Synopsis (Spoiler Alert)
Flowers for Algernon follows the story of Charlie Gordon, a 32-year-old man with an extremely low IQ. At the beginning of the book, Charlie can’t even remember what his parents look like or how to do tasks he was just taught. He works at Mr. Donner’s Bakery, where his late uncle got him a job. Mr. Donner always looked out for Charlie, fighting for him not to be sent to the Warren State Home, a place for people with intellectual disabilities, by proving to them he would work and have a roof over his head. When Charlie learns about a program for people like him, he enrolls and begins learning to read and write. The book starts with his teacher, Alice Kinnian, introducing him to Professor Nemur and Dr. Strauss, for him to be the first human subject in their research. Their goal was to find a way to alter enzymes in the brain to enhance intelligence. Their first lasting successful subject is a white mouse named Algernon. Charlie volunteers to be their next subject, driven by trauma he’s unaware of to be smart and to prove himself, all to be loved and wanted. The story follows Charlie’s developments as his IQ triples in the months following surgery, where he begins to remember his past. However, he also learns much more about the world and the way he was treated when he was intellectually disabled. At a conference for the research being conducted on him, Charlie feels alienated and realizes the people on the research team never saw him as a human, just as an experiment. Angered by this realization, Charlie flees from Chicago with Algernon. He starts renting an apartment in NYC when Algernon begins to deteriorate. As a result of Algernon’s regression, Charlie begins doing his research for the foundation to uncover what will happen to him. Algernon dies, and Charlie discovers that there is a fatal error in the original experiment, and Charlie will begin to decline as well. The book ends with Charlie admitting himself into the Warren State Home, requesting flowers be left on Algernon’s grave.
Describing My Experience
The book is primarily composed of Charlie’s progress reports, showing us the way the experiment is being documented through his experiences. As such, about the first quarter of the book is in broken English with barely any correct spelling to convey Charlie’s intellectual capabilities before the surgery. It was very disheartening to read at first. It made me feel bad for Charlie, as it was clear in his writing that he was trying his best, but he never even knew what to write about. After the surgery, the progress reports begin to improve. First, it’s just that he’s finally able to remember how to spell words once he’s corrected. Then, he starts using a dictionary and proper punctuation. It gets to the point where he’s so articulate that he begins typing because he has so much to say, and then eventually uses a recording device to do verbal entries. As his intelligence develops, he starts remembering the traumas he suffered in his childhood and adulthood and how terribly he was treated throughout his life. He realizes that the people he thought were his friends actually bullied and belittled him as a way to make themselves feel better about their shortcomings. The events that he experienced were heartbreaking to read about. I read this as a Kindle book, and every time I highlighted it in blue and added a note that usually read as “poor sweet Charlie” or “how cruel can people be.” He also begins to realize that Professor Nemur and Dr. Strauss didn’t see him as a person before their experiment, only a laboratory experiment. This book was first realized a long time ago when mental disabilities were viewed much differently by the general population, and it’s so saddening to know so many people experienced things like Charlie did. The real heartbreaking part is that once Algernon dies and Charlie knows what his fate is, he begins to spiral. In his progress reports, you can see that his mental capacity begins to decline rapidly, and he’s left confused and terrified. He can no longer remember things, including the research he published, his spelling and grammar almost completely revert, and he cuts himself off from society. He ends up deciding to admit himself to the Warren State Home, deciding that he can’t let people watch his regression or risk doing things he shouldn’t because things are no longer as they were before the experiment.
Classifying My Experience & The Features That Prompted Them
The most prominent experiences I had were sympathy and sadness, but I also felt a bit of moral omniscience, righteousness, and self-reflection. So, let’s dive into those experiences.
Sympathy & Sadness
As I mentioned earlier, the presence of Charlie’s memories and experiences as his intelligence improved were truly heartbreaking. He realizes that people he thought were his friends, only bullied and belittled him and that many people didn’t even view him as a worthy person due to his intellectual disability. The first time I truly felt wholeheartedly sympathetic for Charlie and deep sadness at his situation was when he spoke about wanting to be a part of the conversations his co-workers have about “important things.”
