Flowers For Algernon: Is Charlie Gordon A Hero

Anyone Can Be A Hero
Is Charlie Gordon a hero? A hero is a person who commits an act of remarkable bravery. Nowadays heros are policemen, fire fighters, soldiers and doctors. Many heroes in movies are people who defeat the evil and save the city, but can a 37 year old intellectually disabled being become a hero. In the short story “ Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes the protagonist is a 37 year old intellectually disabled man named Charlie Gordon who partakes a procedure to triple his intelligence. Charlie is a hero because by taking the surgery he gives hope to others like him of becoming smarter. He is also a hero because he risked his life to do something he really wanted.
Charlie risks more than what he gets to be as smart as everyone …show more content…
Charlie was being made fun of at work because of his disability “This morning Amos Borg who is the 4 man at Dannegars used my name when he shouted at Ernie the office boy. Ernie lost a package.He said Ernie for godsake what are you trying to pull a Charlie Gordon”(520). Before he had the surgery his friends who make fun of him because they knew that Charlie was dumb enough that he didn’t know if he was doing something dumb. Once Charlie had his surgery he was starting to realize why people were using his name so when he saw a boy being treated the same way he was being treated he “felt sick inside as I looked at his dull, vacuous smile, the wide bright eyes of a child, uncertain but eager to please. They were laughing at him because he was[intellectually disabled]”(530). Many people in the world say stuff not thinking that it would affect the person’s feelings, so when Charlie saw this he was very disappointed in himself for laughing with the others.
Many people might think that Charlie isn’t a hero because the surgery was temporary and because he didn’t save anybodys life. Even though “I’m forgetting things that i learned recently. It seems to be following the pattern - the last things learned are the first things forgotten. Or is that the pattern? I’d better look it up again”(352). Charlie starts to regress in his intelligence after Algernon dies. Many people don’t think that he is a hero

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