Flowers for algernon THeme analysis

Charlie Gordon, the main character in Flowers for Algernon, grows and changes in the novel. Charlie is most successful after he undergoes the experimental operation on his brain. He reflects this change in three important ways. First, he becomes more intelligent after the experimental operation. He is proud that he is now intelligent enough to work with more complicated machinery. He says, "Everybody in the bakery came to see me today where I started my new job working by the dough - mix." (Page 24) Second, he now understands better what other people are saying and doing. He learns to questions their motivation and not to be as naïve as he used to be before the operation. He says, "I had reached a new level, and anger, and suspicions were my first reactions to the world around me." (Page 40) Third, he learns to experience emotions after the operation.

CHARLIE WABO

CHARLIE GUBB

picture of 1882 Rutgers College Football team

He falls in love with Alice Kinnian, his reading teacher at the Beekman College Center for Retarded Adults. He is able to express that feeling when he says, " I told you I liked you. I should have trusted myself to say I love you." (Page. 64)