But anyway thats sience and I got to try to be smart like other pepul. Then when I am smart they will talk to me and I can sit with them and listen like Joe Carp and Frank and Gimpy do when they talk and have a discushen about importent things. While their werking they start talking about things like about god or about the truble with all the mony the presedint is spending or about the ripublicans and demicrats. And they get all excited like their gonna have a fite so Mr Donner got to come in and tell them to get back to baking or theyll all get canned union or no union. I want to talk about things like that. If your smart you can have lots of frends to talk to and you never get lonley by yourself all the time.
PROGESS REPORT 7 MARCH 11 (Copy/pasted from the Amazon Kindle Edition)
The last line is really what hurt my heart. All Charlie wants is to not be so lonely, and he thinks that being smart will make people want to be his friends.
Another moment example of a heartbreaking moment was when he got invited out to a bar by his coworkers.
Joe Carp and Frank Reilly invited me to go with them after work to Hallorans Bar for some drinks. I dont like to drink wiskey but they said we will have lots of fun. I had a good time. We played games with me doing a dance on the top of the bar with a lampshade on my head and everyone laffing. Then Joe Carp said I shoud show the girls how I mop out the toilet in the bakery and he got me a mop. I showed them and everyone laffed when I told them that Mr Donner said I was the best janiter and errand boy he ever had because I like my job and do it good and never come late or miss a day exept for my operashun. I said Miss Kinnian always told me Charlie be proud of the work you do because you do your job good. Everybody laffed and Frank said that Miss Kinnian must be some cracked up piece if she goes for Charlie and Joe said hey Charlie are you making out with her. I said I dint know what that meens. They gave me lots of drinks and Joe said Charlie is a card when hes potted. I think that means they like me. We have some good times but I cant wait to be smart like my best frends Joe Carp and Frank Reilly. I dont remember how the party was over but they asked me to go around the corner to see if it was raining and when I came back there was no one their. Maybe they went to find me. I looked for them all over till it was late. But I got lost and I felt bad at myself for getting lost because I bet Algernon coud go up and down those streets a hundrid times and not get lost like I did. Then I dont remember so good but Mrs Flynn says a nice poleecman brought me back home.
PROGRESS REPORT 8 – March 28 (Copy/pasted from the Amazon Kindle Edition)
They left him there on purpose. He got tricked because of his naivety due to his intellectual disability. They took advantage of that and left him all alone with no way to get home and no way to contact anyone for help. It is later confirmed by either Joe or Frank (I don’t remember which) that they do indeed do it on purpose. In a later scene, they go out for drinks again, and Charlie denies a drink after what happened last time. They “agree” and bring him a plain soda, but he describes it as “tasting funny” and then they proceed to force him to dance with a girl and repeatedly trip him to make him seem even dumber than they believed him to be.
The last scene I’m going to mention for this section of the experiences is a flashback Charlie has from elementary school once his intelligence begins to grow.
I remember what happened at P.S. 13 and why they had to change my school and send me to P.S. 222. It was because of Harriet. I see Charlie—eleven years old. He has a little gold-color locket he once found in the street. There’s no chain, but he has it on a string, and he likes to twirl the locket so that it bunches up the string, and then watch it unwind, spinning around with the sun flicking into his eyes. Sometimes when the kids play catch they let him play in the middle and he tries to get the ball before one of them catches it. He likes to be in the middle—even if he never catches the ball—and once when Hymie Roth dropped the ball by mistake and he picked it up they wouldn’t let him throw it but he had to go in the middle again. When Harriet passes by, the boys stop playing and look at her. All the boys love Harriet. When she shakes her head her curls bounce up and down, and she has dimples. Charlie doesn’t know why they make such a fuss about a girl and why they always want to talk to her (he’d rather play ball or kick-the-can, or ringo-levio than talk to a girl) but all the boys are in love with Harriet so he is in love with her too. She never teases him like the other kids, and he does tricks for her. He walks on the desks when the teacher isn’t there. He throws erasers out the window, scribbles all over the blackboard and walls. And Harriet always screeches and giggles, “Oh, lookit Charlie. Ain’t he funny? Oh, ain’t he silly?” It’s Valentine’s Day, and the boys are talking about valentines they’re going to give Harriet, so Charlie says, “I’m gonna give Harriet a valentime too.” They laugh and Barry says, “Where you gonna get a valentime?” “I’m gonna get her a pretty one. You’ll see.” But he doesn’t have any money for a valentine, so he decides to give Harriet his locket that is heart-shaped like the valentines in the store windows. That night he takes tissue paper from his mother’s drawer, and it takes a long time to wrap and tie it with a piece of red ribbon. Then he takes it to Hymie Roth the next day during lunch period in