Summary Of Daniel Keyes Flowers For Algernon

The horror of dying soon reaches your mind. Your thoughts as blank a new sheet of paper. Losing intelligence every second, of every minute, gradually decreasing each hour that passes. Yet, your mind is the problem. Whatever is happening isn’t good. It’s deteriorating, rotting, or decomposing maybe. All that is going on with you, you still realize the problem. So, you decide to leave. “Flowers for Algernon” is an emotional short story written by Daniel Keyes. This particular story is about the life of Charlie Gordon, a 37 year old man with mental illness. On March 8th, Charlie writes a “progris riport 4”. (Progress Report #4) It’s content states that he will have a surgery to increase his intelligence. This surgery would change his mind. (Literally) Towards the end of the story, the
What am I still doing here? Why didn’t the operation work? These may have been thoughts running in Charlie’s mind. His behavior, his mood, health, friends, all of it.. left to plummet into oblivion. He basically is lost. He didn’t know what would happen. He couldn’t change it anyways.. If Charlie knew, he might or might not have had the surgery. He wouldn’t have loved Miss Kinnian, been intelligent, or even had the chance to feel normal. If he knew and chose to not have the surgery, none of those would’ve happened. Charlie wasn’t able to tell what would happen. He could but couldn’t control the outcome. This short story “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes taught me that things won’t always turn out they way they may seem or how you want them to. You just have to go with what life throws at you. Charlie for example, lived his life to its fullest. He overcame his mental illness.. even just for a couple of months. He fell in love with Miss Kinnian and he had a second chance to have intelligence. Charlie even experienced pain. “Everybody wants happiness, nobody wants pain.. but you can’t have a rainbow, without a little rain” ~Unknown