Analysis Of Daniel Keyes's 'Flowers For Algernon'

Everything comes at a price even intelligence. In the Science Fiction short story “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes is a mentally disabled 32-year-old man named Charlie Gordon. Charlie was chosen to have a life-changing surgery to boost his intelligence three times. After having the surgery he realizes that the surgery is not permanent and begins to go into a state of panic. After losing his intelligence he is forced to move away from everyone he knows Charlie should not have had the surgery because he realized that he didn’t really have any friends, and he could not communicate with an average person. But Charlie should have had the surgery because he no longer being laughed at.
Before the surgery, Charlie worked at a factory, and
This surgery would eventually cause Charlie to lose his only true Mrs. Kinnian. After having his IQ tripled, Charlie could not communicate with anyone. Because Charlie could not communicate he stopped meeting with Mrs. Kinnian. Weeks later Charlie decided to meet with Mrs. Kinnian again. In a progress report of the meeting he describes the conversation he had, “I tried to avoid all discussion of intellectual concepts and to keep the conversation simple everyday level, but she stared at me blankly and asked me what I meant about the mathematical variance equivalent in Dorber mann s Fifth Concerto”(Keyes 18) After meeting his only friend, Mrs. Kinnian he soon realized he could not communicate with her. By giving Charlie an IQ of 200 he is no longer able to communicate his ideas because his vocabulary and ideas are so advanced. Charlie wanted the surgery to be able to communicate with but, he can not. The surgery did not help Charlie at all because just like before he cannot communicate easily and he now knows the truth about his
The evidence proves that the best option for Charlie would to not have the surgery. Before Charlie had the surgery he had a social group, and he could communicate with others. After the surgery, Charlie realized he did not have any friends. The story teaches the message, happy and ignorant or lonely and intelligent. People should not be given the choice to change their intelligence. Choosing to change your intelligence brings much with it pain. The pain it bring is the truth. The truth can cause people to ruin their lives. From destroying friendships to breaking up families intellect can hurt