Flowers for Algernon

by Daniel Keyes

Should Charlie have undergone the operation to increase his intelligence? What are the pros and cons of his situation?

Advantages of the Operation

- He is able to differentiate his true friends from those who took pleasure in his ridicule.

- In becoming more intelligent, he is able, for a short time, to relate to others in ways he would have never thought possible as a retarded adult; he gains wisdom in many different areas of life by:

• experiencing true love with the woman who once taught him how to read and write, Alice.
• experiencing physical love with his neighbour, the eccentric and physically attractive artist, Fay.
• profiting from the joys of reading and acquiring knowledge, and being able to apply it to solve problems for one’s self.
• experiencing the pains of relational love as he relives memories of his family and friends that he did not understand before the operation.
• learning that happiness does not come from intelligence: when he was still mentally retarded, he didn't realize when people were laughing at him or making fun of him. He didn't realize that when his mother cried in his past, it was because she was ashamed to have him as a son.
• learning that everyone has their flaws, and feeling that he is superior to others rather than being “the moron”.
• experiencing the world in a new way (as someone who can properly function in society)

- He becomes, for a short time, self-sufficient, and so confident that he feels that he can help others (he wants to find the flaw in the operation so that he can help other retarded people).

Disadvantages of the Operation

- His operation permits him to look back on past situations and realize what was really going on. In this way, he is faced with many painful revelations that he had not previously understood (Ex: people who he thought were his friends turn out to simply have been making fun of him, meanings of family memories that he had never understood become clear [he finds how his mother cried because she was ashamed of her retarded son]…)

- He is forced to accept the fate that will become stupid again, and must watch and undergo his own downfall through no fault of his own.

- He becomes unhappy with his life and is tempted to commit suicide.  

- He experiences embarrassment and cares about what others think of him and what is socially acceptable.

- In gaining wisdom as a genius, he understands as a retarded man that that the reason why people are nice to him is because they feel sorry for him, and that the reason that they make fun of him is because they are intellectually superior to him, though he learnt as a genius that they themselves are not especially intelligent (which makes his situation even more difficult to cope with).

- He becomes seen as an experiment rather than a human being.

- His superior intelligence causes others to feel increasingly “retarded” in his presence, until they can’t stand to be around him (his short-lived love life is ruined, the workers at the bakery have him fired…)

- He never accomplishes his goal of fitting into society by following through with the operation: when he was retarded he was considered by others a “moron” and was the subject of much ridicule, and when he was a genius he became intimidating to others due to his superior intelligence (in both cases, he is estranged by his peers).

One notices that the cons of this operation outweigh by far the pros, so Charlie definaly should not have gone through with the procedure.

Jessica Shane, L2