Flowers for Algernon- Is Charlie Gordon a Hero?
English Essay- Is Charlie Gordon A Hero?
Daniel Keys wrote the short story Flowers for Algernon in 1958. The story took over 14 years to develop. He did not have a good relationship with his parents who wanted him (especially his dad) to become a doctor. In college he had two professors (Dr. Nemur and Dr. Strauss) whose names he decided to use in his story along with the name Algernon which belonged to one of the mice he dissected. Before that he also taught children with special needs and one day one of the children asked him if he could be put in a normal class if he became smart enough. This really triggered Daniel to write the short story in the first place. After the story was finished he tried to publish it but was unsuccessful because they wanted him to change the ending so that Algernon did not die. Daniel liked the ending and the message which the story gave and in the end his story was finally published. It was banned in a few states in the US and Canada because this was considered to be wrong to want to alter the human mind and it went against religion. Charlie is the main character of this story who has a low IQ, but by getting an operation by a group of scientists he manages to triple his IQ. Charlie is a unique and brave individual, who by making a choice, becomes a tragic hero, causing him to possibly lose more than he gained and regretting the choice of having the operation.
Intelligence is more complicated than just the traditional IQ test and scientists have a hard time agreeing on anything. The traditional view on intelligence includes the IQ tests which are usually have short and to the point answers. In the short story they talk a lot about Charlie’s low IQ and how they manage to triple it. Also traditional intelligence also looks at the idea of having a fixed intelligence without any change. This theory is proven wrong because Charlie actually manages to become smarter which leads to the next theory of multiple intelligence. This theory
Daniel Keys wrote the short story Flowers for Algernon in 1958. The story took over 14 years to develop. He did not have a good relationship with his parents who wanted him (especially his dad) to become a doctor. In college he had two professors (Dr. Nemur and Dr. Strauss) whose names he decided to use in his story along with the name Algernon which belonged to one of the mice he dissected. Before that he also taught children with special needs and one day one of the children asked him if he could be put in a normal class if he became smart enough. This really triggered Daniel to write the short story in the first place. After the story was finished he tried to publish it but was unsuccessful because they wanted him to change the ending so that Algernon did not die. Daniel liked the ending and the message which the story gave and in the end his story was finally published. It was banned in a few states in the US and Canada because this was considered to be wrong to want to alter the human mind and it went against religion. Charlie is the main character of this story who has a low IQ, but by getting an operation by a group of scientists he manages to triple his IQ. Charlie is a unique and brave individual, who by making a choice, becomes a tragic hero, causing him to possibly lose more than he gained and regretting the choice of having the operation.
Intelligence is more complicated than just the traditional IQ test and scientists have a hard time agreeing on anything. The traditional view on intelligence includes the IQ tests which are usually have short and to the point answers. In the short story they talk a lot about Charlie’s low IQ and how they manage to triple it. Also traditional intelligence also looks at the idea of having a fixed intelligence without any change. This theory is proven wrong because Charlie actually manages to become smarter which leads to the next theory of multiple intelligence. This theory