Title :Flowers for Algernon
Author : Daniel Keyes
Genre : adult fiction
Rating : 4 stars
The story of a mentally disabled man who is given the opportunity to possibly increase his mental abilities through experimental procedures. Charlie's experimental quest for intelligence mirrors that of Algernon, an extraordinary lab mouse that received that procedure prior to Charlie. In poignant diary entries, Charlie tells how his life changes after the brain operation.
My thought
Charlie Gordon has been mentally disabled his whole life. He would like to get smarter and so he attends night classes in hopes of being chosen for a scientific experiment that will triple his IQ. So he decides to try it. He discovers many things on his journey to becoming smarter. But as he grows in knowledge he also discovers new feelings like love, and sadness, and he realizes many other things. Like one he finds out that his bakery "friends" are really making fun of him and bullying him. He tries to comprehend his new feelings but it just gets harder. He doesn't have time to comprehend his new emotions as he gets smarter. As he goes through the couple years, he realizes that it is to late for him to become like the others and has turned into a mean person. He realizes he was meant to be a retard. So he decides to become his original self but always remembers what a good person he was. The theme of this book is if you try good things will always come from it.
Even though this is meant to be fiction, a few details nagged me. Descriptions of the science involved felt minimal, especially since Charlie became a scientist in the latter half of the novel, yet all that was said of his discoveries was "a formula." The fact that Charlie began to speak over 6 languages was plopped into the novel as well, which was a hasty set up for a rather important plot point. Still good.
Quotes
Now I understand one of the important reasons for going to college and getting an education is to learn that the things you've believed in all your life aren't true, and that nothing is what it appears to be.
How strange it is that people of honest feelings and sensibility, who would not take advantage of a man born without arms or legs or eyes—how such people think nothing of abusing a man born with low intelligence.
I see now that the path I choose through that maze makes me what I am. I am not only a thing, but also a way of being—one of many ways—and knowing the paths I have followed and the ones left to take will help me understand what I am becoming.
