Flowers for Algernon

I read a book called Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. It’s about a young man who is not intelligent, who scientists put into an experiment that they think will make him smart. As the program progresses, Charlie becomes smarter than the scientists running the experiment! Unfortunately, at the end of the book, Charlie goes back to being mentally retarded, even more so than at the beginning.  Even though the ending wasn’t what the scientists wanted, there are three reasons why I think the experiment was a positive. First, with this type of program, the mentally challenged won’t have to be teased all the time. Surely no one wants to be picked on all day and every day? I wouldn’t like that. Second, the not-so- smart would learn important things they couldn’t when they were not intelligent; like love, friendship and most important, family. The last reason why the experiment would be a positive is because the scientists had been working on it for many years and they were able to finally experience success. Those are the three reasons why it’s a positive.

 

                After the experiment, Charlie was intelligent. While he was mentally challenged, people teased him and made fun of him. Not anymore! He learned to stand up for himself and other people in need of help. “I’m not an inanimate object.” Charlie argued. “I’m a person.” He was right; everyone is a person, not an object. The experiment allowed him to recognize this fact.

People with mental disabilities like Charlie’s don’t really understand what family or love is. Before he changed, when Charlie sees Alice, he falls in love with her, just because they went out to dinner to celebrate his raise. When Charlie said this, he doesn’t really understand, “I like you very much.” Charlie knows how to care for someone, but not to truly love. After the experiment though, this changed.

                The human experiment project is a positive, because scientists had been working on it for years on end. Professor Nemur said, “It’s a positive and nothing can go wrong.” Even though Charlie did go back to being mentally deficient, the scientists still were able to experience success. Only for a short period of time they did. Not everyone’s perfect, they can make mistakes, and now that they’ve seen what the outcome can be, they can fix what went wrong.

                That is the story about Charlie, who was not intelligent and wants to be smart. Two scientists decided that Charlie was the perfect person to experiment on. They did and it went well for a few months. The test didn’t go the way they wanted to, but there is always another try to fix the wrong. Hope you read the book! It’s very good!