Trivia / Flowers for Algernon

• Based on a True Story: Parts of it. Daniel Keyes says he himself was the busboy who dropped a bunch of dishes and felt (and was treated by the boss) like a total idiot. The real Charly was a lower-IQ teen in his class when he was teaching English. He came up to Keyes after class saying he wanted to learn to read really well so he could become smart. Keyes said this guy remained forever in his memory and became the Charly we know.
• Executive Meddling: Daniel Keyes' first attempt to publish Flowers For Algernon almost ran afoul of this; the editor he took it to demanded that he give the story a happy ending where Charlie keeps his enhanced intelligence. Fortunately, every writer Keyes asked about it told him to refuse. Of course, any reader can understand why the editor would ask that...
• Fridge Horror: Charlie suffers from phenylketonuria (PKU). The condition can be managed by diet, but left unmanaged it causes brain damage. On reflection this makes Rose's treatment of Charlie seem that much worse.
• Referenced by...:
  • In Bewilderment, Theo and Robin listen to an audiobook of Flowers for Algernon as they drive home from the Smoky Mountains. Robin is riveted by the story. He's so upset by the supporting characters' cruelty that Theo has to remind him to breathe, and shocked by Algernon's death. A year later, Robin compares himself to Algernon as the effects of his neurofeedback therapy wear off.
  • In the Person of Interest episode "Bad Code" it appears for plot-related reasons, but also for symbolic foreshadowing of the season finale where Root gains and then loses God Mode; direct access to the artificial superintelligence called The Machine.
  • The Dirt Poor Robins song "But Never a Key" talks about Algernon at how they are essentially trapped with their intelligence and completely oblivious to their predicament.
• Science Marches On: See All Psychology Is Freudian on the Main page. Virtually all of the psychology is outdated by today's standards, and the medical ethics aren't any better.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The first drafts of the story were in third person, but after Keyes realized he was laughing at Charlie, he changed the story to first-person so the readers would be more inclined to sympathize with him.
  • Early versions of the story had a Framing Device where the researchers find Charlie's diary. Keyes included this in an attempt to prepare the reader for Charlie's terrible spelling and grammar in the early and closing parts of the story, taking inspiration from Mark Twain's disclaimer at the start of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. However, he concluded the ending worked much better without the framing device, and the opening was discarded for being useless without it.

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