Flowers for Algernon | Analyse

Indholdsfortegnelse
Summery
Characterization of Charlie

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Uddrag
Summery
“Flowers for Algernon” is a short story about a 37 years old man, named Charlie.

It´s written in a first-person narration, which is told through Charlies progress reports, which he writes himself.

Charlie is mentally handicapped, which makes it hard for him to read, write and understand. Charlie goes to a school for retarded adults, because he wants to become smarter.

At the school, his teacher Miss Kinnian recommends him to get a surgery designed to boost his intelligence. After some testing, Charlie gets chosen by the scientist to get the surgery.

When also follow Charlie at work. He works in a factory as a janitor. He believes that his work colleagues are his friends, but because of his low social competence he can´t see that they are actually bullying him.

After a battery of test, he finally gets the surgery. The test consisted of the raw shok test, a maze where he battle against a mouse called Algernon, and test where they tested his ability to imagine things.

In the beginning he´s very frustrated because he doesn´t fells like there is any progress, but after a watching TV at night and Miss Kinnian´s help, there is a big change.

Suddenly he can spell, use punctuation and understand. But he also starts realizing that his socalled friends have been making fun of him, and that they never were his friends. Since Charlie changes mentally, there is also a change in the narration.

Because the narration is written from Charlies point of view, there is not any insight into the other characters. Throughout the short story Charlie develops, both in terms inner and outer characterization.

Characterization of Charlie
Charlie presents himself as a 37-year-old man. He works as a janitor and at night he goes to evening classes for mentally handicapped adults, where he learns how to read and write.

He also tells us that his IQ is 68, which also is suggested by the misspelling of words, and the lack of understanding different concepts.

You can tell that Charlie doesn´t want to be dumb, since he desperately wants to become smart. This is shown I the first progress report, “Miss Kinnian says maybe they can make me smart.

I want to be smart.” Before the surgery, he´s well aware that he´s not smart, but he acts childish and he´s very naive. The fact that he´s naive can be seen in that way he interacts with people.

He can´t see that his friends are mocking him, and they are not his real friends. ” Then Frank Reilly said what did you do Charlie forget your key and open your door the hard way.

That made me laff. Their really my friends and they like me. Sometimes somebody will say hey look at Joe or Frank or George he really pulled a Charlie Gordon.

I dont know why they say that but they always laff ” He finds almost everybody nice and easily assumes that they are his friends.

Aldo he is not fond of Mr. Nemur. We can see that he likes Miss Kinnian, since he is so eager to go back to her classes, after the surgery.

Throughout his progress his intellectual capacities develop, and he starts people differently. He starts to understand that people around him have been treating him differently, because he was dumb.