The Pride Of Dr. Nemur In 'Flowers For Algernon'
The Pride of Dr. Nemur
Dr.Nemur is one of the lead scientists in “Flowers for Algernon”. He is hyper critical and very judgmental, even in Charlie’s early stages. Dr. Nemur is a stark contrast to Dr. Strauss, at least personality wise. His mission is to use surgery to increase challenged individuals maximum IQ, or base intelligence. I believe that Dr. Nemur is one of the most prideful and arrogant characters in this story while also being one of the most insecure. Very early in the story we see how Dr.Nemur looking at Charlie critically. “... says i spell PROGRESS wrong and he told me how to spell it and REPORT to” (Keyes 75). This could be taken as just a tip, the way I imagine he says this with a very snide and almost said with
a disgusted tone. He thinks he’s better than everyone else, and definitely better than charlie. Throughout the story Dr. Nemur shows a distaste for people like Charlie, and once Charlie is smarter than him, he seems angered or annoyed at Charlie’s tips and attempts to be friendly. There are later mentions of an unhappy wife, and of Nemur’s own stresses of ambition. To wrap up my paper I want to talk about Dr.Nemur’s morality. He let the pressure of being famous and his own ambition get in the way of realizing maybe this wasn’t a good thing to do. And he didn’t even have the decency to treat Charlie like a human, to Dr.Nemur Charlie is nothing more than an experiment. Even though Dr.Nemur does have clear insecurities and a need for validation. But to me that does excuse his unequivocal arrogance and prideful manner.
Dr.Nemur is one of the lead scientists in “Flowers for Algernon”. He is hyper critical and very judgmental, even in Charlie’s early stages. Dr. Nemur is a stark contrast to Dr. Strauss, at least personality wise. His mission is to use surgery to increase challenged individuals maximum IQ, or base intelligence. I believe that Dr. Nemur is one of the most prideful and arrogant characters in this story while also being one of the most insecure. Very early in the story we see how Dr.Nemur looking at Charlie critically. “... says i spell PROGRESS wrong and he told me how to spell it and REPORT to” (Keyes 75). This could be taken as just a tip, the way I imagine he says this with a very snide and almost said with
a disgusted tone. He thinks he’s better than everyone else, and definitely better than charlie. Throughout the story Dr. Nemur shows a distaste for people like Charlie, and once Charlie is smarter than him, he seems angered or annoyed at Charlie’s tips and attempts to be friendly. There are later mentions of an unhappy wife, and of Nemur’s own stresses of ambition. To wrap up my paper I want to talk about Dr.Nemur’s morality. He let the pressure of being famous and his own ambition get in the way of realizing maybe this wasn’t a good thing to do. And he didn’t even have the decency to treat Charlie like a human, to Dr.Nemur Charlie is nothing more than an experiment. Even though Dr.Nemur does have clear insecurities and a need for validation. But to me that does excuse his unequivocal arrogance and prideful manner.