Flowers For Algernon Theme Response

“Flowers for Algernon” Theme Response by Hasnain Sahibzada

An important theme in the short story, Flowers of Algernon, is friendship. Friendship is an essential to the Flowers for Algernon and we can see it throughout the story. Friendship encircles all its aspects: expectations, perceptions and the importance of it. Earlier on in the story, we are introduced to Charlie's “friends” called Joe Carp and Frank Reilly. They are the ideal studies in the perception of friendship. Before the surgery, Charlie liked his friends, he wanted to hang around with them, spend time together, and make them laugh and happy. But after the surgery, his views their relationship in a different light and realized that they were not truly his friends. They used him for entertainment and made fun of him.
He did this because he didn’t want friends that don't respect him. After the operation, Charlie is able to build a true friendship with his “friends”. Before, the would not recognize Charlie as a person just like they are, and thought of him as a retard who never understood anything, just another object to make fun of. However, after his intelligence increases to the point when it even surpasses their own, his friends realize that Charlie, just like them, was and is a person who has both their feeling and their thoughts. When his deterioration finishes taking place and his heart once again becomes open and honest, Charlies peer’s at the bakery begin a true friendship with him. His friends were there when he needed them, so when the new employee at their workplace started teasing Charlie, they helped Charlie and taught the new employee a lesson. Although Charlie is not able to comprehend the full difference of his past and present relationships with his friends.