History Literature / FlowersForAlgernon

* AbusiveParents: Charlie's mother. She first refuses to acknowledge that Charlie is mentally disabled, and punishes him for it. When she later gives birth to a daughter, who is of normal intelligence, she blatantly favors her over Charlie, and eventually sends him away to an institution. When Charlie tries to pick up his baby sister, his mother slaps him and tells him that he has no business touching her even though he just wanted to hold her, and later threatens to put him in a cage if he ever touches a girl when having an erection.

Written by Daniel Keyes and originally published in ''The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'' (April 1959 issue), "Flowers for Algernon" is a ScienceFiction ShortStory that tells of a young man named Charlie Gordon who has an IQ of 68, [[IJustWantToBeNormal but tries hard to learn and become "normal"]]. In 1966 Keyes expanded the story into a {{Novel}}, which won the UsefulNotes/NebulaAward (tying with ''Literature/Babel17'').

Told entirely in first-person journal entries ("progress reports") written by Charlie himself, the story does a wonderful job of depicting how his intelligence changes. It is often used in UsefulNotes/SchoolStudyMedia.

Told entirely in journal entries ("progress reports"), the story does a wonderful job of showing how Charlie's intelligence changes. It is often used in UsefulNotes/SchoolStudyMedia.

Told entirely in journal entries ("progress reports"), the book does a wonderful job of showing how Charlie's intelligence changes. It is often used in UsefulNotes/SchoolStudyMedia.

Charlie's intelligence tops out at 185, and he is deemed a certified genius. However, he begins to notice a sharp and rapid decrease in Algernon's intelligence. Charlie begins to research the effect and eventually publishes his findings, having realized that he will suffer the same decline and return to his original mental state.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/flowers_for_algernon.jpg]]

-->-- '''Creator/{{Plato}}''''s ''Literature/TheRepublic, Book VII''

Written by Daniel Keyes and originally published in ''The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'' (April 1959 issue)m "Flowers for Algernon" is a ScienceFiction ShortStory that tells of a young man named Charlie Gordon who has an IQ of 68, [[IJustWantToBeNormal but tries hard to learn and become normal]]. In 1966, the story was expanded into a {{Novel}}, and won the UsefulNotes/NebulaAward (tying with ''Literature/Babel17'').

Charlie works at a bakery with people he considers his friends. His instructor, Alice Kinnian, teaches him at the Beakman College Institute for Retarded Adults, and she is the one who informs him of a possible cure: a surgery designed to improve his mental capacity. The people putting this surgery into action are looking for a human subject, having already had a successful result with the eponymous Algernon, a lab mouse.

Charlie gets the surgery and his intelligence quickly blooms. While this is happening, he falls in love with Alice, but soon finds that he cannot relate to her because he is much smarter than she is. Furthermore, he discovers that his friends have not been as trustworthy as he thought they were, and he begins to recall memories from his childhood, finding even more incidences of trickery and ridicule. As a result, he becomes quite jaded and cynical.

His intelligence tops out at 185, where he is deemed a certified genius. At this point, he is frantically soaking up all the knowledge he can, and is becoming aware of a sharp decrease in Algernon's intelligence. Charlie begins to research the effect and eventually publishes his findings, having realized that he will suffer the same decline and return to his original mental state.

Written by Daniel Keyes and originally published in ''The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'' (April 1959 issue). "Flowers for Algernon" is a ScienceFiction ShortStory that tells of a young man named Charlie Gordon who has an IQ of 68, [[IJustWantToBeNormal but tries hard to learn and become normal]]. In 1966, the story was expanded into a {{Novel}}, and won the UsefulNotes/NebulaAward (tying with ''Literature/Babel17'').

* DownerEnding: The last fifty-or-so pages are so depressing it's amazing the book doesn't spontaneously combust. [[spoiler: Charlie becomes disgusted by the pity everyone feels for him and pushes them away as his mind continues to degrade, spending the last parts of the story alone and in despair. Furthermore, it is implied the worst is yet to come: Algernon and Charlie had the same surgery performed on them, and Algernon ended up degenerating and dying. In some editions this is made less subtle with the "d" in "bak yard," the final sentence of the book, trailing off into a long, messy line which implied Charlie died as he was writing. In other paperback versions, the ending is instead several pages left intentionally blank, suggesting Charlie either died, or mentally regressed so far that he'd become completely illiterate, essentially leaving him more severely disabled than at the beginning of the book. [[ThatWasTheLastEntry Either way, the implications are incredibly depressing.]] The only real bright spots are Charlie making amends with his mother and sister before it was too late, and Charlie’s bakery “friends” becoming better people.]]

* FlowersForAlgernonSyndrome: The TropeNamer. In the story, the main character, cognitively disabled Charlie, undergoes a surgery that boosts his intelligence. To an astounding degree, as it turns out: his intellectual breadth and knowledge allow him to learn languages of all kinds, science of all branches, surpassing even those that performed the operation. Charlie, though, finds that [[IntelligenceEqualsIsolation his intelligence isolates him]] just as much as his dimness did before it. A side effect of the procedure that granted the intelligence was to eventually lose it. The book avoids the "ignorance is bliss" aesop; [[OhCrap Charlie is horrified]] when he finds out that he'll lose his high intelligence, and the depiction of his mental degeneration is played for drama. It implies that as Algernon died after his intelligence degraded, Charlie doesn't have long to live either. "The Algernon-Gordon Effect" is an in-universe thesis describing this trope, when Charlie's own research while he's super intelligent predicts what is going to happen. Once Charlie fully reverts, he finds he can't live with the pity he now knows everyone has for him, and leaves to go somewhere where no one knows him.