school and asks Hymie to write on the paper for him. He tells Hymie to write: “Dear Harriet, I think you are the most prettiest girl in the whole world. I like you very much and I love you. I want you to be my valentime. Your friend, Charlie Gordon.” Hymie prints very carefully in large letters on the paper, laughing all the time, and he tells Charlie, “Boy, this will knock her eyes out. Wait’ll she sees this.” Charlie is scared, but he wants to give Harriet that locket, so he follows her home from school and waits until she goes into her house. Then he sneaks into the hall and hangs the package on the inside of the doorknob. He rings the bell twice and runs across the street to hide behind the tree. When Harriet comes down she looks around to see who rang the bell. Then she sees the package. She takes it and goes upstairs. Charlie goes home from school and he gets a spanking because he took the tissue paper and ribbon out of his mother’s drawer without telling her. But he doesn’t care. Tomorrow Harriet will wear the locket and tell all the boys he gave it to her. Then they’ll see. The next day he runs all the way to school, but it’s too early. Harriet isn’t there yet, and he’s excited. But when Harriet comes in she doesn’t even look at him. She isn’t wearing the locket. And she looks sore. He does all kinds of things when Mrs. Janson isn’t watching: He makes funny faces. He laughs out loud. He stands up on his seat and wiggles his fanny. He even throws a piece of chalk at Harold. But Harriet doesn’t look at him even once. Maybe she forgot. Maybe she’ll wear it tomorrow. She passes by in the hallway, but when he comes over to ask her she pushes past him without saying a word. Down in the schoolyard her two big brothers are waiting for him. Gus pushes him. “You little bastard, did you write this dirty note to my sister?”
PROGRESS REPORT 9 – April 17 (Copy/pasted from the Amazon Kindle Edition)
Hymie took advantage of the fact that not only could Charlie not write the note himself, but he also had no way of proofreading it or confirming that Hymie wrote what he wanted to say to Harriet. This is just another example of how mistreated Charlie was as a child and how people took advantage of his disability to make them feel more entitled and superior.
I could honestly make this section extremely long because there are so many past and present experiences that Charlie goes through that make me feel very sympathetic and sad for him. After all, the main point of the book seems to be to highlight the maltreatment of mentally challenged individuals in the 1950s and 60s when this story was originally written. However, the last section I want to highlight is Charlie’s closing entry in his last progress report. At this point, Charlie’s reading and writing capabilities are about back to where he started, but in the recesses of his mind, he knows he’s going to keep declining, to a point even further than the start. He writes essentially a parting remark to the research team, telling them not to feel bad about what has happened to him because of the experimental error.
Thats why Im going away from here for good to the Warren Home school. I dont want to do nothing like that agen. I dont want Miss Kinnian to feel sorry for me. I know evrybody feels sorry for me at the bakery and I dont want that eather so Im going someplace where they are a lot of other pepul like me and nobody cares that Charlie Gordon was once a genus and now he cant even reed a book or rite good. Im taking a cuple of books along and even if I cant reed them Ill practise hard and mabye Ill even get a littel bit smarter then I was before the operashun without an operashun. I got a new rabits foot and a luky penny and even a littel bit of that majic powder left and mabye they will help me. If you ever reed this Miss Kinnian dont be sorry for me. Im glad I got a second chanse in life like you said to be smart because I lerned alot of things that I never even new were in this werld and Im grateful I saw it all even for a littel bit. And Im glad I found out all about my family and me. It was like I never had a family til I remembird about them and saw them and now I know I had a family and I was a person just like evryone. I dont no why Im dumb agen or what I did rong. Mabye its because I dint try hard enuf or just some body put the evel eye on me. But if I try and practis very hard mabye Ill get a littel smarter and no what all the words are. I remembir a littel bit how nice I had a feeling with the blue book that I red with the toren cover. And when I close my eyes I think about the man who tored the book and he looks like me only he looks different and he talks different but I dont think its me because its like I see him from the window. Anyway thats why Im gone to keep trying to get smart so I can have that feeling agen. Its good to no things and be smart and I wish I new evrything in the hole world. I wish I coud be smart agen rite now. If I coud I woud sit down and reed all the time. Anyway I bet Im the frist dumb persen in the world who found out some thing inportent for sience. I did somthing but I dont remembir what. So I gess its like I did it for all the dumb pepul like me in Warren and all over the world. Goodby Miss Kinnian and dr Strauss and evrybody . . . P.S. please tel prof Nemur not to be such a grouch when pepul laff at him and he woud have more frends. Its easy to have frends if you let pepul laff at you. Im going to have lots of frends where I go. P.S. please if you get a chanse put some flowrs on Algernons grave in the bak yard.
