Flowers for Algernon Essay Example

Charlie in the story, Flowers for Algernon, benefited from the surgery to make him smart. He was a really dumb person, but for a while he was very intelligent thanks to the operation. His life was improved because of the short time he had as a genius. In the end Charlie went back to the same intelligence, but he won’t forget his time being very intelligent. The experiment ultimately improved Charlie’s life because he had a few months where he was always happy, he was able to escape his toxic “friends” that were always picking on him, and he now has more motivation to boost his intelligence.

Charlie had a few months, when he was smart, where he was always happy for the right reasons. When Charlie was learning punctuation he said, “Punctuation is fun!” (Keyes 359). Charlie is happy because he is learning things and is actually learning them, not just being taught them. Charlie was told that he was coming along quickly when he said, “That made me feel good!” (Keyes 358). Charlie is happy and feels good that he is coming alone and getting smarter as time passes by. At one point in the story, Charlie started realizing that he was smart, and he really liked it. He was happy he was smart and enjoyed it a ton. Charlie was very happy for a while, and only for the right reasons. 

Charlie’s new found intelligent allowed him to escape his toxic “friends”. Charlie realized that his “friends” were just picking on him and bullying him so he said, “I’m ashamed.” (Keyes 360). While this may seem like a bad thing, he was noticing they weren’t really his friends, and he noticed this because of his new intelligence from the operation. Charlie ended up being asked to quit his job because his intelligence threatened his coworkers. This was good because it let Charlie escape the terrible environment and all his horrendous coworkers. It was discovered that Charlie was asked to leave because his coworkers signed a petition to have him fired. Charlie was so smart that his intelligence was making his coworkers scared and they didn’t want to be around him. This ultimately help Charlie because he realized that these people weren’t good for him and they didn’t like him as they thought. Since Charlie’s intelligence was boosted tremendously, he realized that his “friends” aren’t really his friends at all. 

Charlie now has a larger motivation to become smarter, because he loved being smart. Charlie was think about his time being smart, and he said, “I bet I’m the first dumb person to do something important for science!” (Keyes 380). Charlie remembers that when he was smart he did something important for science, and always wants to do something important for science again! After Charlie ultimately lost his intelligence he said, “If I try reel hard maybe Ill be a littel bit smarter…” (Keyes 379). Charlie shows he is motivated to become smart again and regain his intelligence. At the end of the book Charlie said, “Im gonna keep trying to get smart.” (Keyes 380). Charlie wants to become smarter.