Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes
Synopsis
This is a heart-warming story about a 30+ yo man, Charlie Gordon, who has an IQ of 70. (normal IQ is 100). He is affectionate, and smiles (he remembers that his mom told him to smile so that pple would like him and he would have friends). His thinking is very simple and he works as a sweeper at the bakery, and attends school for the mentally subnormal some nights. One day, he participates in a surgery, sort of like a psychosurgery where some glial cells are implanted into his brain (he has a form of PKU affecting the neurones… or glial cells) and as a result of the operation, becomes very very SMART! algernon is the name of the white mouse who underwent the same operation before charlie gordon, and had become very smart as well… but as Charlie’s IQ shoots up to 185… he works out a BIG problem in the experiment and discovered that he was going to lose all this intelligence in half the time required for him to procure it…
The book is written in the form of a progress report, in the words of Charlie Gordon. It is interesting to note as well as follow his intellectual development, which begins ever so subtly as changes in his thought process. There’s more insight, there’s questioning of authority, reasoning and expression of mature thought.
Insight
Some mental curd to chew upon…
At one part in the book, Charlie mentions how insufferable Prof Nemur was (that’s the guy who did the experiment), how he feared and despised Charlie for surpassing his intelligence and proving his hypothesis wrong. Then, a person had urged Charlie not to pass judgment on the Prof that soon, and definitely not without meeting his wife first. The person had said, ‘If you want to understand why he’s under so much tension, even when things are going well in his lab and in his lectures, you’ve got to know Bertha Nemur. Did you know she’s got him his professorship? Did you know she used her father’s influence to get him the Welberg Foundation grant?… Until you’ve had a woman like her riding you, don’t think you can understand the man who has.’
Really, I shouldn’t be too fast in passing judgment (or forming an impression) on others, without REALLY understanding their circumstances.
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Later in the book, we see how Charlie’s intellect increases exponentially, yet his emotional maturity remains like that of a 5 yo kid. He soon realises that intellect cannot be used to undo emotional entanglements and
that a person who is smart, but lacks all forms of EQ could never be anything worthwhile…
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The tragic story of Charlie Gordon, in this book, despite it being merely fiction, serves as a very potent reminder to the scientific world of the danger and harm an experiment (that has not been properly validated) or has been rushed into, could bring, if it were administered on a human subject. (or animal subject, just in case we’ve got some animal-lovers here).
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And this quote is just something to let u all have a taste of some of the language of the book. (it varies from part to part… but this excerpt is from the last few pages of the book, which shows the rapid deterioration of Charlie’s intellect:
“Evrybody looked at me when I came downstairs and started working in the toilet sweeping it out like I use to do. I said to myself. Charlie if they make fun of you dont get sore because you remember their not so smart like you once thot they were. And besides they were once your frends and if they laffed at you that dont mean anything because they liked you to”
Flowers for Algernon…