PROGRESS REPORT 17 – nov 21 (Copy/pasted from the Amazon Kindle Edition)
I was literally in tears reading this. I could never imagine how terrifying the regression was for Charlie. But there are pieces of the operation that remain at the time of his last entry. He knows that it happened but he doesn’t remember how; it’s like a small fragment in his brain that knows everything that happened but it’s out of his reach at the end. The part that really got me is that the last thing he writes is asking the research team to flowers of Algernon’s grave. Even though both Algernon and Charlie were just treated as experiments, Charlie subconsciously looked out for him and, even in his extremely regressed state, wanted someone to remember his contribution too, that he deserved to have his grave looked after, mouse or not.
Moral Omniscience & Righteousness
These two experiences go hand and hand with me based on what I read. I felt moral omniscience because I knew the way people treated Charlie while he was considered intellectually disabled was wrong, that he was still a person and deserved to be treated as such. I also feel it’s wrong to experiment on people in such a manner, especially since they only had one very successful mouse.
The first moment that I felt this moral omniscience was when Professor Nemur, Dr. Strauss, and Burt were discussing whether or not to choose Charlie as the first human patient in their experiment.
Prof Nemur was worryd about my eye-Q getting too high from mine that was too low and I woud get sick from it. And Dr Strauss tolld Prof Nemur somthing I dint understand so wile they was talking I rote down some of the words in my notebook for keeping my progris riports. He said Harold thats Prof Nemurs frist name I know Charlie is not what you had in mind as the frist of your new breed of intelek** coudnt get the word * superman. But most people of his low ment are host** and uncoop** they are usally dull and apathet** and hard to reach. Charlie has a good natcher and hes intristed and eeger to pleese. Then prof Nemur said remembir he will be the first human beeing ever to have his intelijence increesd by sergery. Dr Strauss said thats exakly what I ment. Where will we find another retarted adult with this tremendus motor-vation to lern. Look how well he has lerned to reed and rite for his low mentel age. A tremen** achev** I dint get all the werds and they were talking to fast but it sounded like Dr Strauss and Burt was on my side and Prof Nemur wasnt. Burt kept saying Alice Kinnian feels he has an overwhelm** desir to lern. He aktually beggd to be used. And thats true because I wantid to be smart. Dr Strauss got up and walkd around and said I say we use Charlie. And Burt noded. Prof Nemur skratchd his head and rubbd his nose with his thum and said mabye your rite. We will use Charlie.
progris riport 5 mar 6 (Copy/pasted from the Amazon Kindle Edition)
Even though Charlie’s entry is a bit difficult to understand due to his inability to understand them completely, it’s clear that they don’t have much care for him as a person if they even really see him that way, and they care more about whether he fits their preconceived notations of a perfectly disabled person to be experimented on. I felt that it was wrong of them to treat Charlie as such and, honestly even that they would think to do such experiments on people with such little previous experience.
Later on, when Charlie’s IQ has more than doubled, he overhears a conversation Professor Nemur and Dr. Strauss were having about him regarding an upcoming conference in Chicago. This makes him begin to doubt Nemur and Strauss, seeing them less as these all-knowing scientists and more as the ordinary men that they are. At the conference, this feeling comes to a peak. Charlie feels like a shiny toy on stage, being talked about and paraded, feeling less than human. When speaking about the experiment, Professor Nemur states in his description of Charlie that some could say he didn’t exist before the experiment was performed on him.
When Charlie came to us he was outside of society, alone in a great city without friends or relatives to care about him, without the mental equipment to live a normal life. No past, no contact with the present, no hope for the future. It might be said that Charlie Gordon did not really exist before this experiment. . . .
