Novel Analysis

ENGLISH TASK	NOVEL ANALYSIS
BY        : AGUNG CANDRA WIJAYA                      CLASS : XI-SCIENCE-7

Flowers for Algernon Summary

The novel’s action begins in Charlie’s thirty-second year in Donner’s Bakery, New York, where he works. Charlie narrates his experience through ‘progress reports,’ which he has to submit to the research team from Beckman College. Charlie is a retarded adult, and he has agreed to submit himself to experimental surgery in order to improve his intelligence. The reports reveal Charlie’s experiences in the bakery to which the owner, his uncle’s friend, has brought him from the Warren State Home for retarded people. Charlie becomes a part of the bakery, and considers the people there as his friends. Yet, he is dissatisfied and wants to be ‘smart.’ So, he joins a special school for retarded people at Beckman College. After this, his teacher, Alice Kinnian, recommends him to a research team at Beckman psychology department. The team is in search of a retarded volunteer, for the experimental surgery to increase intelligence.

Charlie then undergoes weeks of testing and competing with a white mouse, Algernon at completing mazes. He is depressed when the mouse beats him every time. The operation takes place and Charlie is disappointed at not ‘getting smart’ immediately. However, he is assured that he will progress gradually, but steadily. Over a period of time, Charlie finds himself being able to read more, win some mazes and master complex processes at the bakery. The other workers resent him. He is disillusioned with many of them. He has to spend a lot of time reading and being tested at the Beckman lab. By now, he knows that Algernon has also had surgery similar to his, which accounts for his intelligence. Charlie surges ahead in gathering knowledge and mastering languages. He begins to see his supportive teacher Alice, as an attractive young woman. They become close and he tries to make love to her. On several occasions, he finds he has a violent physical reaction when he is making love to her and therefore has to stop. He can’t understand why this happens. Around the same time, Charlie’s repressed memories of his home, surface. Disturbing scenes, like, his mother pushing him to study or others when he is being pushed aside in favor of his younger sister, flash through his memory. Charlie is upset, but he finds his newfound intellectual ability thrilling and works hard.

He finds that he and Algernon are to be taken to Chicago for a convention, at which Nemur will present the findings of the team. Once there, Algernon and Charlie are the prime ‘exhibits,’ objects, and humiliating remarks are made in his hearing. He also discovers that the researchers have not given sufficient time to verify their experimental findings before performing the experiment on him. Charlie releases Algernon, and runs away with him to New York. He hides here for some time and rents a house. He understands that his time is short and decides to check the same experiments, in order to trace the reasons for its failure.

Charlie gets permission from the sponsors, to work independently on this subject at Beckman. His relationship with Nemur becomes tense and hostile. He can’t overcome his problems with Alice and gets involved with Fay, an unconventional artist living next door. With her, he can defeat his inhibitions. But as his work gets more demanding, their relationship becomes strained and finally breaks. In the meantime, Algernon’s condition gets worse, and he dies. Charlie knows this indicates his own approaching end, and therefore he seeks out his parents. His father is alone in the Browse. Charlie meets him but can’t bear to reveal who he is, for fear of disappointment. His meeting with his mother and sister is anticlimactic, as the mother is old and senile, and his sister is having a bad time coping with the responsibility alone. He is satisfied that he can tell them of his achievements. He makes his peace with them and leaves. He confronts Nemur at a party and charges him of being insensitive. Charlie is also charged of selfishness and arrogance, which he admits is the truth. He accepts that the retarded Charlie is an important and enduring part of him. He and Alice get together but only find fulfillment for a short time. As Charlie’s mind gets worse, he forces her to leave him. He works at the bakery, and when his condition becomes very bad, he moves to the Warren Home. 

Flowers for Algernon Major Characters

1.      Charlie Gordon :

Charlie Gordon is a thirty-two year old retarded man. He works at Donner's Bakery and attends reading classes at the Beekman College Center for Retarded Adults. Recognizing Charlie as a hard-working and friendly young man, doctors at Beekman College choose him for an experimental brain operation that raises his IQ of 68 to that of a genius. Charlie's intellectual progress is astounding; he learns obscure languages and performs complex mathematical equations. This intelligence comes with a price, however. Charlie's stimulated memory allows him to recall painful abuse from family and friends. He becomes bitter, arrogant, and lonely, and his 'emotional retardation' interferes with his love for Alice Kinnian. Tragically, Charlie discovers a flaw in the experiment and he realizes that his mental regression is inevitable. With little time remaining, Charlie visits his estranged family and spends time with Alice. At the end, Charlie commits himself to the dismal Warren State Home and Training School.

