Flowers For Algernon 1.General Information- I read the book Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes. It's a fiction book, but with all the advances in modern medicine it could happen. It takes place over the course of a few months, starting in March and ending in November. The book shows how society treats retarded people.
It also reminds us that all doctors are not all knowing, and some claim to know more than they actually do.
2. Character Introduction- Charlie Gordan's character changes throughout the book. In the beginning, when he is retarded, he is kindhearted and likable. In the end, after the operation reverses, he is the same optimistic and happy guy. In the middle, though, he almost turns into a new character, except for the frequent reminders of how he used to be, in the form of flashbacks to his childhood and other emotionally blocked parts of his mind.
Flowers for Algernon
Flowers for Algernon (album)
CHARLIE WABOHe gets a new awareness of himself and others. He also makes the realization that some people he had put on a pedestal are not as good as they seem. He also starts to think about romance.
Miss Kinnian, or Alice as he later in the book calls her, is Charlie's night school teacher and then a romantic interest and then a teacher again. She liked the old Charlie, but when he starts becoming smart she finds it harder and harder to keep up with him. Being with him makes her feel strange, inadequate at times. She's almost afraid of him.
She thinks she knows Charlie, but discovers she doesn't.
The people at the bakery employed the retarded Charlie for years.
While working there, they stood up for him sometimes, and sometimes played cruel jokes on him.
The doctors are overconfident and pretend to know what they...