chan hui yu 08S416 progress report 1

my initial impressions of Flowers for Algernon is that it is a very unusual book because it is written with a lot of spelling, punctuation and grammar errors. Another striking aspect of the book is that it is a record of a science experiment.The protegonist of the book is Charlie Gordon who is a retard with a strong desire to learn. i think that charlie's strong desire to learn might be attributed to his mother's treatment towards him. charlie wants to be smart so that his mother will like him. the author starts the story with charlie being a retard before the operation and shows his progress after that and finally his declination of his intelligence at the end. here, we can witness charlie's progress and the changes in him. the book explores the theme of the treatment of retarded people. it shows that retarded people are not treated like human beings and are being looked down upon. ironically, charlie himself, after being a genius after the operation, also look down upon people who have lower level of intelligence than him. charlie was not treated like a human being when he was a retard and even after being a genius he was treated like a laboratory animal. charlie and algernon the rat develop a friendship because charlie was able to identify with algernon who also undergoes the experiment. the author uses flashback to retell charlie's childhood and we are able to see how charlie has been treated by his family because of his low level of intelligence. the author makes us sympathise charlie due to the treatment he received. charlie's character changed after being a genius and he starts to suspect others and eventually pushes others away from himself. in the end, the declination of charlie's level of intelligence is obvious and is as fast as how his level of intelligence increased. he burns out and ended his progress report with asking to leave flowers for algernon. the ending of the book hints the demise of charlie gordon. i think the book is thought-provoking as it explores the inter-relationship between human and is definitely worth a read.