Flowers for Algernon

by Daniel Keyes

Paperback, 1968

Status

Available

Call number

813.54

Collection

Publication

Bantam (1968), Mass Market Paperback, 216 pages

Description

Classic Literature. Fiction. Literature. HTML:Winner of both the Hugo and Nebula Awards, the powerful, classic story about a man who receives an operation that turns him into a genius...and introduces him to heartache. Charlie Gordon is about to embark upon an unprecedented journey. Born with an unusually low IQ, he has been chosen as the perfect subject for an experimental surgery that researchers hope will increase his intelligence-a procedure that has already been highly successful when tested on a lab mouse named Algernon. As the treatment takes effect, Charlie's intelligence expands until it surpasses that of the doctors who engineered his metamorphosis. The experiment appears to be a scientific breakthrough of paramount importance, until Algernon suddenly deteriorates. Will the same happen to Charlie?.… (more)

Media reviews

[Keyes] has taken the obvious, treated it in a most obvious fashion, and succeeded in creating a tale that is suspenseful and touching - all in modest degree, but it is enough.

User reviews

LibraryThing member AHS-Wolfy
Charlie Gordon has an abnormally low IQ but has a drive to better himself that was instilled by his mother when he was a child. He voluntarily attends an adult learning centre so that he can learn to read and write. Seeing his devotion, his teacher recommends him as the first test subject for a
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radical new procedure that will increase intelligence by up to 3 times its current level. The experiment has been thoroughly tested on animals and the latest subject, a mouse named Algernon, is showing great signs that the change is permanent.

Told in the form of progress reports written by Charlie, the reader gets to see and feel the emotions and change of character as the experiment takes hold and Charlie's intelligence increases to that of genius level. How is he affected when he realises those he thought of as friends who were always laughing around him were actually laughing at him and not with him. We get to learn of his childhood as long buried memories rise to the surface and we get to follow along as he builds up new relationships with those around him. How will Charlie cope when Algernon shows signs that the experiment might not be quite so lasting after all and that the same fate may await him?

Not a hard science fiction book but one that examines society's actions to some of its less fortunate members and the psychological effects on the test subject himself. This is a well-crafted story that tugs at the emotional heart-strings and if you don't want to be seen blubbering in public then make sure you read the end while you are safely ensconced in a private place.
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LibraryThing member LynnB
Like most Canadians, I read Flowers for Algernon (the short story) in school. I never forgot either the story line or the deep sympathy I felt for Charlie.

This is an extremely moving story about a man with a low IQ who takes part in experimental surgery and becomes a genius. The operation had
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previously only been tried on animals and showed especially promising results in a mouse named Algernon.
After some time, however, Algernon begins to behave strangely and to lose most of what he's learned. Tragically, Charlie understands that the same thing will happen to him.

I decided to re-read Flowers for Algernon after all these years because of how much I loved The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time. Both books are narrated by the main characters -- an autistic child in Curious Incident, and Charlie himself in Flowers.

Reading Charlie's progress reports carries you along with him on his journey: his burning desire to better himself; his growing intellectual capacity; his increasing understanding of human relationships. Watching Charlie realize that "friends" were actually laughing at him, and that his mother sent him away broke my heart. Watching him struggle to "stay smart" was both sad and inspirational.
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LibraryThing member lilywren
OK, Flowers for Algernon has become my favourite book, of ALL time. In fact I don't think I have been able to say what my favourite book is, until now. It's knocked my socks off, thrown me in the corner and left me a crumbling, emotional wreck. I can't fault it, the character and story development,
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the writing, the way in which it stirs the emotions and its sheer humanity have all hit the right spot. A winner of both the Hugo Award and Nebula Award and as part of the SF Masterworks series and quite deservedly so.

