Apr 28 2006
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes is about a retarded man named Charlie Gordon who gets a second chance in life when he is selected to have a brain surgery that will increase his intelligence. After surgery, Charlie is becoming more and more smart. However, his emotions start coming in his way when he starts going back to his past and starts finding out how badly he was treated. With these memories, he learns more and more information about his family and himself which is weakening his heart with pain. Most importantly, he is facing his fear of having a relationship with a woman. After much searching and thinking, he wishes he hadn’t done the operation. Then, he starts working on his experiment but in the end he is unable remember it. For one to know how a writer forgets his own experiment, he/she has to read this eye opening book.
By Nina Bajwa
5 responses so far
Create a free edublog to get your own comment avatar (and more!)
5 Responses to “Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes”
Nina, I’ve always loved this book. It was first published as a short story in a science fiction magazine back when people thought science fiction was all bad. Daniel Keyes took the original short story and turned it into the novel. They made a really bad movie about it in the 1960s, called Charly. (It’s not worth watching, believe me). The book became popular even with people who don’t read science fiction. The prejudice against science fiction was so strong that the publishers stopped calling it science fiction, even though it started as a science fiction story. Fortunately, that prejudice against science fiction has mostly gone away.
I did not like this novel in the beginning because it did not catch my attention, but as I read on I began to like it. It was a little touching towards the end when Algernon dies. My favorite character was Fay. She is an artist and she loves to party. She meets Charlie when Charlie locked himself out of his apartment and he needed to use the fire escape window from her apartment that connected to his. She is weird because she never locked her doors, she says that one time she locked herself out of her apartment and she had no clothes on. She also said that most of the apartments that were broken into were locked. So, she leaves hers unlocked and she doesn’t care if they break in because there is nothing valuable. I ended up liking this book because it was funny when Charlie was with Fay.
I really enjoyed this novel from beginning to end because of the main character Charlie Gordon. His personality kept me reading. He is very innocent and friendly. He calls everyone his friend since he makes them laugh not knowing they are laughing at him. My favorite part of the novel is the relationship between Charlie and Alice. They loved each other very much but due to the circumstances, they weren’t able to carry on their relationship. Charlie also grows very close to the mouse Algernon and becomes sad to see him change and later die. The end is the best part because it was very touching.
This is a very good book it has a lot of detail and is very intersting I would recomend this book to everyone that likes reading!
For being a class assignment, Flowers for Algernon is a book you’ll want to keep reading. This is one of my favorite books. It is very unique in how the story is presented. I really enjoyed the plot. Who wouldn’t want to become a genius in only a few months? It’s a very good book that i recommend everyone must read.