Essay on Charlie Gordon from ‘Flowers for Algernon’ – Free Essay Example

Charlie is a man with an IQ of 68 who works a menial job as a janitor and delivery person at Donnegan’s Plastic Box Company. He is selected to undergo an experimental surgical technique to increase his intelligence. The technique had already been successfully tested on Algernon, a laboratory mouse. The surgery on Charlie is also a success, and his IQ more than doubles. The story teaches that people shouldn’t take risks and just be themselves.

Charlie shouldn’t have gotten his experimental surgery because he could’ve done a lot without it in the future. He could’ve learned how to be smart on his own without any consequences or procedures. Yes, he would’ve gotten made fun of, but at least he wouldn’t have gotten fired from his job. He wouldn’t have been in love with Miss Kinnian or saved the company money but at least he would’ve lived a longer life.

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Charlie should not have undergone his surgery. “I was looking at some of my old progress reports and it’s very funny but I can’t read what I wrote. I can make out some of the words but they don’t make sense.” This states that his surgery had been a bad decision and that he shouldn’t even get it in the first place since it had affected him even more later on causing him to get less and less intelligent to the point where he couldn’t even quite understand his writing. “That’s why I’m going away from New York for good. I don’t want to do anything like that again. I don’t want Miss Kinnian to feel sorry for me. Everybody feels sorry at the fact and I don’t want that either so I’m going someplace where nobody knows that Charlie Gordon was once a genius and now he can’t even read a book or write well”. Charlie later on realizes he would be better off being alone and not making people feel sorry for him anymore like most of the people who knew him would.

Charlie wants to be smart and intelligent and doesn’t want anyone to make fun of or tease him anymore so he undergoes surgery to make him more knowledgeable but most of the people he knows just feel more sorry for him and don’t want him around. His operation had made him less than what he wanted to be. For the few days he had been intelligent he had already acknowledged the fact that he would pass away soon since it had already occurred to Algernon. He then wanted to leave New York City since he wanted no one to feel sorry for him anymore and he deeply regrets getting his surgery because of all the negativity that had been going on in his life.