Flowers for Algernon is a short, moving story about a mentally retarded man who becomes the subject of a scientific experiment to increase his mental capacity and becomes a genius, but the experiment fails a few weeks later, and he goes back to normal.
Charlie is a 37 year old man, who is not so smart, but he likes to learn and he wants to be smart. The book is more of a journal, that Charlie written his self. In the beginning of the book, the way he writes and spells words, and phrases his sentences are not good at all. Over the course of the book, the writing slowly becomes more sophisticated, along with his thoughts.
The point of this book is, it’s not the technology that let Charlie become a genius, but it’s how the people react to him, before the operation, and after. This book shows how the mental are treated, but there is also points of friendship, identity, and the revising of one’s past. Mostly, it is to understand how Charlie feels, and his attempts, and what he really wants to do.
In conclusion, Flowers For Algernon is an excellent story. It shows how the mental are treated, and how a person with disabilities wants to become smart and is willing to have an operation done to make it happen.
Overall, I really liked this book. It had very good sense of character and it had a great meaning to the entire thing. Since Charlie had a disability, he wasn’t able to experience things like all of us do and by him having that operation, he got the opportunity to experience things like he never though he would. This was an excellent story.