Flowers for Algernon Book Report - 2219 Words

Flowers for Algernon is a novel written by Daniel Keyes and first published in 1966. It was originally a short story and, in the year 2000, was adapted into a film of the same name. There are no direct references to the time period in which the story takes place, but it’s safe to assume that the events take place around the time the novel was written; the mid-1960s. In this novel, there are two primary settings, the main character’s room, where he writes in his journal, and the hospital, where he undergoes surgery and various examinations. A secondary setting is a small, family operated business named Donner’s Bakery where Charlie, the protagonist, works as a janitor and delivery boy. As the story develops, much of the action†¦show more content†¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"Everyone was looking at me and laughing and I felt naked.† (Allusion) â€Å"Charlie stares at him, the smile melting from his face.† (Imagery) â€Å"I started in, past the stairs I had seen so often in my nightmares. I had often been pursued up that long, narrow staircase by demons who grabbed at my legs and pulled me down into the cellar below, while I tried to scream without a voice, straggling on my tongue and gagging in silence.† (Allegory) â€Å"†¦the switch that sets the huge machine humming.† (Personification) â€Å"His eyebrows came down like shutters†¦ (Simile) â€Å"I was scared to death of ink blots.† (Hyperbole) â€Å"I felt boxed in by my obligations.† (Metaphor) â€Å"†¦realize Algernon and I have been found missing.† (Oxymoron) â€Å"Sleeping comes so naturally to me, I could do it with my eyes closed.† (Pun) â€Å"†¦I just thought he was a magic mouse is all.† (Alliteration) Charlie Gordan is the protagonist and author of the progress reports that the novel is composed of. He is a thirty-two-year-old mentally retarded man with an IQ of 68 who lives in New York City. At the start of the novel, he works at Donner’s Bakery as a janitor and delivery boy. Charlie’s desire to learn compounded with his low self-esteem render him the best student in Alice Kinnian’s reading class at the Beekman College Center for Retarded Adults. Charlie undergoes an experimental surgery to boost his intelligence. His IQ triples and his intelligenceShow MoreRelatedEssay on Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes1120 Words   |  5 PagesFlowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes is a classic science fiction set in southeastern New York, New York City. The fictitious prose traces a mans inner psychological journey within from a world of retardation to a world of great intelligence. Narrated through a series of empirical Progress Reports, Flowers for Algernon follows the intellectual and emotional rise and fall of Charlie Gordon, a young man born with an unusually low Intelligence Quotient (IQ), as he becomes the first human pilot-studyRead MoreFlowers for Algernon Essay679 Words   |  3 PagesFlowers for Algernon Short Story Essay Flowers for Algernon (1959) by Daniel Keyes uses different techniques including Changes in Grammar, Spelling, Punctuation and Algernon as a symbol to produce the themes of Mistreatment of the Mentally Disabled, The Tension between Intellect and Emotion, The Persistence of the Past in the Present and Algernon as the symbol. All these techniques are presented from Charlie’s first person narration in his progress reports. Daniel Keyes signals Charlie’s changingRead MoreEssay on Mental Retardation in Flowers for Algernon1185 Words   |  5 PagesA drug to treat a type of mental retardation has showed promise. 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This operation has already been preformed on a laboratory mouse named Algernon, who received astonishing and outstanding results so the doctor is convinced it can alter a human’s disability and help millionsRead MoreEssay on Flowers For Algernon1043 Words   |  5 Pages In Daniel Keyes’ compelling novel, Flowers for Algernon, the main character undergoes both important emotional and physical changes. The book has an interesting twist, as it is described in the characters â€Å"progress reports†. This book has a scien ce fiction undertone, and takes place in exciting New York City. As the novel begins, the main character, Charlie Jordan is thirty-two years old, but cannot remember anything from his childhood. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Charlie Jordan words at a bakeryRead MoreFlowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes Essay689 Words   |  3 PagesEvery day, people go through operations and sometimes experience unpredicted and unwanted outcomes. The story, Flowers for Algernon, is exactly like that. In this story, a 37 year old man, named Charlie Gordon, has a mental disability and participates in an operation/experiment to increase his knowledge. After taking part in the operation, Charlie’s intellect gradually escalates to a genius status. Charlie, the man who had an IQ of 68, was slowly maturing mentally and he started seeing the worldRead MoreThere Has Always Been A Fascination With The Self, Often1285 Words   |  6 Pagesfascination with the self, often expressed in literature; Both Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) and Daniel Keyes’ Flowers for Algernon (1966) published nearly one-hundred years later, explore the theme of the importance of self-knowledge. Both The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Flowers for Algernon explore cases of self-alienation catalyzed by a quest for self-knowledge. The main character’s self-alienation stems from an attempt to comprehend theRead MoreThe Awakenings : Flowers For Algernon And Awakenings710 Words   |  3 PagesRecently I (and many others) have read the story â€Å"Flowers for Algernon, and the movie â€Å"Awakenings†. â€Å"Flower for Algernon† is an outstanding story about a Man named Charlie Gordon with an I.Q. of 68, and a small white mouse named Algernon who can beat Charlie in any maze. The story begins when Charlies Support teacher, Miss Kinnian, advise Charlie to do an experiment that Dr.Nemur and Dr.Strauss believe that a surgical operation could possibly have Charlies I.Q. raise up triple the amount it wasRead MoreSummary Of A Short Lived Miracle 1081 Words   |  5 PagesKatelyn Watts Comp. 104: October Book Report Ms. Teresa Long 31 October 2016 A Short-lived Miracle In this novel you meet a very important man named Charlie Gordon. Charlie suffers from a mental disability and has a very low IQ. He wants to become smart so that he can fit in with others and not feel like such an outsider. In this novel you go through Charlie’s experiment to become a genius and overcome his disability. Charlie has faced a rough childhood. His mother always thought he would turn outRead MoreEpistolary Novels and Mimetic Devices1256 Words   |  5 Pagesfiction. In this chapter I want to show how mimetic devices such as letters, bank statements and reports have already been used in epistolary fiction so that I can consider their use as models for my own work. I touch briefly on the history of the use of mimetic devices in the epistolary novel and go on to discuss how mimetic devices in So Much For That , House Mother Normal and Flowers for Algernon allow us to hear different voices and create texture. In SMFT chapters are headed with a bank statement