Uno’s Reviews > Flowers for Algernon > Status Update

During these pages, I realize how much Charlie is mentally struggling with his family and his social life. An example of this is that he frequently recalls bad memories of him and his family. An example of a memory is when Charlie recalls that his mother wanted him kicked out of the house and how she rages at him at times.

Durig these pages I just start to recognize another social issue. (How parents treat their children different if they have different capabilities). An example of this is how when Charlie's sister is born, (Norma) Her mom automatically resents Charlie and gives up hope for him.

During these pages, I start to see how as Charlie's I.Q is increasing and how it is affecting other things. Like his feelings. Beforehand Charlie seemed like he didn't care/know much of that people were treating him different. But now, he feels or "resents" how Professor Nemur refers to him as "Laboratory Specimen."

I realize during these pages how Charlie is getting smarter after the operation. A clear sign of this is his language and what he puts in his progress reports. (He starts to talk about famous people like Shakespeare and Albert Einstein).

During these pages, I see more and more of how other characters in the book look down to Charlie. One example is that Frank, Charlie's cow-worker in the bakery is saying charlie can't learn anything. And, that he always picks on him.

During these pages, I can see a social issue that emerges. I see that people in the book are not treating Charlie as well as the others. This is just because he has a low I.Q. I feel like this happens a lot in the real world where people like to tease others because of their weaknesses.

During these pages, I realize that there is some foreshadowing that Charlie will get smarter. The sentence on pg 22 ti wrote, "Maybe someday Ill beat Algernon." (The spelling and punctuation isn't good because the author wants to show that Charlie has a low I.Q). This sentence show that the author will probably somewhere in the book make Charlie smarter.

This book is really really hard to read because of the style of writing. The writing in this book in a person that has a very low IQs point of view. So, not only do I have to read and understand the concept, I sometimes have to interpret it too. For, example a lot of words are spelled wrong like this:

"He had a wite coat like a docter"