“Flowers for Algernon”
Conflict- External- Charlie doesn’t fit in with those around him because of his low intelligence at first, and his high intelligence later.
Internal- Charlie begins to lose his intelligence and has to deal with the fallout of that process.
Motivation- Charlie has his surgery because he wants to become smarter and thinks it will help him fit in. He fights to prevent his loss of intelligence because he does not want to go to the way things were.
Climax- The climax of the story occurs when Algernon bites Charlie and begins to show signs of decline. We are left to wonder if Charlie will decline similarly.
Resolution- Charlie has lost his intelligence and leaves town to start over. The resolution is ambiguous. We are left to wonder if Charlie will enjoy life elsewhere or if his brain will continue to deteriorate until he dies like Algernon.
Characters- Charlie Gordon- a 37 year old mentally retarded man who undergoes an experimental surgery to make him smarter. Charlie is a good natured, highly motivated person. He deeply wants to be intelligent and fit in. Later, he demonstrates compassion when he determines to use his abilities to help others. He becomes a genius, but loses it when the experiment finally fails.
Dr. Strauss/Dr. Nemur- the scientists whose experiment makes Charlie a genius. They are psychiatrists and neurosurgeons who argue often.
Miss Kinnian- Charlie’s teacher and love interest. She was the one who recommended him for the experiment.
Setting- New York City, mostly the laboratory, Charlie’s home, and the factory.
I.
Charlie is a slow adult. He’s in some kind of experiment where he hopes to be made smarter. He takes a Rorshcach test and can’t even think or imagine that anything in that test resembles anything else.
Charlie- 37 years old, IQ of 68. He’s slow. Motivated.
II.
Charlie takes another test- thematic apperception test. He couldn’t do it because he doesn’t know how to think. He also meets and races Algernon. He loses. Algernon had the same surgery that Charlie is going to have and it worked. They’re going to use Charlie after all.
III.
The doctors- Strauss and Nemur were arguing about whether they should use Charlie or not.
We can learn some things about Charlie on this page: even though he’s not very smart, he has managed to do reasonably well. He can read and write and he has a job. He is interested, motivated, and eager to please. They know that he will make the most of it.
No one is really sure if this will work or not and this procedure could be dangerous. Charlie is afraid and many people come visit him.
IV.
Charlie had the operation and it was successful. He doesn’t feel smarter yet. He continues to take tests and race with Algernon, but he still hasn’t really done well in them.
V.
After his surgery Charlie goes back to work at the factory. The people at the factory make fun of Charlie, but he thinks they’re friends.
Eponyms- term derived from a person’s name
For example: “being/pulling a Charlie Gordon”- being dumb or doing something dumb
Examples- Achilles’ heel, Midas touch, bozo, Uncle Tom, Einstein
They give Charlie a TV that’s teaching him at night. He doesn’t really like it, but the doctors tell him to get used to it. The TV teaches him through his subconscious mind.
VI.
Charlie went to a party with his “friends.” They made fun of him, got him drunk, and told him to get a newspaper and coffee and ditched him. Frank and Joe are essentially just two bullies. He beat Algernon and wants to be friends with him now. We can see that the operation is working and he’s getting smarter.
Charlie continues to work with Miss Kinnian at the lab learning various things- such as spelling, and reading an actual novel. Miss Kinnian reads some progress reports and starts to cry, maybe because Charlie thinks so highly of her, maybe because of how people treat him, and maybe because she is impressed with his progress.
Verbs/helping verbs- invited, said, showed, laughed, looked, are, don’t, reading, ,learn, threw, losing
VII.
Charlie learns punctuation very quickly. He goes out with his friends and they continue to make fun of him, got him drunk, and continued to humiliate him. He finally realizes that his “friends” are actually making fun of him. He stops going to work. He read an entire grammar book and processed it in one night. He is making huge progress.
Charlie continues to get smarter. He can read faster, does college level work, and is learning several languages. His IQ will soon be over 200. However, he is not allowed to study psychology. He talks to Burt about IQ but this doesn’t really help him. It’s left as a vacuous concept.
