Society is a harsh and uncompassionate environment for those of us who just want to fit in. Oftentimes, for a person who tries to fit in, they receive verbal and mental abuse. Sometimes, those they think of as their friends, are really their foes.
Fitting in may be hard for some people, but for Charlie Gordon it was impossible. Charlie was a retardate throughout his life. He never had any friends, and his whole family shunned him. Early in his life, he was forced to move to the Warren State Home. Eventually, his uncle retrieved him out of the home and got him a job as a delivery boy at a bakery.
Later in life, Charlie was offered the opportunity of a lifetime. He participated in an experiment that made him, slowly, become a genius. He had to live through the torture of seeing society as it truly is. He realized that the people who he thought of as his friends, the very people that he thought were laughing with him, were actually laughing at him.
CHARLIE WABO
CHARLIE WABO
Official photo of Florida Governor Charlie CristHe realized that these "friends"ÃÂ had taken advantage of him.
As he became smarter and smarter, he began to gain more and more respect from society. He became an exceptional genius and society looked up to him for the first time. He began to fit in.
Later in the book, the reader can see that it is not really himself that has gained this respect and class in society, it was a new Charlie Gordon. The old Charlie was still trapped inside this newer, greater body, which no one else could see.
As the effects of the experiment begin to fade, he became less and less intelligent, and we can see society beginning to shun him again, as they had done before.
It was never society that had changed. It was Charlie. He would never have fit in as his natural self. For society to respect him, he needed to totally become a different person. Society may never change, and the only way for some people like Charlie to fit in, is to become a different person. This is not the way it should be. It would be best for everyone if society would change, instead of individuals.
CHARLIE GUBB
CHARLIE WABO
English: Second preliminary session of the World S...