Should Charlie have had the Intelligence Operation? From the book "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes

Essay by stephmurray_15High School, 10th gradeA, April 2004

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In the story "Flowers for Algernon", the main character Charlie Gordon has an operation that triples his IQ from sixty-eight to 204. At the end of the story Charlie's IQ returns to sixty-eight. This experiment was the worst thing that ever happened to Charlie. Charlie did not have a high enough IQ to make an intelligent decision on his own, the experiment messed with Mother Nature's path of life and most of all it ruined any happiness or contentment that Charlie ever felt prior to the experiment.

Charlie was forced to make an unfair decision. With an IQ of only sixty-eight Charlie could not have understood the good and bad sides of the operation. All Charlie knew was that he wanted to be smart and this operation could get him his greatest desire in one easy procedure. Because Charlie was mentally challenged, Dr. Strauss and Professor Nemur did not take into consideration that it could hurt Charlie badly in the long run, and they did not make sure he thoroughly understood the consequences and side effects that would follow.

There was nothing to let Charlie understand the huge amount of knowledge he would gain and how it would change his life forever. He did not want to be a genius; he did not want to know about "the mathematical variance equivalent in Dorbermanns Fifth Concert". Charlie thought Miss Kinnian was a genius just because she could give him reasons for things like punctuation; he didn't have to become any smarter than that to be happy, not even close. Charlie was convinced that once he had the operation that he'd be like everyone else and people would like him. The doctors did not take that into consideration or explain to him that the operation would not result in more...