Charlie Gordon In Flowers For Algernon

“Just because you a genius does not mean you will be without struggles”. This applies directly to Charlie Gordon who is the primary protagonist of the novel “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes. Charlie Gordon is a mentally retarded thirty-two year old man who lives in Boston. He attends a unique school for the retarded in hope to become smarter. He wishes to make new friends, comprehend the people around him, and to also understand the world. He undergoes an operation to help him become smarter and reach these goals, but his intellectual state rapidly outgrows with his emotional state causing trouble within himself and others around him. Because of this, I believe that Charlie did not achieve the goals he had first set.

Firstly, Charlie …show more content…
However his intellect grew profoundly that with an IQ of 185, average people were ants compared to him. With his astonishing knowledge he could understand exactly what was going on, but I doubt that he would actually care because he would most likely view our actions and emotions as petty due to his otherworldly intelligence.

Thirdly, Charlie wanted to understand the world. He gains knowledge in almost every subject, until he is a master in every topic. While this might seem positive, Charlie is actually very isolated, and beyond everyone intellectually. He can not even talk to professors on the topic since he is more knowledgeable in their subject then they are. At this point, Charlie thinks that most experts are just frauds and this just pushes him away from society even more.

In conclusion, Charlie Gordon did not make and new friends, and despite understanding the people and world around him, his intellect put him above everyone until he eventually was just an arrogant outsider of society. If you were to show Charlie what he would become before he had the operation, then I doubt that he would of wanted to do it at all. This novel clearly shows that intellect is not always the key to social

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