Tolog Review: Flowers for Algernon

Flowers for Algernon 
by Daniel Keyes
reviewed by Chloe Walters-Gudino 

In Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon, Keyes describes a 32 year-old man named Charlie Gordon. Charlie is a man that has no intellectual knowledge, and acts as if he is a “child adult” as I like to think of it. Keyes uses characterization by describing how Charlie had this feeling inside that gave him the strength to be a smart person. Since Charlie is an adult, he go’s to work everyday at Donner’s bakery as a janitor, and by night he attends the Beekman College Center for Retarded Adults taught by his teacher, Miss Alice Kinnian. Miss Kinnian is the one that recommended Charlie to a special operation that increases the intellectual level of someone like Charlie. Miss Kinnian feels that Charlie is the perfect person for this operation because he has the will and the passion to want to learn and become someone that can be respected on a smarter level. This is the very recommendation that Dr. Strauss and Professor Nemur needed to conduct this operation on a human being. They both have done this surgery before, but on a mouse named Algernon. Charlie saw how Algernon got smarter in a matter of days, and that gave him even a bigger drive to become the way he wanted to be. In the end, Charlie had the operation. At first, he was disappointed of how the results were not coming in an instant. Then he starts to see the changes in his behavior and his intellectual level began to grow. Charlie then finds out that the only downside to the operation was that the results could go away at the same speed that they came.

In my personal opinion, this is one of the best works of literature I have ever read. Keyes perfectly understands how one man has the desire to work hard to accomplish anything that one sets his/her mind to. I felt a connection to Charlie because in certain ways I see myself in him. I feel that desire to constantly be at your best, and want to be who you want to be versus who you are. I admired how Keyes describes one who wanted to just make his life better for himself. When I think of this story, and I think of a man who overcame the impossible, and still keeps on fighting for what he wants. Keyes understood what it meant to be a fighter, and he did that through telling the story of Charlie. Yes, at times I did feel bad for Charlie and sorry for him, but I think that was the point that Keyes tried to get across. I think he wanted people to realize that anyone can overcome impossible odds. I can promise you, you will not regret reading this novel. In my opinion, Keyes helps everyone realize that with heart and dedication, anything is possible.