Flowers for Algernon

Daniel Keyes

11/29/1998

I first read this young adult story in high school, some (never mind how many) years ago. I have read it numerous times since. I still get emotionally involved in the story.

Scientists are always trying to better mankind. The words constantly heard these days are genetic testing. Since this was first published in 1959, different methods were being explored to improve humans. This novel deals with surgically and chemically trying to increase a retarded man's IQ so that he is no longer mentally deficient.

This book is written in first person by Charlie, the subject of the experiment. Charlie has been asked by the doctors working with him to keep a personal progress report (progris riport) as they work with him. When they first try him with the Rorschach Test before his surgery all he sees is ink spilled on paper. It is only as he progresses after his surgery that Charlie realizes there are images that may be interpreted in the blots.

Charlie documents his progress intellectually, socially and emotionally. When the reports start he has been working as a janitor in a bakery shop for fifteen years and attending night classes to try to get smart. Soon he is promoted at the bakery as he learns to handle new tasks. He has to leave his adult night school because he quickly jumps ahead of what they are being taught.

This is a tearjerker. Charlie documents his emotions and fears as he understands them. He talks about how many people treat him as a non-person because they know he is retarded or because he is the subject of an experiment. As his intelligence improves he is able to help with the experiment and can project the outcomes. He is able to forsee what will happen to him as a result of the experiment.

Read Flowers for Algernon. I recommend not reading it if you are emotionally low yourself, but rather when you can be sympathetic with Charlie without bringing yourself down. It's an excellent book.

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