Summary of “Flowers for Algernon” Киза
32-year-old mentally retarded Charlie Gordon lives in New York and works as a cleaner in a private bakery where his uncle arranged it. He almost does not remember his parents and younger sister. Charlie goes to a special school, where the teacher Alice Kinnian teaches him to read and write.
One day, Miss Kinnian leads him to Professor Nemura and Dr. Strauss. They are conducting an experiment to increase intelligence, and they need a volunteer. Miss Kinnian offers the candidacy of Charlie, the most capable student of her group. Charlie dreams of becoming smart from childhood and willingly agrees, although the experiment involves a risky operation. The psychiatrist and neurosurgeon Strauss tells him to write down his thoughts and sensations in the form of reports. In the first reports Charlie made many mistakes.
Charlie begins to undergo standard psychological tests, but he does not succeed. Charlie is afraid that he will not suit the professor. Gordon gets acquainted with
On March 7, Charlie is undergoing surgery. For a while nothing happens. He continues to work in a bakery and does not believe that he will become clever. The bakery workers scoff at Charlie, but he does not understand anything, and laughs with those he considers friends. He does not tell anyone about the operation, and every day he goes to the laboratory to do tests. March 29, Charlie first passes the labyrinth faster than Algernon. Miss Kinnian begins to deal with him individually.
On April 1, the bakery employees decide to play a trick on Charlie and force him to turn on the dough mixer. Unexpectedly, Charlie turns out, and the boss raises him in office. Gradually Charlie begins to understand that for “friends” he is just a clown, over which you can jest with impunity and evil.
I reached a new level of development. But anger and suspicion were the first feelings I felt for the world around me.
He remembers the most insulting cases, becomes bitter and ceases
The past Charlie, previously hidden from him, begins to clear up.
I look like a man who slept half a lifetime, and now tries to find out who he was while asleep.
By the end of April, Charlie is changing so much that bakery employees begin to treat him suspiciously and hostilely. Charlie remembers about his mother. She did not want to admit that her son was born mentally retarded, beat the boy, forced him to study in a regular school. Charlie’s father tried unsuccessfully to protect his son.
Charlie is in love with his former teacher Alice Kinnian. She is not as old as Charlie seemed before the operation. Alice is younger than him, and he begins inept attentions. The thought of a relationship with a woman leads Charlie to horror. The fault of this was the mother, who was afraid that her mentally retarded son would harm the younger sister. She drove the boy into the head that you can not touch women. Charlie has changed, but the prohibition in the subconscious is still valid.
Charlie notices that the senior cook of the bakery steals the owner. Charlie warns him, threatening to tell the owner, the theft is terminated, but the relationship deteriorates completely. This is the first important decision taken by Charlie on his own. He learns to trust himself. To the decision, Charlie is pushed by Alice. He admits to her in love, but she realizes that the time has not yet come for such a relationship.
The owner of the bakery was a friend of his uncle, promised to take care of Charlie and fulfilled his promise. But now Charlie has changed strangely, the workers are afraid of him and threaten to quit if Charlie stays. The owner asks him to leave. Charlie tries to talk to former friends, but they hate a fool who suddenly became smarter than all of them.
Reason drove a wedge between me and everyone I knew and loved, drove me out of the house. Never had I felt so alone.
Charlie has not been working for two weeks. He tries to escape from loneliness in the arms of Alice, but they do not get out. Gordon seems to see himself and Alice from the side, the eyes of the former Charlie, who is horrified and does not allow them to finally get closer. Gordon remembers how her sister hated and was ashamed of him.
Charlie is getting smarter. Soon, others do not understand him. Because of this, he quarrels with Alice – she feels next to him a complete fool. Charlie moves away from everyone he knew, and sinks into school.
June 10, Professor Nemour and Dr. Strauss take off for a medical symposium in Chicago. The main “exhibits” at this major event will be Charlie and Mouse Algernon. On the plane, Charlie remembers how her mother tried to cure him without success, to do smarter. She spent almost all family savings, to which her father, a hairdressing equipment dealer, wanted to open his own hairdresser. Mother left Charlie alone, having given birth again and proving that she is capable of having healthy children. Charlie also dreamed of becoming a normal person, so that his mother finally fell in love with him.
