Characters and plot
The story is told from the perspective of a Mr. Charlie Gordon, a gentleman of an IQ of 68. He goes to drastic measures to try to become in a higher intelligence, including a surgery to add proteins directly in his brain. These proteins are designed to build up neural pathways and raise his IQ, which it does. However, after a period of a few weeks, the progress of the treatment fails, and Mister Gordon is left, quite literally, stupefied and depressed. He leaves a final note of encouragement to those who had helped him on his progression through the treatment.
Mister Gordon's teacher, a Mrs. Alice Kinnian, is an intelligent yet sensitive woman who cares very much for Charlie's success. Se starts out, at the beginning of the book, as a pillar of intelligence, a goddess to be worshipped in Charlie's eyes. However, when Charlie goes into the midstages of his treatment, about most of the way to peak intelligence, he realises that Miss Kinnian is of meager intelligence, not even familiar with highly advanced calculus. (Not even rocket science! How dare she call herslf an educator?!?) As Charlie gets more used to the actual Miss Kinnian, he begins to have feelings for her, and they do some things that won't be blatantly stated here.
Mister Gordon's teacher, a Mrs. Alice Kinnian, is an intelligent yet sensitive woman who cares very much for Charlie's success. Se starts out, at the beginning of the book, as a pillar of intelligence, a goddess to be worshipped in Charlie's eyes. However, when Charlie goes into the midstages of his treatment, about most of the way to peak intelligence, he realises that Miss Kinnian is of meager intelligence, not even familiar with highly advanced calculus. (Not even rocket science! How dare she call herslf an educator?!?) As Charlie gets more used to the actual Miss Kinnian, he begins to have feelings for her, and they do some things that won't be blatantly stated here.
Themes and symbols
The most blatant symbol from the story Flowers for Algernon isAlgernon himself, the mouse. He clearly models asimilar progression as that of Mister Charlie Gordon, serving to provide most of the foreshadowing of what shall come from Mister Gordon's experiment. It clearly shows that Mister Gordon may go through a violent stage as he loses progress.
Another symbol from the story is Ms. Kinnian. She represents any authoritative figure in our modern society: Strong and intelligent, to those around, but when one rises to the same level, it can be seen that this idol is really only a normal person that did a few things differently.
Another symbol from the story is Ms. Kinnian. She represents any authoritative figure in our modern society: Strong and intelligent, to those around, but when one rises to the same level, it can be seen that this idol is really only a normal person that did a few things differently.