Analytical Essay- Flowers for Algernon “After the operashun Im gonna try to be smart. Im gonna try awful hard.”(page 51) writes Charlie Gordon in the award-winning short story “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes. Charlie is a 37years old mentally retarded man who wants to increase his intelligence by an experimental operation. He strives for intelligence because he regards this as the key to social acceptance. After the operation which triples his IQ, Charlie eventually becomes arrogant and feels superior to others because of his knowledge. However, he is still isolated from the society. Later on, a mentally challenged dishwasher he laughed at reminded him of who he is before the operation, and soon he realized that intelligence is not true greatness. He understands that the ability to read and write isn’t the only way to inclusion, in fact, confidence comes from within. At the end, Charlie learns to accept himself and value emotions and relationships more than intelligence to achieve greatness. At the beginning of the story, Charlie looks upon intelligence and knowledge as greatness. He mainly refers the ability to write and read as the path to intelligence. As you can see from his earlier progress reports, he has
