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Nov 18, 2013 Carmen rated it really liked it

Flowers for Algernon – Book Review

Flowers for Algernon is a story about hope, perseverance, truth and humanity. Charlie Gordon the protagonist of this story goes through an emotional journey filled with ups and downs and it all takes place in New York. Charlie was born with an unusually low I.Q and was asked to be a test subject on an operation that would hopefully raise his intelligence. Charlie lived in a time where the mentally disabled were to be hidden or thrown away in a hospital to live Flowers for Algernon – Book Review

Flowers for Algernon is a story about hope, perseverance, truth and humanity. Charlie Gordon the protagonist of this story goes through an emotional journey filled with ups and downs and it all takes place in New York. Charlie was born with an unusually low I.Q and was asked to be a test subject on an operation that would hopefully raise his intelligence. Charlie lived in a time where the mentally disabled were to be hidden or thrown away in a hospital to live the rest of their lives. He accepts the offer mainly because he has always been eager to become smarter and to be able to please his mother who left him with his uncle when he was young. The operation was a success and surpasses the level of intelligence the scientists expected. Charlie was so blinded with the fact that he was going to become a genius after this operation, he did not realize that this operation could only be temporary and that he would be able to remember things in his past and realize how people actually thought of him, and once he began to remember and realizes all those things, it hurt him a lot.

Months after Charlie’s operation, a mouse named Algernon who was also a highly successful test subject, began acting oddly and his level of intelligence began to decrease, which worried the scientists about the same thing happening to Charlie. Towards the middle of the book Charlie thought he was seeing the old, mentally disabled Charlie watching him through the mirror or was sometimes following, that was when he realized that the operation was temporary and that he was starting to lose his intelligence. He thought if he could fight back the old Charlie from coming back he could stay a genius forever, but that was not the case.

This book was written in Charlie’s progress reports where he talks about how he feels before, during and after the operation. I was fascinated in how the author used his superb writing skills to paint the picture that I was actually reading Charlie Gordon’s journal by using punctuation, grammar and spelling all related to the level of intelligence Charlie was at throughout the book, he made it seem so real. The way this book was written allowed the reader to fully grasp the emotions felt by the main character by including details of what life was for a retarded man receiving a chance to become a genius. Although I don’t think everyone will enjoy having to make out some of the words in the beginning of the book and you might have to re-read some passages a few times because you might not understand “Charlie’s” writing but I enjoyed it because it made the book more realistic.

One of my favorite parts in this book was reading about Charlie beginning to feel emotions and understand what they meant and how they were making him feel. Another aspect of the book that I really enjoyed was when the author was talking about Charlie’s past. What I liked most about his past was when the author wrote about Charlie’s mom who was a prideful women who did everything she could to make her son a normal kid because she was ashamed of his son, but gave up when she gave birth to another child. She did not like having others see her as the women with a retarded son, so after the birth of her daughter she forced her husband to leave their son with his uncle. Those were the parts that kept me reading because I wanted to know more. This book took me much longer to read then any other books I read because it took me some time to process each stage of Charlie’s progress, which elicited a much more powerful emotional connection, and reaction.

Near the middle of the book I found that Charlie was becoming really selfish and that made me feel hatred towards him, that was one of parts where I thought the author did an exceptional job of bringing out emotions in his readers. One thing that I didn’t like so much about this book was I found that I lost interest at different parts throughout the book because I thought it was getting a little bit boring. That is because around the middle of the book I found that it talked a lot about what Charlie read in science books or books that talk about phycology, which did not interest me at all.

This book does briefly talk about Charlie and some sexual content, so it might not be appropriate for all ages. I would recommend this book to people who enjoy reading classic books or social issue based books, also those who like to experience emotional journeys. Overall, I though Flowers for Algernon was a heart breaking, bittersweet and thought provoking book that I truly enjoyed. Not all books end happily, and Flowers for Algernon was one of them.

- Carmen ...more

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