The book tells the story of Charlie Gordon, a 32 year old who is 'retarded' (a word I dislike but this is 1966, its language of its time and fits the book's era) with an IQ of 68. Charlie is recruited into an experiment which aims to increase his intelligence to that of a genius. The 'Algernon' named in the title, and whom the flowers are for, is a white mouse who has undergone the experiment prior to Charlie.

The story is told from Charlies' perspective in the form of 'Progress Reports'. He has to complete these as part of the experiment in order that any changes in his intellectual development are documented and evidenced. An exert of the first progress report shows us where Charlie begins the experiment;

"progris riport 1 martch 3
My name is Charlie Gordon I werk in Donners bakery where Mr Donner gives me 11 dollers a week and bred or cake if I want. I am 32 yeres old and next munth is my brithday. I tolld Dr Strauss and perfesser Nemur I cant rite good but he says it dont matter he says I shud rite like I talk.....Dr Strauss says to rite a lot evrything I think and everything that happins to me but I can't think anymor because I have nothing to rite so I will close for today...." (p.1).

Over the months we become privy to his observations, deepest thoughts and emotions as he looks back on his childhood and recent life with an ever-changing outlook and increasing intelligence. Situations, events, family and friends are all seen through new eyes and at times these observations are incredibly moving. As the reports progress, we witness not only his spelling and grammar improve, but also his thought processes and observations;

"Progress Report 13
....I have thought about death often in recent weeks, but not really about God. My mother took me to church occasionally - but I don't recall ever connecting that up with the thought of God. She mentioned Him quite often, and I had to pray to Him at night, but I never thought much about it. I remember Him as a distant uncle with a long beard on a throne (like Santa Claus in the department store on his big chair...) (p.93).

In Charlie Gordon, the author has managed to develop a character who demands and receives our empathy, understanding and affection. Even at his most obnoxious, the writing is such that we always seek to understand Charlie's motivations and reasoning for speaking and behaving as he does. I believe that the book is more about the way in which society views, or, more accurately, has viewed, a person with a learning disability through the eyes of that person. It is also an emotional study into how a person may react to the possibility of the onset of dementia and how he perceives those around him.

If you have never been interested in the science fiction genre, please don't let the tag put you off. Yes, Flowers for Algernon has won awards for science fiction and yes it is in the SF Masterworks list but ultimately it is a story of humanity and a person struggling to gain acceptance for who he really is not for who others want him to be.
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LibraryThing member gentlespirit512
I read Flowers for Algernon for Banned Books week. I had heard about it over the years, but I was never required to read it. Since I read very little science fiction, I never thought I’d enjoy reading it. Enjoyment isn’t exactly what I got from this book–enlightenment might be more
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appropriate.

In case you don’t know what the book is about, here is a brief synopsis. Charlie was a mentally challenged young man who wanted nothing more than to be smarter than he was. He volunteered for an experimental surgery that was supposed to increase his intelligence. The surgery had previously only been done on mice, and Algernon the mouse was the result of an earlier operation. When Charlie saw how Algernon navigated a maze with ease, he was convinced that the operation would be successful.

Charlie’s surgery was also a success, but his ever increasing intelligence caused difficulties in his relationships. His “friends” at work found out very quickly that he was no longer a target for their teasing, to which he had always been oblivious. They were so uncomfortable that they complained to the owner of the bakery he had been working at for years. He was let go.

He tried having relationships with women, but his emotional intelligence had not progressed on the scale of his intellect. The teacher who had taught him for years ultimately ended their budding relationship, because he was so far ahead of her intellectually, she could no longer keep up.

He reached a point at which he understood that his improvement was only temporary. He watched Algernon regress until all his progress was gone. Then Charlie himself began that backward slide.

I was heartbroken to see his realization that the people he thought were his “friends” were being cruel to him all along. Increased awareness and understanding brought him nothing but pain. I was almost thankful at the end when he reached a point of being somewhat stable, even though he may not have been even as intelligent as he was when he started.

I asked myself if he would have truly consented to the surgery if he had known what would happen to him afterwards. Did he actually have capacity to consent?