VIII.
Charlie takes another Rorschach Test- an inkblot test to determines things about personality. He thought it was a trick to make him feel stupid and got angry. I think his answers to the test show that he has a newfound competitive streak.
Charlie is becoming attracted to Miss Kinnian and asks her to dinner with him.
Charlie is now so smart that he figured a new way to organize the factory floor to save money. The people at the factory don’t want anything to do with him. They are made uncomfortable by his newfound intelligence. They also may be worried that he will be angry now that he understands that they mock him.
Dr. Strauss and Dr. Nemur are arguing about who should get the most credit.
IX.
Miss Kinnian tells him how smart he’s become and predicts that he will pass her by a long shot. They are still worried that he may get dumb again (Charlie faces it with a little bit of denial).
Charlie has quit his job because his coworkers signed a petition to fire him. All except one signed it. They’re disturbed by his increase in intelligence. They also may be jealous or be worried that he could take jobs.
Dr. Strauss gets mad at Charlie for not writing his progress reports and they give him a typewriter since he hates writing. Charlie and Algernon to the APA and it goes over very well.
Charlie feels at this point that he is smarter than Strauss and Nemur. This is evidenced by his disbelief that they can’t speak other languages and lack of expertise in many areas.
Remember that Charlie’s initial conflict with those around him resulted from his low intelligence. It kept him from fitting in. Now, he’s in conflict with those around him because of his intelligence. He still doesn’t fit in, but instead of being too dumb he is too smart.
He runs into the same problem with Miss Kinnian. He struggles to communicate with her now because of his genius. “I find that I don’t communicate with people much anymore.”
X.
The incident on pg. 121 with the dish washer at the diner is very important. The boy drops and breaks dishes and people laugh at him, including Charlie. However, when Charlie realizes that the boy is simple-minded, he becomes outraged. He has an outburst in the restaurant, directed towards the people who made fun of the boy. He is very angry with himself for laughing at someone who had been like him and feels ashamed that he did that, and that he had tried to run away from who he had been. He is also deeply hurt when he sees the boy laughing at himself, not knowing why he was even laughing. Charlie realizes that he had been the same way.
He decides to use his genius to perfect the techniques that raised him up and help those like him.
XI.
Charlie begins to witness Algernon’s rapid decrease in intelligence. Algernon becomes wild and unruly, and he refuses to complete the tests that he used to. He begins to worry that he will have a similar decline.
XII.
He starts to research the reasons for Algernon’s decline in hopes of stopping it. He determines the causes and realizes he can’t stop it, but he sends his work to be published anyway. He continues to write his progress reports.
XIII.
Charlie steadily begins to lose his intelligence, experiences emotional issues, forgetfulness, and falls into depression. He breaks up with Miss Kinnian because he doesn’t want her to see him and pity him.
He tries his best to keep reading and writing and maintain his intelligence.
Essentially, he is experiencing senility. He explains that the surgery that sped up his learning also sped up the failure of his brain. He is losing his intelligence as rapidly as he gained it.
Algernon dies, and he puts flowers on Algernon’s grave every week- probably because he knows he will experience the same thing.
His landlady can see that he is sick and she brings a doctor to see him. The doctor laughs at him when he tells him he used to be a genius and talks to him like a child. Charlie angrily forces the doctor to leave because he did not want to be made fun of.
His progress reports demonstrate his rapid burnout. His grammar and spelling become terrible and his diction becomes child-like.
He returns to his job at the factory, where interestingly, his coworkers show sympathy and support for him. He also forgets that he isn’t in Miss Kinnian’s class anymore and shows up. When she sees him reduced to his original mental capacity she breaks down and cries. He briefly remembers that he stopped coming to the class because he was a genius and quickly leaves.
He decides to leave town because he doesn’t want anyone who knew him when he was a genius to feel sorry for him. He leaves, and we are left to ourselves to decide what happens to him.