Siti Zakiah 08S304 Progress Report 1

Reading Flowers for Algernon has certainly evoked a lot of feelings. As cheesy as it may sound, Flowers is a very moving story and it certainly made me shed a few tears towards the end of it.

Set in the Big Apple in the 1960s, it is based on the diary, or progress reports, of Charlie Gordon- an intellectually disabled man who becomes the first human being to become smart through surgery. And in the short span of three months, you could vividly picture Charlie getting smarter, more curious and clearly in search of his true self.
I liked how Daniel Keyes potrayed Charlie in his various stages of develpoment. The way he writes Charlie's progress reports from the beginning, complete with spelling and punctuation errors, has got me believing that it was indeed a person with low IQ who wrote it. Slowly, Keyes developed the character, through the progress reports no less, and showed readers the steady progress Charlie is making.
Flowers also highlights the theme of the burden of intelligence and makes readers question-- Does being smarter make you happier? Perhaps more favourable? Judging from Charlie's progress, it is unlikely that higher IQ equals to happiness. I can see how Charlie becomes obssessed with learning and wanting to prove the scientists wrong. It seems that the more smarter he is, the more complex the world becomes. Charlie suddenly has no friends and is withdrawn from the world.
In my opinion, one of the most heart-wrenching scenes was his last progress report on November 21st. It finally shows the readers of his regression and how he is back where he first started; his short memory, innocence and inability to spell and use punctuation. This clearly indicates the start of his stay at the Warren State Home, true to his own prediction.

On the whole, Flowers for Algernon tells us about the fallibility of science and proves that Charlie Gordon may be a happier and peaceful person if he was left alone.