Flowers for Algernon

Synopsis

The short story and the novel share many similar plot points, but the novel expands significantly on Charlie's developing emotional state as well as his intelligence, his memories of childhood, and the relationship with his family. Both are presented as a series of journal entries ("progress reports") written by the protagonist, Charlie Gordon. The style, grammar, spelling, and punctuation of these reports reflect changes in his mental and emotional growth.

Short story

Charlie Gordon is a 37-year-old man with an IQ of 68 who works a menial job as a janitor at a factory.[a] At his job, his main "friends" are his co-workers Joe Carp and Frank Reilly, but little does he know that Joe and Frank frequently bully and mock him behind his back. Charlie attends a literacy program taught by Ms. Kinnian in hopes to improve his intelligence. He is selected to undergo an experimental surgical technique to increase his intelligence. The technique has already been tested on a number of nonhuman animals; the great success was with Algernon, a laboratory mouse. Although these events proved fruitful, the procedure’s full results were unknown. The surgery on Charlie is also a success, and his IQ triples.

With an increased intelligence, he realizes his co-workers at the factory, whom he thought were his friends, only liked having him around so they could tease him. His new intelligence frightens his co-workers, and they start a petition to have him fired. Additionally, Charlie's perspective on his professors shifts negatively as he recognizes that Dr. Nemur is only using Charlie to advance his scientific career instead of altruistically helping Charlie become smarter. Later on, Charlie demonstrates courage by standing up for a 16-year-old imbecile dishwasher who gets mocked by customers at a local diner. As Charlie's intelligence peaks, Algernon's suddenly declines. The mouse loses his increased intelligence and mental age and dies afterward; Charlie buries him in the back yard of his home. Charlie realizes his intelligence increase is also temporary and that his fate will mirror Algernon's. As the effects of his mental deterioration are becoming more evident, he finds flaws in the experiment, which he calls the "Algernon–Gordon Effect". By the time he finishes his work, his intelligence has regressed to its original state. Charlie is aware of and pained by what is happening to him, as he loses his knowledge and his ability to read and write. He resumes his old job as a janitor at the factory and tries to go back to how things used to be, but he cannot stand the pity and guilt from those around him, including his co-workers, his landlady, and Ms. Kinnian. Charlie states he plans to "go away" from New York, and his last wish is for someone to put flowers on Algernon's grave.

Novel

The novel opens with an epigraph taken from Book VII of Plato's The Republic:

Anyone who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eye are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light, which is true of the mind's eye, quite as much as of the bodily eye.

Charlie Gordon, 32 years old, demonstrates an IQ of 68.[a] His uncle has arranged for him to hold a menial job at a bakery (not a factory) so that he will not have to live at the Warren State Home and Training School, a state institution. Desiring to improve himself, Charlie attends reading and writing classes, taught by Miss Alice Kinnian, at the Beekman College Center for Retarded Adults. Two researchers at Beekman, Professor Nemur and Dr. Strauss, are looking for a human test subject on whom to try a new surgical technique intended to increase intelligence. They have already performed the surgery on a mouse named Algernon, resulting in a dramatic improvement in his mental performance. Based on Alice's recommendation and his motivation to improve, Nemur and Strauss choose Charlie over smarter pupils to undergo the procedure.

The operation is successful, and Charlie's IQ reaches 185 within the next three months. At the same time, he begins recalling his childhood and remembers that his mother Rose physically abused him and wasted money on fake treatments for his disability, while his younger sister Norma resented him. As Charlie's intelligence, education, and understanding of the world increase, his relationships with people deteriorate. His co-workers at the bakery, who used to amuse themselves at his expense, now fear and resent his increased intelligence and persuade his boss to fire him. Alice enters a relationship with Charlie but breaks up with him after she realizes that she can no longer relate to him and claims that his intelligence has changed his personality. Later, Charlie loses trust in Strauss and particularly Nemur, believing that they considered him a laboratory subject and not a human before the operation. While at a scientific convention in Chicago, Charlie feels humiliated when he is treated like an experiment and flees with Algernon in retaliation.

After moving to Manhattan with Algernon, Charlie becomes involved in a relationship with Fay Lillman, his neighbor, which quells his loneliness. After an incident with a disabled busboy, Charlie becomes inspired to continue to improve Nemur and Strauss's experiment and applies for a grant. However, he notices Algernon is beginning to behave erratically. In his research, he discovers a flaw behind Nemur and Strauss's procedure that indicates he might lose his intelligence and possibly regress back to his previous state. Before that happens, Charlie publishes his findings as the "Algernon–Gordon effect", as Algernon dies.

As Charlie begins to regress to his former mental state, he finds closure with his family. Rose, who still lives in the family's old home in Brooklyn, has developed dementia and recognizes him only briefly; his father Matt, who broke off contact with the family years earlier, does not recognize him at all. He is only able to reconnect with Norma, who is now caring for Rose in their newly depressed neighborhood, but he declines to stay with them. Charlie begins dating Alice again, but his frustration with declining intelligence eventually causes him to end his relationships with her and Dr. Strauss. Unable to bear the thought of being dependent and pitied by his friends and co-workers, he decides to live at the Warren State Home and Training School, where no one knows about the operation. In a final postscript to his writings, he requests that someone put flowers on Algernon's grave in the backyard of Charlie's former residence.


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