I don’t know if I was supposed to wish that increasing intelligence was a possibility for people with mental challenges, but I finished the book with a feeling of discomfort that his life was seen on the same level as that of a mouse in the eyes of the people performing the experiment.

It was ultimately a book that raised a lot of questions in my head and heart. There aren’t many answers to be found–just more questions.
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LibraryThing member ctpress
Wikipedia summary: Algernon is a laboratory mouse who has undergone surgery to increase his intelligence by artificial means. The story is told by a series of progress reports written by Charlie Gordon, the first human test subject for the surgery, and it touches upon many different ethical and
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moral themes such as the treatment of the mentally disabled.

The novel is told through Charlie Gordon’s progress reports - so we only have his view of the world and life seen through his eyes. I knew this would be a sad story. The rise and fall of Charlie Gordon (intelligence vice) - but in many ways it’s also a gentle and uplifting story as we follow a process of self-discovery - the descend is actually more “uplifting” than the rise. An exploration of intellectual pride and superiority vs the gentle and naive heart of a retarded - it’s not what you know, but what you are - that seems to be the morale. It’s also a reflection upon the way society treat and look upon people with mentally handicap.

A very good narration by Jeff Woodman.
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LibraryThing member ThoughtsofJoyLibrary
Charlie Gordon is an adult with a low IQ that has been chosen for an experimental brain operation that previously had only been performed on mice. Algernon was one of those mice. Charlie and Algernon become acquainted through maze testing and behavior comparisons. Charlie shares his frequent
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progress reports of his mental capabilities before, during, and after his surgery. He discovers a lot about himself and the world around him.

Keyes has done a fabulous job with the voice of Charlie. His character felt very genuine and honest. Also, I'm impressed with Keyes ability to make this story flow and to blend the science fiction with reality. The story of Charlie and Algernon is quite a thought provoker; therefore, making this a great choice for discussion groups. (4/5)

Originally posted on: "Thoughts of Joy...
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LibraryThing member vita13
Powerful and Unforgettable. Plato's epigraph says it all: Anyone who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eyes are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light, which is true of the mind's eye, quite as much as of
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the bodily eye; and he who remembers this when he sees anyone whose vision is perplexed and weak, will not be to (sic) ready to laugh; he will first ask whether that soul of man has come out of the brighter life, and is unable to see because unaccustomed to the dark, or having turned from drakness to the day is dazzled by excess of light. And he will count the one happy in his condition and state of being, and he will pity the other; or, if he have a mind to laugh at the soul which comes from below into the light, there will be more reason in this than in the laugh which greets him who returns from above out of the light into the den. Plato, The Republic
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LibraryThing member Kirstin2015
Flowers for Algernon is about a man named Charlie who's IQ quite lower than the average man. At work Charlie is always teased by the other employees, but he has no idea, he thinks they're all his friends. Charlie undergoes an operation that is supposed to his increase his IQ level by 3 times. But
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it doesn't last for long, just months later his IQ level starts falling, and Charlie is back to the way he was before.

Flowers for Algernon is a very emotional story. It's especially sad to see Charlie as his intelligence deteriorates. Though it's sad, it is also very good. It's a very interesting to see life through Charlie's eyes.
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LibraryThing member infjsarah
I enjoyed this a lot. It may be over 50 years old as a story but it still asks uncomfortable questions about our reaction to extremes of intelligence whether low or very high. And so sad - the last line just gets you.
LibraryThing member AMQS
Flowers for Algernon was the fall play at my daughter's school. I bought the book for her (she's on the stage crew) and my whole family ended up reading it. It's a beautiful, thought-provoking, and terribly sad book. Charlie Gordon is a man with severe intellectual disabilities who undergoes an
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experimental surgery to improve his intelligence and memory. This surgery was very successful on a mouse named Algernon, against whom Charlie competes at solving mazes and other puzzles. Charlie experiences a meteoric improvement in his intelligence and learning, and disturbing flashbacks of memory. He faithfully records his observations and progress, and discovers that the old Charlie's life is incompatible with the new. When Algernon experiences a rapid deterioration, Charlie fears he may follow Algernon again on this regressive path. All four of us were absolutely riveted and devastated by this book.
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LibraryThing member goldenphizzwizards
This is now my absolute favorite tragic novel. I can't justify how sincerely and compellingly Charlie's journal conveys his warmth and spirit. Charlie evolves from mental disability to genius and devolves back into intellectual darkness. But where we begin to see his intelligence shine through, we
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see his unhappiness and dissatisfaction with the world grow. His elation at the realization that he is growing smarter every day is matched only by his desperation and terror that his descent is even more rapid.

