Flowers for Algernon
Flowers for Algernon introduces the reader to Charlie Gordon, a thirty-to year old boy, who will ultimately face the hardest realization ever imagined in his life. Professor Nemur and Doctor Strauss become pivotable characters to Charlie's experiment. Alice Kinnian's relationship with Charlie at first seems simple, but as Charlie becomes smarter, he suddenly realizes a desire for her other than a teacher. Donner's Bakery sets the stage for most of Charlie's adult life as a primary meeting place of interaction between people. This place also demonstrates continual abuse, first taken as only a joke but suddenly becomes insulting as Charlie realizes what has taken place. Throughout most of Charlie Gordon's life, he has been characterized as slow or learning disabled; remarkably, he overcame many obstacles like reading and writing but ultimately was still dumb. Charlie understood that he was not like everyone else but for the most part, he felt people were just trying to poke fun at him. This attitude and desire led him to Miss Kinnian's room. He wanted to become proficient in reading and writing. One day Miss Kinnian decided that Charlie's ambitious attitude would make him be the perfect candidate for Professor Nemur and Dr
One issue I feel needs to be addressed is the objective of Professor Nemur and Dr. Strauss in the experiment. I can conclude from the remarks from the beginning of the book where Charlie is told not to tell anyone of this operation for fear of the project failing. Charlie is remember many things from his past that probably should have been left there because the information that is coming back could be detrimental toward the development of Charlie. Especially the desires of wanting to date Miss Kinnian and feel warm fuzzes about dancing with women. These emotions could produce false hopes and mistakes toward life if this experiment is short lived. The memories of other little boys peeing on him and throwing dirt would all but make Charlie's self-esteem diminish. Charlie is gradually becoming smarter, but I worry about the long-term effects to a thirty-two year old man just now beginning to grow from nine-year old mind. Charlie is slowly remembering images then pictures of his past as a child. He had forgotten many of his memories as a child. He remembered a saying that his mom used to say to him and that was to love God and pray to him, but Charlie does not know how to pray. Burt Seldon, Charlie's evaluator, encourages him to continue to write down these memories in Progress Reports, so the doctors can learn about the operation. Personality and intelligence tests are given to Charlie periodically to check his progress. One test includes a mouse named Algernon. Charlie must race against this mouse repeatedly. At first, Algernon won all the races, but gradually Charlie began to win. March 24, Prof. Nemur came to Charlie's room to give him a television. Nemur told Charlie that this machine would help him
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1169
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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