Bionic Jean's Reviews > Flowers for Algernon

I first came across Flowers For Algernon as a short story in a science fiction anthology many years ago. It seemed an enjoyably poignant and perceptive slight tale. By 1966 the author Daniel Keyes had developed his story into this full length novel, the joint winner of the year's Nebula award for the best Science Fiction novel. It was the high point of Daniel Keyes’s career. As well as nonfiction he has written several other science fiction books which explore the workings of the mind. But the classic Flowers for Algernon has sold more than five million copies, and has never been out of print since its original publication.

Daniel Keyes's science fiction stories were intermittently published during the 1950s, before he became a fiction editor at Marvel Science Fiction. He also worked as a high school teacher for developmentally disabled adults. These two experiences resulted in the masterpiece, Flowers for Algernon. Daniel Keyes said that the idea for the story struck him while he waited for an elevated train to take him from Brooklyn to New York University in 1945. In his 1999 memoir, he wrote,

"I thought: My education is driving a wedge between me and the people I love. And then I wondered: 'What would happen if it were possible to increase a person's intelligence?'"

The best speculative stories start from a simple idea: "What if?" This is such a story. It has no need for alien worlds, galactic swashbucklers, bug-eyed monsters or complicated spaceship technology. This is not the world of hard Sci Fi, focusing on science and the inhuman aspects of other worlds. Like all classic science fiction, it seems to transcend the limitations of the genre. It explores universal human themes such as the nature of intelligence, the nature of emotion, and how the two interact with each other. Even the intelligence-enhancing surgery is not detailed, except for brief mentions of the workings of the brain, and the rare genetic condition phenylketonuria, to add authenticity to the enhanced intellectual capabilities of the narrator.

The story is told from the point of view of a thirty-two-year-old man, who has been assessed as having an IQ of 68. The narrator, Charlie Gordon, works at Donner’s Bakery in New York City as a janitor and delivery boy. He writes that he,

"reely wantd to lern I wantid it more even then pepul who are smarter even then me … all my life I wantid to be smart and not dumb".

His teacher Alice Kinnian, who works at the "Beekman College Centre for Retarded Adults", recognises his strong motivation and desire to learn. She has put him forward as a potential candidate to undergo experimental surgery designed to boost his intelligence.

A team of University researchers have already performed the experiment successfully on the lab mouse Algernon. Charlie has a number of tests, including a comparison with Algernon to indicate how quickly he can solve a maze. This part of the book sets the tone for the gentle humour which is to follow. Charlie reports the tests with perfect childlike clarity and literal incomprehension. He has no imagination; no ability to invent. The directors of the experiment, Dr. Strauss and Professor Nemur, agree that Charlie is a good choice, and ask Charlie to keep a journal,

“Dr Strauss says I shoud rite down what I think and remembir and evrey thing that happins to me from now on.”

The entire narrative of Flowers for Algernon is composed of this series of “progress reports” which Charlie writes in his diary. Charlie is excited and optimistic, despite the scientists' caution,

"You know Charlie we are not shure how this experamint will werk on pepul because we only tried it up to now on animils."

At this point the reader realises that not only we will be able to anticipate Charlie's progress by watching Algernon's burgeoning intelligence, but we will be able to deduce it by the content and linguistic competence of Charlie's journal. It is a brilliantly inspired device on the part of Daniel Keyes. Charlie's teacher Alice continues to help him improve his spelling and grammar, and he determinedly reads adult books, filling his brain with knowledge from a wide range of academic fields. His progress is slow at first, but his comprehension accelerates as he devours his reading, delighting in his new-found knowledge and understanding,

"This is beauty, love, and truth all rolled into one. This is joy."