I bawled during the last ten pages or so, sharing his horror and deep sadness that he would soon forget who he was and who he had been. After a few moments of reflection, I began to wonder if the rise and fall of Charlie's intelligence was not overshadowed by his emotional journey. As a "retarded" adult, he was happy just knowing that he made others happy. As a genius, he was miserable in the thought that others were laughing at him. Finally, in the end, he again is able to recognize that happiness comes from making others happy. But he also has the knowledge of himself that he did not have at the beginning of the story.

Is he really better off having experienced the intellectual and emotional journey? Does his achievement of emotional enlightenment at the end balance his descent into intellectual darkness?

I have been drawn to the mental health population for years, although I'm not sure why. Once I learned to get over my own discomfort, I began to realize the value in what these individuals can offer the rest of us. This novel is a great reminder to me that even today, there is still a long way to go before mentally ill or disabled individuals are valued for who they are, not who they may become with treatment. Although I really enjoyed the allusions to Plato's The Cave, Charlie himself was the best teacher. His voice is powerful, sincere, and incredibly human.
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LibraryThing member salimbol
This moving tale of a man with a very low IQ who undergoes an experimental procedure that dramatically increases his intellect is one of the best of the SF Masterworks series that I've read so far. The narrative is quietly gripping, as we follow Charlie's intellectual and emotional growth, and then
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- wrenchingly - his ultimately inevitable reversion. It ponders the social constructions of disability and intelligence, thankfully mostly eschewing sentimentality, and insists at all times on the personhood of the protagonist, regardless of which stage in his development he's at. Interestingly, it was more frank about sexuality than I would have expected (given it was written in the late 50s to mid 60s), and it had numerous female characters with distinct personalities and agency - another plus for me. Recommended.
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LibraryThing member myfanwy
As most of you probably already know, Flowers for Algernon is an exploration of intelligence. In this book scientists have developed a way to make mice super-intelligent. As their first human experiment they take Charlie, an earnest but dim-witted man. Over the course of the book, written from the
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point of view of his diary, you see him become aware, begin to understand the intricacies of human behavior, and then slowly surpass all those around him including the scientists who made him thus. It is only when the mice who were initially treated start to decline that the inevitable tragedy becomes apparent and he spends his last days in a race against time. This is in some ways a fictional Awakenings where a promising treatment proves unsustainable.

The best element of the book is that it explores the social consequences of intelligence. Charlie is confused at first by the jealousies and offenses he inadvertently creates. But he also has all of the arrogance and frustration that you see. Having gone to Tech I certainly have seen both in evidence. I learned how to hide my smarts in high school in order to avoid notice, but I also remember being told by my super-intelligent beau that a problem (in quantum mechanics, say) was "trivial". This book elegantly covers it all.

In certain ways the author can't help but fail. How do you describe someone smarter than all the other beings you've ever known? Well, Charlie learns faster and has little patience for ignorance but he doesn't learn or interact in any particularly different ways. Having everything told in first person becomes a problem when he's reached super-intelligence. Inevitably this is an inadequate description, but there's no better way to do it. I understand that this was initially a short story and I almost wish that I had read that instead of the novel. As a concept it just fits a short story or novella. As a novel Keyes gets trapped in trying to explain too much.

