Marlo S- Flowers for Algernon- By Daniel Keyes

Sometimes, you have to learn things the hard way. In the science fiction book, Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes, Charlie, the main character, has an unusually low I.Q. Throughout his whole life, people have taken advantage of him. When a special group of doctors give Charlie the chance to raise his I.Q., and absorb the knowledge that took some people their whole life to acquire, he realizes how people are so inconsiderate of others, and his friends weren’t really his friends at all.

Before Charlie got the chance to be experimented on, Algernon, a lab mouse was tested on first. Algernon was the first mouse to remain smart over the longest period of time, after the experiment was done on him. Since the same experiment was tested on Charlie, his future depended on how the experiment went with Algernon. Charlie, however, was the first person ever to be tested on. If the experiment turned out as a success, it would be used on people like Charlie all around the world!

Charlie has a special quality in him that makes him different from anyone. He would give anything to be smart like everyone else. Once he starts becoming smarter and smarter from the operation, Algernon starts to behave strangely. If something starts to happen to Algernon, that means the same thing is going to happen to Charlie. All Charlie wants is to remain smart, but is fearful of the experiment failing. As Charlie becomes more and more intelligent, his old self is still inside him. The old Charlie is still trying to come out, and having to deal with this is very difficult for him because the “new” Charlie is now smarter.

Throughout the book, the reader can see the progress of the experiment by the way Daniel Keyes displays Charlie’s language, thoughts, and grammar advance in the form of a diary. By using first person point of view in the book, it lets you get into the mind of Charlie Gordon, and see his thoughts and feelings of becoming a genius, and what he has figured out about the people he once thought were nice to him. The use of conflict in the book can get you to think deeply about how careless, insensitive, and mean people can be. Doctor Nemur, a scientist who experimented on Charlie, thought of him as a thing or a project. As Charlie becomes smarter, he realizes that Doctor Nemur was incredibly wrong and makes Doctor Nemur aware of it. Charlie has real feelings, and is as human as anyone else on the planet, even before the experiment took place. Also, Charlie doesn’t realize until the operation that his “friends” would tease him and put him down, just to make themselves feel more superior. Until Charlie becomes smarter, they realize that it is not okay do that because Charlie is above their level now.

As the book goes by, the main highlights were seeing how the experiment resulted, and how it changed him, and the people around him. The overall message Daniel Keyes was trying to say was that no matter who you are, or what your I.Q. is, you still belong. It doesn’t matter what your place in society is. What does matter is that everyone is created equal, and no one can tell you otherwise.

This was unquestionably a fantastic and moving book. I would recommend it because it helps readers empathize with people like Charlie Gordon, and understand the price that comes with becoming instantly brilliant.