Every day I learn something new about myself, and memories, which began with a small ripple, overwhelm me with a ten-point storm.
At the symposium, Charlie discovers such vast knowledge and high intelligence that professors and academics pale against his background. This does not prevent Professor Nemura from calling him “his creation” by equating Charlie to the mouse with Algernon. The professor is sure that before the operation Charlie was an “empty shell” and did not exist as a person. Many consider Charlie arrogant and intolerant, but he simply can not find his place in life. On the report on the operation to increase intelligence, Gordon feels like an experimental animal. In protest, he releases Algernon from the cage, then he finds it first and flies home.
In New York, Gordon sees a newspaper with a photograph of his mother and sister. He remembers how his mother made his father take him to the orphanage. After the birth of a healthy daughter, the mentally retarded son aroused in her only disgust.
Charlie rent a four-room furnished apartment near the library. In one of the rooms he arranges a three-dimensional labyrinth for Algernon. About his whereabouts Charlie does not even report to Alice Kinnigan. Soon he gets acquainted with the neighbor – a free artist. To get rid of loneliness and to be convinced of the ability to be with the woman Charlie enters with the neighbor in communication. Former Charlie does not interfere with the relationship, because this woman does not care about him, he only observes what is happening from the outside.
Charlie finds a father who divorced his wife and opened a hair salon in a poor neighborhood. He does not recognize his son, but he does not dare open. Gordon discovers that after drinking heavily, he turns into a mentally retarded Charlie. Alcohol releases his subconscious, which is still not catching up with the rapidly growing IQ.
Nothing in us disappears without a trace. The operation covered Charlie with a thin layer of culture and education, but he stayed. He looks and waits.
Now Charlie is trying not to get drunk. He walks for a long time, enters a cafe. One day he sees a waiter, a mentally retarded guy, dropping a tray with plates, and visitors begin to laugh at him.
It’s amazing how people of high moral principles. never allowing themselves to take advantage of a man born without hands, feet or eyes. easy and thoughtlessly amused over a man born without reason.
This encourages Gordon to continue his scientific career in order to benefit such people. Having decided, he meets Alice. He explains that he loves her, but between them stands a little boy Charlie, who is afraid of women, because my mother beat him.
Charlie starts working in the lab. He does not have time for a mistress, and she leaves him. Algernon begins incomprehensible attacks of aggression. At times he can not pass his labyrinth. Charlie puts the mouse in the lab. He asks Professor Nemur what they were going to do with him in case of failure. It turned out that Charlie intended a place in the state social school and the hospital “Warren”. Gordon visits this place to know what awaits him.
Algernon gets worse, he refuses to eat. Charlie reaches the peak of mental activity.
As if all the knowledge I had acquired in the last months joined and brought me to the peak of light and understanding.
August 26 Gordon finds an error in the calculations of Professor Nemours. Charlie understands that soon he will begin mental regression, the same as that of Algernon. On September 15, Algernon dies. Charlie bury him in the backyard. September 22 Gordon visits his mother and sister. He discovers that his mother is old senile. Sister is hard with her, she is glad that Charlie found them. Sister did not suspect that the mother got rid of Charlie for her sake. Gordon promises to help them until he can.
IQ Gordon is rapidly declining, he becomes forgetful. Books, formerly loved, are now incomprehensible to him. Alice comes to Gordon. This time, the former Charlie does not interfere with their love. She stays for a few weeks, cares for Charlie. Soon he drives Alice – she reminds him of abilities that can not be returned. In the reports, which Charlie still writes, there are more and more mistakes. In the end, they become the same as before the operation.
November 20, Charlie returns to the bakery. Workers who used to mock him, now take care of and protect him. However, Charlie still remembers that he was clever. He does not want to be pitied, and goes to Warren. He writes a farewell letter to Miss Kinnian, in which he asks to put flowers on the grave of Algernon.
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)