Still, this is a good book and I was happy to finally catch up with everyone else who had read it in high school.
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LibraryThing member eleanor_eader
Good natured Charlie Gordon, mentally retarded and working a menial job in a bakery, wants one thing desperately; to be smarter than he is. A motivation strong enough to get him nominated for an experimental surgery that alters his IQ; stratospherically smarter than those around him, his perception
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of people and the emotional life that had been as stunted as his educational life, undergo drastic upheaval.

Charlie is easy to emphasise with at first, because his emotional life is simple and clear, contentment and anxiety are well-evoked by Keyes. A target for mockery, even friendly mockery, his lack of understanding does nothing to impede its impact upon the reader. Intelligent, frustrated Charlie is less pleasant to know, but the reader is drawn along with the feeling that this is all familiar, and so it is; Charlie is experiencing emotional life, from childhood to adolescence, to adult fear of regression, in a condensed, compressed timeframe. His experiences of sexual love, his growing understanding of his family’s reactions to his mental retardation, his growing intellectual superiority to those who have ‘gifted’ him with this change, all echo the natural progress of life.

There’s a temptation, at the end of this story (once the reader has stopped bawling like a four year-old) to conclude that the message of the book was that endeavouring to ‘better’ Charlie was hubris and resulted in nothing but misery and failure and dead mice. But it’s not the destination in this case, but the journey that is important. There is optimism in the way that Charlie intellectually outstripped those who believed themselves his ‘makers’, and then works for the progress of that scientific field, even in the way he comes to understand his own history. Not going to lie, though, there’s simply no way to feel better about Algernon.
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LibraryThing member wkeblejr
Synopsis:
Charlie is an "exceptional" man with an I.Q. of 70. He is living independently on the mercy of other people, a bakery owner who loves him as a son after his uncle (who was his primary care taker) dies, and going to school for retarded adults. He is selected to undergo an operation that
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will, hopefully, more than double his I.Q. and be the first of many mentally disabled adults and children who will be "normalized." The operation has had tremendous success with animal trials including a mouse named Algernon who is used as a parallel throughout the book. The operation is a huge success and charlie's I.Q. is mentioned to have reached 185, though it appears that it may have peaked after this number is mentioned. Charlie is confronted with a new sense of self-awareness and realizes that people make fun of him and it bothers him for the first time in his life. He also becomes aware of the ways in which the scientists remark that he was less than human and of little value to society prior to the surgery causing more than a little animosity between Charlie and the scientists. He also discovers what it is to love someone in a sexual way. Things seem to be continuously trending upward for Charlie when strange behavior displayed by Algernon cause the scientists and Charlie to wonder if he will also begin to deteriorate.

