Flowers for Algernon

by Daniel Keyes

That made me sad because if he coudnt lern he woudnt be able to eat and he would be hungry. I dont think its right to make you pass a test to eat. How woud Burt like to have to pass a test every time he wants to eat. I think Ill be frends with Algernon.

I got up to pick her up and hold her to get quiet the way mom does. But then Mom came in yelling and took her away. And she slapped me so hard I fell on the bed.

I dint know it then but I guess I know it now that she thought I was going

to hurt the baby because I was too dumb to know what I was doing.

They laughed harder every time I fell, and I was laughing too because it was so funny. But the last time it happened I didn’t laugh. I picked myself up and Joe pushed me down again. Then I saw the look on Joe’s face and it gave me a funny feeling in my stomach.

was what Joe and the rest of them were doing. Laughing at me.

“But I’m not an inanimate object,” I argued. “I’m a person.” He looked confused for a moment and then laughed. “Of course, Charlie. But I wasn’t referring to now. I meant before the operation.”

But all too often a search for knowledge drives out the search for love.