PROGRESS REPORT 13 June 13 (Copy/pasted from the Amazon Kindle Edition)
I kind of wanted to scream at Nemur at this moment about how awful it was to say something like that about a person. Regardless of his intelligence level, Charlie was a person before the experiment, and he was after it, too. Charlie makes multiple comments in his report about wishing Nemur would look it him as a human and not an experiment. It made me angry and upset that Charlie was being treated in such a manner. He deserved the same treatment as any other individual.
Later on, at an event hosted by Nemur’s wife, Nemur approaches Charlie rather aggressively about his shrewd behavior, preaching that he should be grateful for everything they have done for him. Charlie yells back, “Since when is a guinea pig supposed to be grateful?” I shouted. “I’ve served your purposes, and now I’m trying to work out your mistakes, so how the hell does that make me indebted to anyone?” (PROGRESS REPORT 16 – August 11). Rightfully so, Charlie is angry at Professor Nemur about how he’s been treated as less than human since the beginning. They begin to argue, which is quoted below.
“The problem, dear professor, is that you wanted someone who could be made intelligent but still be kept in a cage and displayed when necessary to reap the honors you seek. The hitch is that I’m a person.” He was angry, and I could see he was torn between ending the fight and trying once more to beat me down. “You’re being unfair, as usual. You know we’ve always treated you well—done everything we could for you.” “Everything but treat me as a human being. You’ve boasted time and again that I was nothing before the experiment, and I know why. Because if I was nothing, then you were responsible for creating me, and that makes you my lord and master. You resent the fact that I don’t show my gratitude every hour of the day. Well, believe it or not, I am grateful. But what you did for me—wonderful as it is—doesn’t give you the right to treat me like an experimental animal. I’m an individual now, and so was Charlie before he ever walked into that lab. You look shocked! Yes, suddenly we discover that I was always a person—even before—and that challenges your belief that someone with an I.Q. of less than 100 doesn’t deserve consideration. Professor Nemur, I think when you look at me your conscience bothers you.”
PROGRESS REPORT 16 – August 11 (Copy/pasted from the Amazon Kindle Edition)
Nemur’s behavior throughout the entirety of the book made me angry, but this scene puts into perspective the anger that Charlie and I felt toward him. It was wrong from the beginning to view Charlie, or any human being for that matter, differently because they are different from what’s considered normal. Nemur’s behavior was outrageous. I was rooting Charlie on when he finally called Nemur out on the bullshit, like “Yeah! Put him in his place! Finally!”
Self-Reflection
A major theme in this book is Charlie wanting to be smart because he doesn’t want to be lonely anymore. There are multiple passages where he mentions being lonely and believing that intelligence is the key to having friends. However, as he gains that much-wanted intelligence, he ends up wanting less elementary conversations, and then he wants to fall in love, and the cycle continues.
This relentless cycle of wanting, getting, and then wanting more is eye-opening. It’s a representation that greed never lets us be satisfied because there is always something more that we want.
I realize now that my feeling for Alice had been moving backward against the current of my learning, from worship, to love, to fondness, to a feeling of gratitude and responsibility. My confused feeling for her had been holding me back, and I had clung to her out of my fear of being forced out on my own, and cut adrift. But with the freedom came a sadness. I wanted to be in love with her. I wanted to overcome my emotional and sexual fears, to marry, have children, settle down. Now it’s impossible. I am just as far away from Alice with an I.Q. of 185 as I was when I had an I.Q. of 70. And this time we both know it.
PROGRESS REPORT 12 – June 6 (Copy/pasted from the Amazon Kindle Edition)
This moment is when Charlie realizes that his intelligence made him want to love Alice but in return it actually led to the downfall of their relationship. As he grew more intelligent, he wanted to love her, but then his intelligence superseded hers so much that it ended up being the thing to separate them. However, it makes Charlie want those things with someone else. And as the cycle goes, once he gets that (if he does, I haven’t finished the book yet) he will probably long for something else. I think this allowed me to reflect on myself from seeing a perspective such as this one. My life is very different from Charlie but it shows that wanting and getting only leaves you wanting more. It made me reflect on the things I want in life and on the things I have and allowed me to be grateful for what I do indeed have.
Finding Technologies
Some of the technologies that I believe caused my experiences are “I Voice,” Stream of Consciousness, and Hurt Delay.