* InVinoVeritas: [[spoiler:Super-genius Charlie Gordon reverts back to a barely-functional moron (in the clinical sense) when he gets drunk.]]

* DownerEnding: The last fifty-or-so pages are so depressing it's amazing the book doesn't spontaneously combust. [[spoiler:Furthermore, Algernon and Charlie had the same surgery performed on them, and Algernon ended up degenerating and dying. What do you think happened to Charlie? Consider the following: the "d" in "bak yard," the final sentence of the book, trails off into a long, messy line. In many paperback versions, the ending is instead several pages left intentionally blank, suggesting Charlie either died, or has mentally regressed so far that he'd become completely illiterate, essentially leaving him more severely disabled than at the beginning of the book. [[ThatWasTheLastEntry Either way, the implications are incredibly depressing.]]]]

-->-- ''Book VII of Plato's The Republic''

* FlowersForAlgernonSyndrome: The TropeNamer, and {{Discussed}} in Charlie's paper on TheAlgernonGordonEffect.

Told entirely in journal entries ("progress reports"), the book does a wonderful job of showing how Charlie's intelligence changes. It is often used in SchoolStudyMedia.

* EpiphanyTherapy: {{Discussed}} in the novel version, when Charlie and Alice watch a movie employing the trope, and Charlie laments how unrealistic it is. Alice points out that Charlie is learning to see beyond the surface of things. Note that Charlie himself is full of psychological issues due to childhood abuse (aside from the intellectual disablility that gets cured, that is) and he goes to therapy for a realistically long time.
* FirstGirlWins: [[spoiler:And eventually loses.]]

!!This literary novel named the following Trope:
* FlowersForAlgernonSyndrome: Named after Charlie's drastic personality change, then [[spoiler:reversion back to his old self.]] Also a well-known TropeCodifier for many works that draw off the story for inspiration.

----

Adapted into a 1968 [[TheFilmOfTheBook feature film]] called ''Charly'', starring Creator/CliffRobertson in the title role, for which he won a Best Actor UsefulNotes/AcademyAward. There was also a 2000 MadeForTVMovie adaptation starring Creator/MatthewModine.

** Fay Lilliman: Overtly sexual, artistic, and whimsical (Id).

* ThrowingOffTheDisability: The process takes time, with him gradually becoming a genius, but still considered a relatively sudden over a period of weeks.

* OneParagraphChapter: The first progress report is one small paragraph, where he didn't have much to say, with following reports generally being larger than just a simple apragraph. On March 25, he learned that he didn't have to write progress report on the top each time, thus saving time when he handed it in to Dr. Nemur. At that point, individual days may be one paragraph but were no longer a chapter as such.

* BrutalHonesty: The 2000 film has Gorden call out Professor Nemur at the conference in Chicago, saying taht he and the audience were mocking his old self rather than trying to respect progress (specifically by mentioning the "mistake of nature" phrase). Additionally, he mentions that he read about the russian experiment also having mental degredation before releasing the contained mice as a symbol to stop the experiment.

* SocietyMarchesOn:
** In many areas, large institutions for the intellectually disabled have been phased out in favor of small group homes in the community.
** The term 'retard' and 'retarded' were considered acceptable terms back then, nowadays, it's considered a slur.

%%* HystericalWoman: Charlie's mother.

* YourDaysAreNumbered: [[spoiler: Hinted at. Both Charlie and Algernon are put through the same surgery that increased their intelligence ten fold. However, we soon see that Algernon's intelligence begins to deteriorate and eventually dies. While the ending is left very ambiguous, it is possible that Charlie may very well suffer the same fate.]]

** The term 'r*t*rd' and 'r*t*rded' were considered acceptable terms back then, nowadays, it's considered a slur.

* DumbIsGood: Discussed. Alice tells Charlie that he was a better man when he was retarded--he was more compassionate, warm, and friendly. Charlie, on the other hand, refuses to accept this; he says people only liked him more because being around him made them feel smarter. While it's true that Charlie starts becoming a JerkAss when he gains his intelligence, he [[DiscussedTrope discusses this trope]] by saying that there's nothing wrong with a good person trying to be smarter.

* EpiphanyTherapy: {{Discussed}} in the novel version, when Charlie and Alice watch a movie employing the trope, and Charlie laments how unrealistic it is. Alice points out that Charlie is learning to see beyond the surface of things. Note that Charlie himself is full of psychological issues due to childhood abuse (aside from the mental retardation that gets cured, that is) and he goes to therapy for a realistically long time.

* IJustWantToBeNormal: Charlie from suffers this both while retarded and a genius.

* InnocentlyInsensitive: A Warren caregiver lectures genius Charlie about the dedication needed to look after the retarded patients, not realizing that Charlie will soon become one of them.

* JerkAss: After Charlie exceeds the intelligence of even the scientists who work on him, he repeatedly looks down on those around him for not being at his level of super-intelligence--even criticizing Strauss for not being fluent in as many languages ([[{{Omniglot}} 20!]]) as he is. However, Charlie makes it clear that he's bitter about the way others had treated him when he was retarded, as well as the fact that he finds the intelligence flip ironic. He's also called out on it later in the novel, and admits to being one, which makes him somewhat even more sympathetic in hindsight.

* SenseLossSadness: Charlie regrets losing his naive, dreamless perception of the world when he was retarded [[spoiler:and later, his vastly increased intelligence.]]

** The term 'retard' and 'retarded' were considered acceptable terms back then, nowadays, it's considered a slur.

* TitleDrop: Charlie regularly brings fowers to Algernon's grave. In the last sentence of the book, he asks whoever is reading his diary to do the same.