Flowers For Algernon
Author: Daniel Keyes
Date Published: April 1959 (short story) March 1966 (novel)
Pages: 311
🧵 Synopsis
Born with a low IQ, Charlie Gordon is selected by scientists to receive ground breaking experimental surgery that would increase his IQ dramatically. Already tested on a lab mouse named Algernon with exciting results, this could be revolutionary for future humans.
We travel with Charlie on this journey through his personally written progress reports. What we see is although his IQ may increase to genius levels his emotional intelligence is left behind. Realisations of how his family and society have shaped Charlie are massively important. When Algernon suddenly starts behaving oddly, we are left wondering if the same fate will await Charlie.
🔖 Memorable Quotes
“I don’t know what’s worse: to not know what you are and be happy, or to become what you’ve always wanted to be, and feel alone.”
“I am afraid. Not of life, or death, or nothingness, but of wasting it as if I had never been.”
“That’s the thing about human life–there is no control group, no way to ever know how any of us would have turned out if any variables had been changed.”
🧠 My Thoughts
I gathered there was more to the story than one of simply science fiction and I was right. This is the story of a man looking at himself through a window and making some tragic observations about humans, family and “friends”. Was it better than to have never known at all?
The more Charlie’s IQ grows, the more he comes to realise how others have treated him and laughed at him. We get to think about infantilisation and the exploitation of such people. We also get to see the vast difference between intellect and emotional intelligence. What happens when one gets left behind?
The main area of interest for me in this book, is the exploration of dysfunctional family. This book was written in the 1950’s but I recognised many toxic traits we still see in families today, triangulation, emotional neglect, golden child vs scapegoat. For Charlie to realise the abuse he suffered at the hands of his mother, in real time, through his progress reports is heart breaking. To see how it affected his attempts at love and his devastating struggles were a hard read. The fact that he recollects these events; despite not having intellectual intelligence at that time goes to show even more why we should always be kind.
Rose Gordon must have suffered her own trauma before becoming a mother, we never find out her back story. When she realises that Charlie is less than perfect, in her eyes, she can’t accept it. She confuses love and pain for Charlie. She triangulates the relationship with her 2 children, when Norma, Charlie’s sister comes along. Norma grows up hating Charlie because in her eyes she has to be the perfect one. She also experiences her mother screaming if Charlie goes near her. Had Charlie’s upbringing has been loving and supportive, his mental health wouldn’t have plummeted whilst his IQ shot though the skies at breakneck speed. It doesn’t matter how intellectually clever we can make someone, their emotional intelligence will stay where it was, and that for me was the biggest moral dilemma in this story. You can’t increase one without the other.
Flowers for Algernon is beautifully but devastatingly written. This is very much a human, deeply ethical story despite being labelled as science fiction. It hit hard for me, having an autistic teen and suspecting of having autism myself. It really makes you think, and everyone should read this book in my opinion.
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