The story follows both the events in the laboratory, and events in Charlie's personal life. It becomes clear that the owner of the bakery is being kind to Charlie in keeping him in work, and that it has really been an act of charity. His co-workers however frequently make fun of and mock him. Charlie, on the other hand, has always viewed them as his true friends. The realisation that what he thought of as shared jokes are taunts, and that he is a laughing stock, is very hurtful to him. We feel his pain through his faithful record,

"I never knew before that Joe and Frank and the others liked to have me around just to make fun of me. Now I know what they mean when they say 'to pull a Charlie Gordon'. I'm ashamed."

as he begins to realise the truth of the psychiatrist Dr. Strauss's observation,

"The more intelligent you get the more problems you'll have Charlie."

Charlie continues to work hard at the bakery, (view spoiler)[even inventing a process to improve productivity. But the surgery on him is a secret. And because his emotional development cannot keep pace with his astonishing mental feats, he does not realise that he is now alienated from the other workers, Frank and Joe, and Gimpy, the head baker, who has a club foot. They cannot understand the changes and are disturbed by the sudden change in him. They begin to fear him. Charlie on the other hand is learning all the time and pleased at his new challenges in interacting with other people. One event produces a moral dilemma, which he attempts to solve, but which eventually leads to him losing his job. (hide spoiler)]

"Before, they had laughed at me, despising me for my ignorance and dullness; now, they hated me for my knowledge and understanding."

Perplexed, Charlie approaches the scientists to help him, and the advice from each reflects their differing world views. Alice recognises that he needs to develop and experience moral quandries for himself, and tells him to trust his heart. This is an everyday moral dilemma, but one which has no easy or right answer.

"What's right? Ironic that all my intelligence doesn't help me solve a problem like this."

There are many layers to Charlie Gordon. As he develops, his personality changes. Thrilled at first to learn, he begins to be alternately angry and embarrassed when he remembers what he sees as his earlier foolish self. He also begins to remember his early childhood, and we learn all about his parents, Rose and Matt Gordon.(view spoiler)[ His father had been a barber's shop supply salesman, who hated both his job and his life. His mother's overriding concern was to "Be smart" and keep up appearances. Charlie remembers that he had a sister, who was considered to be a replacement for him, and named Norma because it sounded like “normal.”

These sections where he gradually recovers lost memories of his childhood are very moving. As Charlie and the reader learns more, we begin to realise that Charlie's childhood was not the happy dream that he had envisaged. (hide spoiler)] All the flashbacks are interspersed with the narrative, so that the stories of Charlie’s present and past intertwine and reflect upon each other, adding to both Charlie's and the reader's understanding of the current situation.

As his brain becomes more incisive, Charlie learns sarcasm, suspicion, and resentment. His faith in the people around him begins to crumble,

"Now I understand that one of the reasons for going to college and getting an education is to learn that the things you've believed in all your life aren't true, and that nothing is what it appears to be."

"I'm confused. I don't know what I know any more."

(view spoiler)[The one person he trusts is Alice, but whenever Charlie contemplates becoming intimate, he feels as if the old Charlie is watching him. Distracted, he panics and his mind dissociates. Charlie is confused about the origin of this, but the reader understands that it is a deep-seated memory of Rose punishing and beating him for any slight sexual impulses, resulting in the shame he still feels. (hide spoiler)] Charlie's feeling of his "other self" becomes stronger as the novel proceeds, continually resurfacing at crucial points, in the form of the old Charlie, perceived as a separate entity existing outside of himself. In this and other ways, the past persists in the present.

For instance, he remembers long ago watching through a window in his apartment, as other children played. Later, with his enhanced intelligence, he feels as if the old Charlie is watching him through a window. The window seems to represent an emotional distance: a barrier to normal society, which the mentally disabled Charlie cannot cross. Later, he is just as distanced from his former self as the children he used to watch playing had been. Once he sees the other Charlie face-to-face in a mirror, a glimpse of his other self: a very frightening experience.

Delighted with Charlie's progress, Dr. Strauss and Professor Nemur take both Charlie and Algernon to a scientific convention in Chicago. But Charlie has reservations,

"How different they seem now. And how foolish I was ever to have thought that professors were intellectual giants. They're people - and afraid the rest of the world will find out."

"I'm not an inanimate object ... I'm a person ... I was a person before the operation. In case you forgot."