Review: **There are spoilers below**
I didn't have to read this for high school, but every one of my friends had and I only picked it up because my wife wanted me to read it with her. That being said I thought the book was lovely, and really confronted they way that we approach those who struggle with having intellectual and emotional deficits. I had a slew of mixed feelings at the end of this book seeing the progression that Charlie made from his new found self awareness to his struggles being far more intelligent than his peers and even the doctors and scientists who performed his surgery and eventual digression back toward his state before the operation. I want to feel bad for Charlie because he isn't the genius he was, but then am I, like the doctors and psychologists of the book, devaluing Charlie because of this deficit? Charlie even makes the argument in the book that in ways he was better off before having the surgery, he had friends and he loved people and people loved him and now he feels isolated and alone and unable to connect with people on an emotional level. Even now I find it difficult to articulate the way that this book made me feel, mostly because of the internal conflict of thoughts and emotions that I haven't hashed through yet. While this was a very simple read I feel like there was a sense of depth to it that makes it enjoyable for all ages of readers.
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LibraryThing member BONS
This is not a listen to book. You must read this book to get the full affect. It makes one think with their heart.
LibraryThing member henry.hays
This was a great story that I would highly recommend. Read the short version if possible. It is about a person named Charlie with a mental handicap who doctors attempt to make smarter. At the same time, doctors are attempting to create an outstandingly intelligent mouse by using the test subject
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mouse, Algernon. As Charlie realizes that Algernon is slowly dying, he wonders if the same fate awaits him.
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LibraryThing member Banoczi_Henrietta
i randomly started reading this at school at one point because it sounded interesting. i finished it today and...... my heart is in pieces. this is absolutely heartbreaking. in the beginning it starts out all sweet because charles is very innocent it's like reading from the perspective of a child
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and then his progress becomes visible on the page but then it all goes to waste and the last sentence just absolutely ruined me.
i got surprisingly attached to algernon. and to charles also. and i just wanted to shout at every other character that just because he's smarter doesn't make him a worse person.
i think everybody could learn something from this.
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LibraryThing member Karlstar
This is a fantastic book, one that everyone should read. I was first introduced to it in grade school but the memory of it has stuck with me ever since. Its not great literature, just a great story that will get to you. Its hard to believe it is over 50 years old! That may make it a bit dated
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today, but still a great book, and we haven't solved the problems that this book describes.
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LibraryThing member Radaghast
I believe this may be the greatest science fiction work ever written. Beautiful written, yet horrifying in its implications, Flowers for Algernon is the story of a mentally handicapped man who is offered a chance to participate in an experiment to increase his intelligence. You know where the book
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is leading as you read it. There are no surprises. Yet it is this inevitability that gives the story its power and sadness. On one level I hated this work, because you desperately feel for the main character. But I also recognize its excellence.
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LibraryThing member Chloe2010
I am very glad to start my summer with an excellent read! I’ve had my eye on Flowers for Algernon for quite some time now and I’m so happy that I had the chance to finally read it. I usually like reading sad and emotional stories, not because I like being sad, but I suppose I like being caught
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up in the moment and feel intimate with the main characters.
The story was a about a 39-year old man named Charlie Gordon, who has an IQ of 75. A few Doctors decide to choose him to receive a very special operation to make Charlie a genius. There was another specimen named Algernon, who was a mouse that also received the same operation and luckily, gained tons of knowledge. I enjoy reading stories about the mind and conscious and our unconscious. It’s interesting to read because scientists only know so much about how the human brain works. This story was imaginative and it made me want to know if such a thing like what happened to Charlie could actually come about in real-life. It was fascinating to read what was going through Charlie’s mind; I would have to say that I would like to give props to Daniel Keyes for portraying such an innocent character perfectly. In the book, Charlie was writing diary entries and it was neat to see how Daniel Keyes made Charlie’s writing skills gradually increase and progress by using larger words and longer sentences.
I also loved this story because it was a touching one. I don’t know much about people who are mentally retarded, I just know that are a lot of people on this Earth who are. Reading Charlie’s story was somewhat painful to read because not many other “normal people” are able to understand the life of a person who does have this condition. It was sometimes difficult to read sections because there were a few times when Charlie was describing about how some the men at work were behaving towards him. It was obvious to the reader that they were laughing at Charlie because we know they were making fun of him. Before the operation, Charlie was such an innocent child-like man which made him such a loveable character. He was smiley and friendly to everyone because he wanted everyone to like him. Charlie, after the operation, came to find out that those people who were laughing at him were not friends, but were bullies. I was in love with Charlie’s personality through the entire novel, but when he became genius, it was sometimes hard to like his character. He became too paranoid of what people thought of him and he constantly felt like he was being judged. I appreciated what the old Charlie stood for because o matter how many times people criticized him, the old Charlie didn’t let those negative words knock him down. Being different is not a crime.
After reading this novel, I regret those times whenever I made fun of a person with a disability. I now know I just didn’t understand. I loved how Charlie constantly reminded everyone around him that he was a human being after his operation and even before his transition into becoming a genius. Charlie was just a human being and he reminded me that no one on this planet deserves to be treated like trash.
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LibraryThing member pauliharman
Brilliant, inspiring and moving tale of a simpleton undergoing brain-enhancement surgery and training.
LibraryThing member RandyMetcalfe
Charlie Gordon has been selected for a scientific experiment. Although he is excessively challenged, mentally and emotionally, he has one thing working in his favour — a great desire to learn and make himself smarter. It is that positive outlook that sets him apart from his peers and which
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typifies his life subsequent to the “operation” that forms the basis of the experiment. After the operation it is as though the floodgates have been opened and very quickly Charlie’s abilities and intelligence begin to improve. In fact they go on improving, rapidly, until he has a genius I.Q. But there are costs. The world is not quite the way he imagined it before he got smart. And there is also a lot of learning to be done that can’t be got from books. And, sadly, his new found abilities are only temporary. And it is a long way down.

