Essay on Flower for Algernon

Intelligent cannot be gained by purely reading books. It takes meaningful experiences and important realizations. In the novel Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, Charlie, a thirty-two year old man living in New York City, undergoes an operation that leads to his inevitable demise. Through analysis of Charlie's life before the operation, after the operation, and his eventual demise, it is evident that his operation was unnecessary and unethical.

Too eager to gain intelligence, Charlie agrees to undergo an operation without fully understanding its consequences. After the operation, Charlie goes to the bakery where he works and discovers that a boy has taken over his job. However, his employer Mr.Donner had assured him that he has "a job here for the rest of [his] life" (23). Despite its flaws, Charlie's life prior to his change was not at all dismal. He held a job with which he could sustain himself. Additionally, before his operation, Charlie had "good friends and [had] lots of jokes and laff

Also fueled by a desire to please his parents, Charlie decides to undergo the operation. However, Charlie soon discovers that getting smart has many consequences. After coming to work one day, Charlie discovers that he has been "fired from [his] job at the bakery" (102). Charlie realizes that becoming smarter is causing people to be scared of him. After losing his job at the bakery, Charlie begins to see his astonishing growth of intelligence. He saw that he was making his friends feel "inferior to the moron" (106). Charlie notices that he is making his former friends to shrink and emphasizes their inadequacies. After meeting his father, Charlie realizes that he "[isn't] his son" (188). He began to realize that his father resents him like how his former friends resent him at the bakery because his growth casts his father in his shadow. Charlie understands the consequences of the operation as the story progresses and begins to regret accepting the operation.

Being smart is not always a good thing, as Charlie eventually learns. The operation will eventually lead to Charlie's "physical and mental deterioration" (254). Charlie wanted to become smart at all cost, but he did not realize that the consequences will be this severe. Charlie understand that his "own mental deterioration will be quite rapid" (255). Although he does not want to know what will happen to him, his intelligences allows him to understands the rate of his mental deterioration against his own will. Besides mental side effects, there were physical side effects as well. Charlie finds himself hurling "against the walls, again and again" (284). Charlie realizes that he is undergoing the same changes as Algernon. Charlie's intelligence causes him to go through the pain of knowing about everything that will happen to him.

As the book progresses, Charlie understands the mental and physical consequences of the operation. Although Charlie does not regret this operation, he always wondered if he should have had the operation. Throughout the world, there are many controversial medical experiment similar to the one Charlie went through. Whether an experiment succeeds or fails, the consequence should not be greater then the benefit. What began as an exciting new accomplishment soon became the inevitable deterioration of a human being.