Dr. Strauss has always been concerned with his psychological health, but Charlie feels that Nemur treats him like just another lab animal. It is transparently clear that Charlie’s scientific knowledge has advanced beyond Professor Nemur’s.

(view spoiler)[In desperation, viewing the convention as his only chance for freedom, Charlie causes havoc, freeing Algernon from his cage while they are both on stage. He catches Algernon and flees back to New York with Algernon, intent on getting his own apartment, where the scientists cannot find him. He feels a kinship with Aldernon, and realises that Algernon is a good predictor of his own future. The reader sees that Algernon, locked in a cage and forced to run through mazes at the scientists’ whim, parallels Charlie’s status for the scientists. His "cage" may be symbolic, but he is no less trapped. Like Algernon, he is allowed no dignity and no individuality. When he frees Algernon from his cage and decides to abandon the laboratory, the reader cheers, and recognises that this is the beginning of Charlie's emotional independence.

In his new life, Charlie has realised that Professor Nemur’s hypothesis contains an error. He now knows that it is very likely that his intelligence gain will only be temporary, and works on a possible solution. He forms a liaison with his neighbour, Fay Lillman, who is an attractive, free-living bohemian artist. Charlie does not tell Fay anything about his past, and although he is still in love with Alice, he has a sexual relationship with Fay, by ignoring his "other self".

Charlie realises that he has an unsatisfied longing to meet his parents and sister, and manages to track them down. He remembers that his mother sent him away, but wants to make contact, come to terms with, and see if he can somehow resolve these issues. He has already begun to fear a regression to his previous level of intelligence, and has developed a sensitivity to the idea of things being left too late.

"It's astonishing how my power of recall is developing. I cannot control it completely, but sometimes when I'm busy reading or working on a problem, I get a feeling of intense clarity.

I know it's some kind of subconsious warning system."

He is surprised to find that Norma still lives with Rose, and that Norma neither hates him, nor is the vicious person he had expected her to be, but on the contrary is overjoyed to see him, having believed that Charlie had died at the Warren State Home a long time ago. However Rose's overwhelming desire to be what she perceives as normal, and her denial of reality, has now developed into dementia. Sometimes she thinks Charlie is a stranger, sometimes, like Norma, she is proud of his recent accomplishments. At other times the old irrational fear returns, and she once again thinks that he has come back to molest Norma. In a harrowing episode Rose tries to kill Charlie with a butcher's knife: another reminder of the past's pervasive influence on the present. It helps Charlie to understand the multilayered facts of human psychology, but despite Norma's pleas, he feels he has to retreat from their lives.

Charlie tracks his father down, and discovers that Matt, now freed from Rose's irrational fantasies, has realised his dream of owning his own little barber's shop. But there is an inner sadness about Matt. Charlie comes very close to revealing who he is, but again realises that he can do nothing for his family,

"I wasn't his son. That was another Charlie. Intelligence and knowledge had changed me and he would resent me - as the others from the bakery resented me - because my growth had diminished him."

When Algernon eventually dies, Charlie worries that he too is doomed. His behaviour becomes erratic, and he feels that there is nothing left for him but his work for the research laboratory. Charlie becomes totally committed to his work, to the point of obsession. He does succeed in finding the error in Nemur’s hypothesis, poignantly naming it the “Algernon-Gordon Effect”. Of course it also confirms to both him and us, that despite the operation, his intelligence will fade as quickly as it has come. Alice's feelings of guilt at her part in Charlie's situation mean that she desperately wants to care for him, and they do have a brief liaison, but as Charlie regresses further, he sends her away. Eventually he returns to his old job at the bakery, where everyone now knows his story. They are kind to him and welcome him back.