I Voice
Having Charlie speak about his experiences in the first person makes the things he went through that much more impactful. For example, the sympathy and sadness I experienced when he was abandoned at the bar was a result of him saying things such as the passage below.
I dont remember how the party was over but they asked me to go around the corner to see if it was raining and when I came back there was no one their. Maybe they went to find me. I looked for them all over till it was late. But I got lost and I felt bad at myself for getting lost because I bet Algernon coud go up and down those streets a hundrid times and not get lost like I did.
PROGESS REPORT 7 MARCH 11 (Copy/pasted from the Amazon Kindle Edition)
Reading his writing makes me feel sympathy for him because “I Voice” makes his character feel more personal. It makes me feel like I know him, which emphasizes the sadness and sympathy I felt for him when he was abandoned.
This whole book could be quoted as examples of I Voice, so I’ll save the space since many of my previous quotations demonstrate the use of this technology and its impact on my experiences described above.
Stream of Consciousness
Similarly to “I Voice,” the use of stream of consciousness also creates my sympathy for Charlie, as well as the feelings of moral omniscience and righteousness I felt over Professor Nemur and Dr. Strauss. Experiencing Charlie’s emotions and thoughts as he felt them made me feel sympathy for Charlie but also made me see the issues with the behavior of Professor Nemur and Dr. Strauss towards Charlie throughout the experiment. His feelings about being viewed as less of a person when he was intellectually disabled and feeling like nothing more than an experiment throughout the book made me feel like what they were doing was wrong, and that made me upset. Charlie deserved to be treated better than that because, disability or not, he was still a person, and he deserved to be treated as such.
Hurt Delay
This technology definitely caused a lot of my feelings of sympathy and sadness regarding Charlie’s past. Due to his disability, he was unable to remember the traumatic experiences that were mentioned in this book. It functions as a main plot point that as his intelligence increases, his memories start to resurface and he becomes emotionally intelligent enough to understand them. However, those two things do not happen at the same time. He begins remembering these traumatic events but he doesn’t acknowledge them right away because he can’t do so. We read the things he experienced as a kid before he could process the effect they had on him. We watch him begin to understand that his whole life all people did was make fun of him and his disability. We see this realization in the passage below.
I think it’s a good thing about finding out how everybody laughs at me. I thought about it a lot. It’s because I’m so dumb and I don’t even know when I’m doing something dumb. People think it’s funny when a dumb person can’t do things the same way they can.
PROGRESS REPORT 9 – April 13 (Copy/pasted from the Amazon Kindle Edition)
He realizes later on that his memories are all of people making fun of him or taking advantage of the fact that he’s disabled and they’re not, which makes the sadness I felt for him all the worse. Once he realizes those traumas, he becomes skeptical of the world and those around him. He starts isolating himself. He no longer wants to be around those he called “friends” because all they did was make fun of him.
Additionally, many of his past memories involve the mistreatment he suffered by his mother’s hand. He remembers a lot of things from his time at home, including how his mother at one point planned on stabbing him to death. The night he was taken to his Uncle Herman’s place, he overheard an argument between his parents. Although he didn’t understand what was happening at the time, when the memory comes back to him, he’s left at a loss.
Charlie is asleep in the other room, but he wakens to the sound of his mother shrieking. He has learned to sleep through quarrels—they are an everyday occurrence in his house. But tonight there is something terribly wrong in that hysteria. He shrinks back into the pillow and listens. “I can’t help it! He’s got to go! We’ve got her to think about. I won’t have her come home from school crying every day like this because the children tease her. We can’t destroy her chance for a normal life because of him.” “What do you want to do? Turn him out into the street?” “Put him away. Send him to the Warren State Home.” “Let’s talk it over in the morning.” “No. All you do is talk, talk, and you don’t do anything. I don’t want him here another day. Now—tonight.” “Don’t be foolish, Rose. It’s too late to do anything . . . tonight. You’re shouting so loud everyone will hear you.” “I don’t care. He goes out tonight. I can’t stand looking at him any more.” “You’re being impossible, Rose. What are you doing?” “I warn you. Get him out of here.” “Put that knife down.” “I’m not going to have her life destroyed.” “You’re crazy. Put that knife away.” “He’s better off dead. He’ll never be able to live a normal life. He’ll be better off—” “You’re out of your mind. For God’s sake, control yourself!” “Then take him away from here. Now—tonight.” “All right. I’ll take him over to Herman tonight and maybe tomorrow we’ll find out about getting him into the Warren State Home.” There is silence. From the darkness I feel the shudder pass over the house, and then Matt’s voice, less panicky than hers. “I know what you’ve gone through with him, and I can’t blame you for being afraid. But you’ve got to control yourself. I’ll take him over to Herman. Will that satisfy you?” “That’s all I ask. Your daughter is entitled to a life, too.” Matt comes into Charlie’s room and dresses his son, and though the boy doesn’t understand what is happening, he is afraid. As they go out the door, she looks away. Perhaps she is trying to convince herself that he has already gone out of her life—that he no longer exists. On the way out, Charlie sees on the kitchen table the long carving knife she cuts roasts with, and he senses vaguely that she wanted to hurt him. She wanted to take something away from him, and give it to Norma. When he looks back at her, she has picked up a rag to wash the kitchen sink. . . .
