'Having a high intelligence is not necessarily an advantage.' To what extent is this shown to be true in Flowers for Algernon and Good Will Hunting?

To a lot of people, intelligence is everything, but is it? In the novel, Flowers for Algernon, intelligence is the main desire for the main character Charlie. But in the film, Good Will Hunting, the main character has intelligence, but has no goal, and when given several options to take, Will refuses one after another.

Most intelligent people have never had any problems with the law. They know right from wrong, which places to go and which places not to go. Usually it is the uneducated and unintelligent that have run-ins with the law while doing things under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Yet, in these two texts, it is the opposite. Will, an adult with a high intelligence, is constantly in trouble with the law and has a criminal record. On the other hand, there is Charlie. He is mentally retarded, therefore has very low intelligence.

English: Shows early psychological student motivat...

Motivation EP

Charlie Annonsbild

Yet he has never had any problems with the law. While Charlie has a much lower intelligence than Will, he is by no means disadvantaged by this. Will has no advantage over Charlie. Wills high inelegance does not help him in any way with the fact that he does illegal activities.

Throughout the texts, both Charlie and Will are exposed to and guided by professors and psychiatrists. In both texts, Will and Charlie are used by the professors they trusted. While Charlie could have been easily used as his low intelligence would have made it much harder for him to understand what exactly those around him were doing. Yet a person with a normal intelligence would have understood if anyone was using them. Yet Will, with a high intelligence was still deceived by those around him that he trusted. His high intelligence gave him no advantage over Charlie when in...