Charlie's journal for the final parts of the story mirrors his crumbling intellect. He regresses to an earlier time when he used to attend Alice’s night school classes for the mentally disabled, and he upsets her by showing up, as the "old Charlie", having completely forgotten their romantic relationship. Having planned for this time, he cuts himself off from all those who know and care for him, and voluntarily goes into the Warren State Home for disabled adults, knowing that his end is near. (hide spoiler)]

Because Flowers For Algernon is essentially about the human condition, it is a timeless tale, touching upon many different ethical and moral themes. As such it can be seen as a moral fable about society’s mistreatment of the mentally disabled. Charlie's story reveals that all the attitudes towards his early self were rooted in feelings of superiority. Some were cruel, some were kind; but nearly all were condescending.

"The best of them have been smug and patronising - using me to make themselves superior and secure in their own limitations. Anyone can feel intelligent beside a moron."

Because Charlie was regarded as an intellectual inferior, an assumption was made consequent on that: that this made him less of a human being. Yet even here there are nuances. In one episode Charlie takes people to task for making fun of a mentally disabled boy in a restaurant. But later, horrified by the blank faces of the mentally disabled people he encounters when visiting the Warren Street home, he displays the same feelings. Is this because he does not want to accept that he was once like them and may soon be like them again? Or is it a latent tendency he has inherited from his mother? How much does society demand that we conform to its ideas of normality?

There is much in the book which explores the apparent conflict between the intellect and the emotion. The early Charlie is trusting and friendly with a good heart. But as his intelligence increases he becomes distant and detached, and sometimes arrogant. At one point he even says that his genius has erased his love for Alice. Because Charlie is the subject of an experiment, he has aptly internalised a lot of science's methodology, and eventually his knowledge surpasses Professor Nemur’s. But Professor Nemur is not a good role model for Charlie. These two factors have made Charlie view the "scientific method" as being the only way to approach life, and he approaches his emotional problems in a scientific manner.

The two emotional extremes are represented by Professor Nemur and Charlie's free-spirited neighbour Fay. Professor Nemur is highly intelligent, but lacks any humour or friends. Dr. Strauss is more empathic - but it is Fay who is an embodiment of the opposite extreme. She is ruled entirely by her feelings, acting both foolishly and illogically. Alice however represents human warmth and kindness. She never believes that a disability makes anyone a lesser human, but takes genuine satisfaction from helping people. She also greatly admires Charlie’s strong desire and motivation to learn, encouraging him to integrate both his intellect and his emotion.

Charlie employs the scientific method throughout his intelligence-boosted phase. It is all he has seen, and becomes his guiding principle. But when he becomes aware that in order to further his research, he is manipulating other people - especially Alice - and treating them like laboratory rats, he begins to deplore what he is doing. His highest level of emotional development is when he becomes aware of the dangers of dehumanisation which accompany the scientific pursuit of knowledge. Twinned with this is his determination to go on living as long as he can, keeping on with his progress reports, in order to pass on his unique knowledge to humanity. His miraculous experience has given him a new perspective on life.

Flowers For Algernon dates from 1959, as an acclaimed short story in a magazine, winning the Hugo award for best short story a year later. It has been successfully adapted for television in both 1961 and 2000. In 1968 the film "Charly", won an Oscar, and its star an Academy Award. It was even adapted as a Broadway musical in 1978.

To expand a short story into a masterly novel such as this does not often succeed. Far too often the reader can see the "cracks" and realise which parts have been artificially padded out. Flowers For Algernon's popularity alone proves that this is not the case here. Daniel Keyes has taken his promising initial idea, and developed it into a perfectly balanced and satisfying novel. The best science fiction has the potential to explore various philosophical ideas to do with ethics and responsibility. The author has chosen this scenario to explore the extremes of human nature, by imagining an altered version of the world, peopled with realistic characters, in a realistic environment. His genius lies in creating a work which appeals both to the people who are usually indifferent to science fiction, and also to those who love it.

The blurb on the cover of my copy says,

"The story of a young man's quest for intelligence and knowledge. Charlie Gordon will break your heart."

How true that is. The story of Charlie Gordon did indeed break my heart.

Please ... please ... don't let me forget how to reed and rite.

PS please if you get a chanse put some flowrs on Algernons grave in the bak yard.