bullying that Charlie endured through his eyes, which proved to be very confusing, making the reader pity Charlie even more. The reader was also able to experience Charlie’s innocent yet ever-evolving crush on his teacher, Miss Kinnian. Charlie has dreams about Miss Kinnian, and replaces positive figures from his childhood with her persona. Charlie explains his dream in his journal after he has it, stating “ School changes into P.S. 13 and I'm eleven years old and Miss Kinnian is eleven years old too, but now she's not Miss Kinnian. She's a little girl with dimples and long curls and her name is Harriet. We all love Harriet.(Keyes 31).” The reader can clearly see Charlie’s love for Miss Kinnian, as he relates many positive parts of his life to her. I thoroughly enjoyed Flowers for Algernon. The novel accurately portrayed the deepest and most simple thoughts of someone living with mental illness, and shows how this person may perceive the world. I think everyone should read this book in order to develop a better understanding of mental illness, and understand the value of kindness above all else.

When looking into Sci-Fi, this book kept coming up as essential reading that was both heartbreaking and potentially life changing. At 268 pages, I thought I would take the chance on it. Any avid reader will chew through this in just a few days. It took me much longer to read, as I kept stopping to reflect upon the events of the book, something that I've never really done with fiction before. This book really is heartbreaking, but was also eye-opening for me in the most profound way. I highly recommend this book, even to those not even remotely interested in science fiction as this element is very light in the story. It's 'human' in a way that I have come to love in every book or film that has this focus on relationships between people. To boot, the cover and astonishing yellow look great on any book shelf.

One of the best books I have ever read.

Me encantó la portada y la pasta dura. Vale la pena la espera.

Lovely hardcover edition of a truly magnificent book…

This is an extraordinarily well written masterpiece. Charlie is intellectually disabled. Algeron is a mouse. Firstly Algeron then Charlie has an operation to improve intelligence. Charlie can see the effects on Algeron and gradually he similarly becomes more intelligent. Indeed a genius. This change does not necessarily result in happiness. The writing is very clever. The story is related as diary entries by Charlie. The entries reflect his intellectual capacity. Very clever. This Is one of the best books I have read in a long time. Highly recommended.