Flowers for Algernon: The Change of Awareness - Essay Example

Client’s Flower’s for Algernon: The Change of Awareness 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 minds eye, quite as much as of the bodily eye ~ (Plato 416) Charlie, the protagonist of the novel Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, is a man who undergoes radial changes in his intellect which affects the way in which he must navigate society from the perspective of his relationships. As in evidence by a teacher by the name of Pamela Sissi Carroll who observed a student who had similar limitations, excelled above those limitations, and then went back to his former modes of behavior, the result is that his moment of social inclusion does not change the anti-social lifestyle that he has been within most of his life. It is Charlie’s intention, from the beginning, to improve in order to fit and function better in his social setting. Even though his intellect improves, he is still not accomplished in social interaction as is shown when he attempts to date Alice Kinnian. The experiences that Charlie has through the changes that are made in his intellect leave him little changed in relationship to those things that had always been the most important to him which was the desire to not be isolated from the social world. Carroll writes about her own experiences dealing with a student who couldn’t read or write and his responses to this book. Carroll as a teacher, read the book to her class which gave him hope at first, but when the end came, there was a feeling of despair as he began to see that his circumstances were not a matter of a cure. This did not define his experience, where in fact he did give school a try and managed to do a project with reading that gained him the same kind of recognition from authority figures that Charlie had for excelling beyond what was expected. This story of a boy named Will ends similarly to that of Charlie as he has his shining moment where he steps outside of his life and excels academically, only to be suspended from school shortly after and failed most of the classes of his eight grade year. Just as for Charlie, Will was able to excel because special circumstances changed the environment, but just like Charlie, when those circumstances no longer existed he reverted back to the state of intellectual development that framed his existence. The core of much of what Charlie experiences is based on the way in which his relationships change and become out of balance. From the beginning of the novel, Charlie exhibits a need to improve himself. This means that he already knows that there is something missing about what he has to offer in the world and he wishes to find a way to improve the circumstances that this has imposed upon him. Isolation and prolonged lack of social and cultural acceptance is one of the worst effects of having lowered mental intellect (Minow 116). Charlie is aware of the difference between himself and the rest of the world, but he does not have the knowledge about what he is missing until after his convergence and regression, at which point he is still isolated. As two researchers approach Charlie about doing an experimental surgery, he looks to a young woman who represents a hope that is beyond his grasp for the answer as to whether or not he should participate in this experimental procedure. Even as his intelligence increases, he comes to the awareness that his social and emotional experiences were still being framed through adolescent thinking. Keyes writes as Charlie explores what Dr. Strauss tries to explain that “I’ve got to accept the fact that the fears and blocks triggered in these sexual situations reveal that emotionally I’m still an adolescent – sexually retarded. I guess he means I’m not ready for a relationship with a woman like Alice Kinnian. Not yet” (95). Charlie, in this situation, shows that even though is intellectual level has changed, he has not changed, which is the same problem that Will experienced. In order to handle the changes that have occurred in his intellect, he spends a good deal of time drinking. Drinking is often used as a way to dampen the emotions that come from social exclusion or isolation (Kingemann 95). He finds alcohol as a way to feel better through his relationship with Fay Lillman. She tells him “this’ll make you feel better. It’ll take the starch out of those straight lines” (Keyes 193). More than just helping him to cope with the social consequences of his increased intellect, he was able to revert back to his former intellect and social maturity when he was drunk. In this reversion lays the question as to whether or not this was a preferred level of intellectual awareness of his world. Charlie begins the novel with a sense that he was not socially accepted, but is not aware of why this is the case. Through his experiences in the world, he discovers what was wrong, but is unable to find a position in his new world in which he can comfortably acclimate to the expectations of his new intellect. Just like Will from Carroll’s real life experience, Charlie cannot be something that he has had no experience maintaining. As he tries to explore the world from his new perspective, he finds that he is no more a part of it than he had been previous to his procedure. In the end, he is drinking and obsessing over the procedure, knowing that he will revert back to his former state, and isolating himself further as he becomes what he once was. Even though he finds love, finds sex, and begins to become a part of larger social experiences, he never finds the true change that he seeks which lead him to leave the world he had known and isolates himself from it in the institution. Just as Plato has written of the meaning of some things, either from not knowing or from seeing and experiencing them, they are not always made clear or understood. This was the experience of Charlie in relationship with the social world. Works Cited Carroll, Pamela Sissi. “"I Can’t Read I Won’t Read": Wills Moment of Success” The English Journal, 81.3 (March 1992) 50-52 Keyes, D. Flowers for Algernon. Orlando: Harcourt Inc., 1994. Print. Klingemann, Harald. Mapping the Social Consequences of Alcohol Consumption. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2001. Print. Minow, Martha. Making All the Difference: Inclusion, Exclusion, and American Law. Ithaca N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1991. Print. Plato, . The Republic. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1960. Print. Read More