Flowers for Algernon (Daniel Keyes): Charly Gordon had a Dream ...
Written: Oct 10 '09 (Updated Oct 16 '09)
Product Rating:
Pros: A frank and somewhat disturbing tale of scientific possibility.
Cons: Will disturb the posterior-stick implant crowd.
The Bottom Line: Flowers for Algernon is social science fiction that explores the intersection of science, society, and the mentally challenged. It will leave the reader changed.
MiDoyle's Full Review: Daniel Keyes - Flowers For Algernon
Retard. Moron.
Charly Gordon has heard those words for most of his life --- as a child with a mother at the end of her abusive rope; at school from other children; at work at Donner's Bakery; and from strangers on the streets of New York.
A few decades ago, it was perfectly reasonable to call someone with mental disabilities a retard or a moron. They were even put into certain legal categories depending on what an IQ test revealed as to mental ability levels. Thankfully, that kind of behavior has seemingly ended with the mainstreaming of the mentally disabled into greater society but perhaps not as much as we would like.
After all, Social Darwinism is alive and well in America and though certain epithets are not shared in polite company anymore (except amongst teabaggers), it should be acknowledged that those beliefs or thoughts are not too far from the surface. For some, the belief in exceptionalism starts at "me" and ends there for the most part.
Written by Daniel Keyes as a short story in the late 1950s, Flowers for Algernon was expanded into book form in 1966, has been made into a number of films, and experienced other adaptations including a musical, rock album, and various dramas.
The book has appeared on a number of Banned Book lists over the years with social puritans objecting to its depiction of society's treatment of the mentally disabled and its frankness about sexual feelings.
Reading Flowers for Algernon (Mariner Books, 2005, 324 pages) is a step back into another time, when the word retard or moron had a very different connotation, not necessarily one of ridicule, perhaps just a statement of scientific fact, a fact that scientists sought to change.
"So Burt sed Charlie what do you see on this card. I saw the spilld ink and I was very skared even tho I got my rabbits foot in my pockit because when I was a kid I always faled tests in school and I spilld ink to." [page 2]
The story begins and ends with young Charly Gordon, a boy-man with an IQ of 68 who has been picked to undergo an operation to see if scientists can reverse his mental disability through stimulus of his brain cells. The operation has worked with mice; the most advanced of which is a mouse named Algernon, who consistently beats Charlie when matched up against him in working through a maze.
Keyes has Charly tell his story through the series of progress reports he submits to the scientists at the center. Along with the scientists, he keeps notes about his mental changes and challenges and his feelings about them. This first person narrative is quite strong and Charly is a well-written and emotionally proportioned character, with nuance and intelligence, and an ability to be self aware, much more so as the novel progresses.
The social science fiction premise of the book also works on two levels--- as a man versus science theme and as one that explores the intersection of society and the mentally disabled(challenged). Through Charly's eyes and experiences, the reader may be prompterd to ask their own questions: Why are we afraid of the handicapped? What fears operate within us to exaggerate that fear? How can science bridge that fear? What are the human costs involved?
Keyes story is a surprisingly effective one and the language is a tad shocking for its time (not so much today). What is surprisingly rewarding about the tale is that Keyes is unafraid to depict Charly as a sexual being. The depiction and discussion of that desire is one that invariably touches on the larger fears underneath the story's scientific experiment.
With Charly trapped as a man-boy, he experiences his improving intellect with dizzing speed and some wory. The speed of his transformation masks an underlying problem with his emotional intelligence and maturity, which becomes an internal battleground. This becomes a larger part of the story as Charly meets women who attract him, from the young teacher who first inspired him to enter into the experiment and the more experienced female artist who attracts him on a baser level.
The solution came to me, just as I was dozing off. Illuminated! Everything fit together, and I see what I should have known from the beginning. No more sleep. I've got to get back to the lab and test this against the results from the computer. This, finally, is the flaw in the experiment. I've found it.
Now what becomes of me? [page 176]
Charly finds himself, then, at an interesting crossroads after the operation and dealing with its after effects, all ideas and situations that Keyes handles rather well within the larger scope of the novel.
Charly can question ideas and solve dilemmas in ways that he never could before and finds himself with abilities far beyond that of others. Yet, emotionally, he's still adrift in social interactions and situations.
How he deals with that conundrum (intelligence versus emotion) is at the core of the book, one that asks questions about what it's like to be human. The Charly before was happy-go-lucky. The Charly now is someone else.
Charly can see how his life may change forever and how he might be able to alter if not control what happens to him. (His father had saved him from a life in institutions and Charly knows that future could await him.)
How the story ends is somewhat telegraphed in the plot. But even with that quibble, Keyes is able to present Charly with various avenues to explore before painting the story into a corner. How it ends is how it begins in some ways. But the reader is forever changed, perhaps. (four stars)
Sources: www.danielkeyesauthor.com; also see the Wikipedia entry for background information at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flowers_for_Algernon
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