Charlie Gordon is about to embark upon an unprecedented journey.
Born with an unusually low IQ he has been chosen as the perfect subject
for an experimental surgery that researchers hope will increase his
intelligence - a procedure that has already been highly successful when
tested on a lab mouse named Algernon.
As the treatment
takes effect, Charlie's intelligence expands until it surpasses that of
the doctors who engineered his metamorphosis. The experiment appears to
be a scientific breakthrough of paramount importance, until Algernon
suddenly deteriorates. Will the same happen to Charlie?
'"Dr. Strauss says I shoud rite down what I think and remembir and evrey thing that happens to me from now on."'
We follow Charlie through his transformation through a series of journal entries. The first passages are written using very simple language and is fraught with
spelling and grammatical errors signifying Charlie's limited mind; a
window into his handicap. This is paramount to the story as it's the
very reason he was chosen for the experiment in the first place. After
many tests they tell him about a surgery meant to increase his
intelligence. Charlie likes that idea because '[he] wantid to be
smart.' He's disappointed after the surgery because he assumed he would
immediately wake up and be smarter. But he has to work for it. His
only friend and teacher at the home for mentally challenged adults, Miss
Kinnian, Alice, tells him 'it woud stick with [him] and not be like
befor when it dint stick so good.'
The testing
continues and Charlie get increasingly frustrated as Algernon, the mouse
whose own achievements spurred Charlie's surgery, keeps winning all the
tests and games they play.
'I hate that mouse. He always beets me.'
However,
this changes less than a month later. Charlie's progress reports are
seen to improve in errors and in thought complexity. Winning against Algernon proves to Charlie
that he is, indeed, getting smarter. That the surgery was a success. He is excited and rushes to tell Alice,
whom he's been spending more and more time with. She helps him learn and
encourages him to work hard.
Not
two months after the operation he begins to notice that Alice is a
woman, a female. He's never looked at her that way, never looked at any
woman that way. He wants to go on a date with her but she is
reluctant. She never suspected her tutelage would turn into romance.
She agrees to go on a date, but Charlie is unfamiliar with his new
feelings for her as a woman. He tries to become more intimate with
her and she rejects him; his first. It hurts him and confuses him, so he insists. His
need for her, his need for a normal human relationship, increases with
his IQ.
'[She's] the first woman [he's] every been really aware of in [that] way...'
'"See other women," she advises. "Give yourself more time."'
As
the weeks wear on he finds himself out growing the people he'd once
thought of as friends which includes his budding romance with Alice. In
fact, his intelligence improves so radically he even begins to surpass
his doctors.
'Strauss again brought up [Charlie's] need
to speak and write simply and directly so that people will understand
[him]... that language is sometimes a barrier instead of a pathway.
Ironic to find [himself] on the other side of the intellectual fence.'
The
operation continues to improve his IQ which causes him to think about
the world differently. His mind clears and he can look back to sort
through hazy, childhood memories. The doctor's are so impressed with his
progress they announce they're taking him and Algernon to an
international convention. Charlie is excited to meet and mingle with
the smartest minds in the world. His frustration for his own
doctor's limits is eager to be assuaged among these supposed giants of men. Everyday
people and mundane conversation no longer hold any interest for him. He
becomes impatient when others can't follow his ideas. He feels
resentment towards the doctors, once thinking them so smart, now knowing
more than them, more than anyone could possibly learn in a lifetime. In less than
half a year Charlie has gone on to do his own research regarding the
experiment in the many different languages he's been able to learn and
understand fluently. He confronts his doctors' with information
regarding his mental retardation and newly acquired intelligence which
only reveals a deep lacking in their understanding.
'To hear [them] admit that [they] were ignorant of whole areas in their own fields was terrifying,' Charlie writes.
He also has to face the fact that he is their experiment, their most prized research and he doesn't like them staking their reputations and glory on him.
During the lecture about the his success as said experiment he discovers the doctors video recorded his early testing.
'[he]
had never known that [his] early performances and tests... were
filmed. There [he] was... confused and open-mouthed as [he] tried to
run the maze... Each time [he failed, his] expression changed to an
absurd wide-eyed stare, then that foolish smile again.'
Each
time it happened the audience roared with laughter. Race after race it
was repeated and each time they found it funnier and funnier than
before. Charlie sits there, on the stage, watching these brilliant
minds from around the globe laughing so freely at his expense and gets
the urge to suddenly release the precious Algernon from his cage. Without realizing it, he flips the lock and lets his comrade loose. Pandemonium erupts in the lecture hall as everyone scrambles to
catch the intelligent rodent. Charlie uses it to make his own escape,
Algernon tucked safely in his pocket.
Away from the
laboratory Charlie uses the chance to try to contact his family. He can
recognize them but has to remind himself that they wouldn't possibly
recognize him after 15 years.
He begins to see the paradox within him; the smarts, but really no life experience, no practice making and
keeping relationships. He reaches out anyway. Bittersweet
memories of home are closely examined without the haze of his
retardation influencing every recalled image. He cannot stay away. He fears he may never get
another chance. Navigating these unfamiliar areas of human interaction
is difficult as Charlie tries to reclaim something he hadn't known he'd
lacked; love.
Keenly aware of this imbalance inside him
he can't help but continue to challenge the doctors. He knows something
they don't but they don't like to listen, and he can't express himself
properly without anger and frustration. Charlie is both too smart
for his own good, but utterly lacking at the same time. He admits
they've taken care of him. He has his own place, a small salary, but he
is all too aware of what else they've neglected.
'"Everything
but treat me as a human being. You've boasted... that I was nothing
before the experiment... Because if I was nothing, then you were
responsible for creating me, and that makes you my lord and master. You
resent the fact that I don't show my gratitude every hour of the day...
I am grateful. But what you did for me - wonderful as it is - doesn't
give you the right to treat me like an experimental animal. I'm an
individual now, and so was Charlie before he ever walked into that
lab... suddenly we discover that I was always a person... and that
challenges your belief that someone with an IQ of less than 100 doesn't
deserve consideration."'
After that it isn't long
before Charlie is done with the experiment. He sees what's happening to
Algernon and doesn't want to end up the same way.
'"No
more tests. I don't want to take any more tests... Not just for
today. I'm not coming back here any more... I've done enough. I want
to be left alone now."'
They try to persuade him to
stay, to see it through. After all, their PhD's are riding on it. But
through it all Charlie's learned one very important thing; the
preciousness of time and the comfort of others.
This
book takes the reader through the hard-to-understand levels of academia
with ease and peels back these intellectual layers to expose the raw,
human truth behind scientific breakthroughs, proving we all have the
need for human connection.
Click here to purchase Flowers for Algernon.