The story is told entirely in the first person in the form of a series of reports that Charlie writes for the scientists conducting the experiment. In this way we dramatically see the improvement in his spelling, his grammar, and his grasp of concepts. He also has a troubled personal history that only surfaces as his memory begins to improve. The relations of parents and siblings, their duties and responsibilities, forms a counterpoint to the main story arc and thematic exploration of what it means to be a person, a being worthy of respect and love. The ideas under debate are not subtly presented, but on the other hand they are also not fully settled either. That is, the debates remain live even at the end of the novel. And perhaps this is what has given it enduring fascination. It isn’t straightforward what we ought to say of Charlie or for Charlie. And the writing here is not so daunting as to make the reader think that Keyes has sorted out these questions himself.

There is an element of sentimentalism in such a story arc. Perhaps that is inevitable. It would be hard not to feel something for Charlie’s fate. But whether these feelings amount to more than structurally triggered sentiment is an open question. And that does not detract from the overall worth of this well-loved tale.
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LibraryThing member Bobby3457
This book is about a man that is mentally retarded who becomes smart through a surgery. His intellegence is increased by three. His original IQ is 68 then he gets smarter very quickly. Pretty soon after the surgery he becomes smarter than the doctors that made him smarter in the first place. He
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starts to fall in love with his teacher Miss Kinian and he wants to marry her. When he finds out that Algernon the mouse that he used to race against in mazes is dead he knows that he doesn't have much time left being smart. His intelegence starts to decrease and he starts to go back to what he used to be like. At the end of the book he plans to leave the city and go somewhere else where no one knows that Charly Gordon used to be smarter than everyone else. There are a lot of differences between the book and the movie and they have made more than one movie.

I thought that this book was alright this isn't the best book that i have ever read. In the version that i read it didn't really show the realationship between Charly and Miss Kinian at all. In the movie that was one of the main focuses throughout the film. I thought that it was interesting at the beginning that a mouse could beat a human at a maze I guess that proves that animals are a lot smarter than we think that they are sometimes. I liked the things that this book explained about people that didn't know anybetter because they have a lower IQ than most people. When someone made fun of Charly he didn't mind it because he didn't know anybetter at the beginning, but later he realized that they werern't real friends if they treated him like that. In the book one of the people that made fun of him before sticks up for him later on in the book because he knows what Charly has been going through. I think that Charly should stay where he is known by people so they can help him if he needs it and so he doesn't have to start over and try to get a job and a new life in a new city.
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LibraryThing member dele2451
The school I attended wouldn't allow me to read this book way back when it was published so I decided to read it this year for Banned Books Week. Very glad I finally got to it. Possibly even more relevant today than it was back then and I'm sure I appreciate it more. Definitely a recommended read,
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but grab a tissue before you start.
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Language

Original publication date

1966 (novel)

Physical description

216 p.; 6.6 inches

ISBN

0553124986 / 9780553124989
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