Flowers for Algernon, is a classic novel written by Daniel Keyes a young mentally
challenged man named Charlie Gordon. This book chronicles, from a first person point
of view, Charlie’s mental and physical struggles and achievements after undergoing a
breakthrough procedure that is hoped to render him intelligent. Throughout the book,
much of the focus is on Charlie’s academic progress while his emotional and personal
development is not much of a concern. This becomes a problem because Charlie realizes
that it is important to demonstrate qualities other than intelligence to lead a life that is
both happy and successful. Qualities shown …show more content…
If they had taken the
time to get to know and understand him they would have seen that he had a good heart
and genuine personality. This also applies to our everyday life. We must be patient and
try to understand others before we begin to judge them. Charlie also demonstrated the
negative consequences of a lack of patience when his intelligence began to surpass that of
those around him, “I was afraid it would come to this, but I have no patience with her
Simon 1 now. I’m jealous of every moment away from the work- impatient with anyone…”(Keyes
295). You can clearly see that due to his lack of patience with anyone around him, he is in
a state of upset and distress. That is how patience is shown to be more important than
intelligence in this novel.
Kindness is another quality shown to surpass intelligence in order of importance
in Flowers for Algernon. Simply being kind to others can get you far in life and change
others views and opinions of you in a positive way. This is shown when Alice