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    Flowers for Algernon (SparkNotes Literature Guide)
    Flowers for Algernon (SparkNotes Literature Guide)
    Flowers for Algernon (SparkNotes Literature Guide)
    Ebook102 pages2 hours

    Flowers for Algernon (SparkNotes Literature Guide)

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    About this ebook

    Flowers for Algernon (SparkNotes Literature Guide) by Daniel Keyes
    Making the reading experience fun!

    Created by Harvard students for students everywhere, SparkNotes is a new breed of study guide: smarter, better, faster. Geared to what today's students need to know, SparkNotes provides: chapter-by-chapter analysis
    explanations of key themes, motifs, and symbols
    a review quiz and essay topics
    Lively and accessible, these guides are perfect for late-night studying and writing papers.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSparkNotes
    Release dateAug 12, 2014
    ISBN9781411475144
    Flowers for Algernon (SparkNotes Literature Guide)

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      Book preview

      Flowers for Algernon (SparkNotes Literature Guide) - SparkNotes

      Cover of SparkNotes Guide to Flowers for Algernon by SparkNotes Editors

      Flowers for Algernon

      Daniel Keyes

      © 2003, 2007 by Spark Publishing

      This Spark Publishing edition 2014 by SparkNotes LLC, an Affiliate of Barnes & Noble

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (including electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without prior written permission from the publisher.

      Sparknotes is a registered trademark of SparkNotes LLC

      Spark Publishing

      A Division of Barnes & Noble

      120 Fifth Avenue

      New York, NY 10011

      www.sparknotes.com /

      ISBN-13: 978-1-4114-7514-4

      Please submit changes or report errors to www.sparknotes.com/.

      10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

      Contents

      Context

      Plot Overview

      Character List

      Analysis of Major Characters

      Themes, Motifs & Symbols

      Progress Reports 1-7

      Progress Reports 8-9

      Progress Reports 10-11

      Progress Report 12

      Progress Report 13

      Progress Reports 14-15

      Progress Report 16

      Progress Report 17

      Important Quotations Explained

      Key Facts

      Study Questions & Essay Topics

      Review & Resources

      Context

      D

      aniel Keyes was born

      in

      1927

      in Brooklyn, New York. After working as a merchant seaman, he attended Brooklyn College, where he earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees. He went on to become a fiction editor at Marvel Science Fiction and also worked as a high school teacher for developmentally disabled adults. Having periodically published science-fiction stories since the early

      1950

      s, Keyes drew on his experience in the classroom and his love of science fiction to compose a short story called Flowers for Algernon in

      1959

      .

      The story, about a mentally retarded man whose IQ is tripled as the result of an experimental operation, was widely acclaimed and enormously popular. The story received one of science fiction’s highest honors, the Hugo Award, for best story of the year in

      1959

      . In

      1961

      , a successful television adaptation, The Two Worlds of Charlie Gordon, starred Cliff Robertson as Charlie. Still interested in the character of Charlie and the ideas contained in the short story, Keyes set out to enlarge Flowers for Algernon into a full-length novel. The result, published in

      1966

      , won the Nebula Award—-science fiction’s other highest honor—for best novel of the year and expanded dramatically on the popularity of the short story. In

      1968

      , the novel version was adapted again, this time for a feature film called Charly. Cliff Robertson reprised his role as Charlie Gordon and won an Academy Award for his performance. The story has since been adapted many times in many media, notably in

      1978

      as a short-lived Broadway musical, Charlie and Algernon, and as a television drama in

      2000

      starring Matthew Modine.

      The novel version of Flowers for Algernon was the high point of Daniel Keyes’s career, and it remains by far his most popular and most acclaimed work, having been consistently in print for nearly forty years. Keyes has not been a prolific author; since his success with Flowers for Algernon, he has written only three more novels and three works of journalism exploring true crime cases. Like Flowers for Algernon, both his fiction and nonfiction are primarily focused on the extraordinary complexities of the human mind. One book of journalism, The Minds of Billy Milligan, tells the true story of a convicted murderer with multiple personality disorder who claimed to embody twenty-four different personae. In

      2000

      , Keyes published a book called Algernon, Charlie, and I: A Writer’s Journey, chronicling his relationship with his most famous story, from his first inspiration to write it to his reflections on its continuing success decades later.

      The widespread and enduring interest in Flowers for Algernon is a testament to the depth and originality of its premise. Many people wonder how their lives would be affected by becoming more, or less, intelligent, and Keyes gives us a glimpse into what such a journey might be like. Though Keyes’s background is in science fiction and the novel undoubtedly belongs to that genre, it also transcends the limitations of the genre. Whereas many -science-fiction writers alienate mainstream readers by focusing on technology and the inhuman aspects of the worlds they create, Keyes uses science fiction as a springboard for an exploration of universal human themes such as the nature of intellect, the nature of emotion, and how the two interact.

      Though Flowers for Algernon depends on science fiction to drive its plot—no intelligence-enhancing surgery has yet been attempted or realized—its characters and situations are quite ordinary. The characters are New York City scientists, teachers, bakers, and barbers, not the space rangers and galactic swashbucklers often associated with science fiction. Indeed, Keyes utilizes science fiction’s potential for philosophical inquiry and its capacity to explore the extremes of human nature by imagining an altered version of the world. However, he combines these aspects of science fiction with realistic characters in a realistic environment, creating a work that has enthralled both people who are indifferent to science fiction and avid fans of the genre.

      Plot Overview

      C

      harlie Gordon,

      a mentally retarded thirty-two-year-old man, is chosen by a team of scientists to undergo an experimental surgery designed to boost his intelligence. Alice Kinnian, Charlie’s teacher at the Beekman College Center for Retarded Adults, has recommended Charlie for the experiment because of his exceptional eagerness to learn. The directors of the experiment, Dr. Strauss and Professor Nemur, ask Charlie to keep a journal. The entire narrative of Flowers for Algernon is composed of the progress reports that Charlie writes.

      Charlie works at Donner’s Bakery in New York City as a janitor and delivery boy. The other employees often taunt him and pick on him, but Charlie is unable to understand that he is the subject of mockery. He believes that his coworkers are good friends. After a battery of tests—including a maze-solving competition with a mouse named Algernon, who has already had the experimental surgery performed on him—Charlie undergoes the operation. He is initially disappointed that there is no immediate change in his

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