PROGRESS REPORT 14 – June 20(Copy/pasted from the Amazon Kindle Edition)
The Charlie in that memory didn’t have an understanding of what was going on, he just knew it was bad based on their voices. The Charlie who relived that memory has the emotional capacity to understand that his mother wanted to kill him, and that left him reeling. He put off seeing her for a large chunk of the book due to all of the traumatic experiences he relived. At the beginning of the book, Charlie barely remembers his parents; he doesn’t even know their names and can’t recall their faces. At this point in the book, Charlie has relived countless traumatic experiences through a new lens and now has to learn to live with the trauma that happened decades ago.
I think this is kind of an abstract use of hurt delay. We as the reader experience the memory with an emotionally intelligent Charlie, who then has to grapple with ‘relived’ trauma, except he didn’t know it happened, and we experience it together. Maybe it’s a different technology entirely, I’m not really sure. But it’s definitely an impactful technology that shapes a large portion of this book.
Remarks
Draft: So far, I’m enjoying this book. It’s quite out of my comfort zone as a reader and I’m pleasantly surprised. The book as a whole is quite sad (as mentioned above) but it’s eye-opening. It highlights the previous mistreatment of mentally disabled individuals and the negative way they were viewed. In the past, they were treated as less than human. It makes me glad that we live in a world where mentally disabled individuals are more accepted, but there is always more improvement to be made. I think this book hits home with me a little more because my summer job for the last three years has been lifeguarding for an ESY (Extended School Year) Program at my high school. The kids in the program are special needs in varying degrees, and it always saddens me that they have a much harder life than a regular person. They are some of the sweetest kids I’ve ever worked with and it hurts my heart to know how badly people like them have been treated in the past and for the things they may have experienced in their lives like Charlie. They deserve to be treated the same as everyone else, and I hate knowing that many people look down on them for something they can’t control.
Revision: So here’s the update. I definitely enjoyed this book a lot. The ending had me crying like a baby. And although I wouldn’t naturally gravitate towards a story like this again, I’m glad to have had this experience. It was nothing I would have ever read on my own, and it gave me a new perspective on the lives of individuals who have disabilities. Charlie’s development and regression shed insight on the struggles of those individuals, but it also takes in a crazy thought of what would lives of individuals like Charlie’s be like if they began to understand the way they are treated. It’s beyond wrong, but we know that many disabled individuals get treated as less than human, and it’s sad to think that if they went through this hypothetical scenario, they would be left grappling with similar issues. It’s a heartbreaking thing to think about. But it’s an important thing to keep in mind. I didn’t need the reminder to be kind to everyone, but there are people out there who don’t, and I hope they get the opportunity to read this book and put their behaviors in check.
Overall, I did give this book a 5-star rating, so I would encourage others to read it (and it’s only 219 pages :))
Works Cited
Keyes, Daniel. Flowers for Algernon. Harcourt, 2004.
Experiences Glossary – Story & The Brain. https://unewhavendh.org/story-and-the-brain/experiences-glossary/. Accessed 2 Mar. 2025.
Technologies by Element of Narrative – Story & The Brain. https://unewhavendh.org/story-and-the-brain/technologies-by-element-of-narrative/. Accessed 2 Mar. 2025.
Featured Image
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes Cover. Harcourt. All Rights Reserved.