2.      Dr. Strauss :

A psychiatrist and neurosurgeon, Dr. Strauss is Professor Nemur's partner in the experiment. Strauss performs the surgery and conducts Charlie's therapy sessions. He recognizes that Charlie's intellectual growth has outstripped his emotional development, and he worries that Professor Nemur's experimental results are premature.

3.      Professor Nemur :

Professor Nemur is the egotistical mastermind of the experiment. Nemur often aggravates Charlie by referring to him as non-human before the experiment. The professor arrogantly believes that he created Charlie, and that Charlie should be grateful. As Burt explains, Professor Nemur may seem conceited, but he is really just an ordinary man attempting to help mankind. Furthermore, Nemur's home life is difficult. His wife, Bertha Nemur, is a controlling woman who pushed him into the premature presentation at the Chicago convention.

4.      Alice Kinnian :

Alice is a young, beautiful, brown-haired reading teacher at the Beekman College Center for Retarded Adults. She recommends Charlie for the experimental brain surgery because she considers him good-natured and hard-working. When Charlie's intellect progresses, Alice and Charlie's platonic, teacher-student relationship becomes a deep and passionate connection. Charlie loves Alice, but his adolescent subconscious interferes with their intimacy. At his peak intellect, Charlie's arrogance makes Alice feel self-conscious and inferior. However, when Charlie's mind begins to regress, the couple reconnects and consummates their love. Alice stays with Charlie during his mental regression until he angrily sends her away.

5.      Algernon :

A small white mouse who is the first animal test subject to have retained his artificially-increased intelligence. Charlie and Algernon run mazes in the Beekman laboratory under Burt Selden's supervision. Charlie identifies with the mouse, especially when it becomes apparent that the experiment is flawed and mental regression is inevitable. Algernon becomes erratic, listless and forgetful. The mouse eventually dies, and Charlie buries him under a bouquet of wildflowers in the backyard.

6.      Burt Selden :

A psychology graduate student at Beckman College. He administers the Rorschach test and conducts races between Charlie and Algernon through the maze. At the psychology convention in Chicago, Burt disapproves of Charlie's overly harsh criticism of Nemur and Strauss. He tells Charlie that scientists are ordinary men attempting the extraordinary, and he advises Charlie to be more tolerant.

7.      Uncle Herman :

Charlie's Uncle Herman took custody of the young boy when Rose Gordon threatened to send him to the Warren State Home and Training School. Herman secured work for Charlie in his best friend's bakery before he died.

8.      Rose Gordon :

A meticulous, bird-like woman, Charlie's mother was cruel to her retarded young son. Before the birth of her normal child, Norma, Rose constantly tried to change Charlie. Denying his retardation, Rose brought Charlie to numerous doctors and forced him into normal schools. Her constant criticism, sharp slaps, and emotional neglect often led Charlie to wet his pants in terror. After Norma's birth, Rose Gordon's attitude switched to aversion. In a particularly painful memory, Charlie recalls how Rose pulled out a knife and threatened to harm him unless he was sent immediately to the Warren institution. Charlie's drive to become smart results largely from his mother's constant pushing and rejection. When he realizes the inevitability of his mental regression, Charlie visits Rose in his old childhood home. He tries explain that he is not retarded; that an experiment made him smart and Rose can finally be proud of him. Somewhat senile, Rose does not understand. In a bizarre reenactment of the past, Rose threatens her son with a kitchen knife and Charlie leaves the house in tears.

9.      Matt Gordon :

Charlie's father, who always defended and accepted him as he was, unlike Rose Gordon. During Charlie's childhood, the high cost of Charlie's phony medical visits prevents Matt, a salesman, from accomplishing his dream of opening a barber shop. Later, acting on a tip from the newspaper, Charlie visits Matt at Gordons Barber Shop in the Bronx, but does not reveal his identity to his father.

10.  Norma Gordon :

Charlie's sister and Rose Gordon's only pride and joy. As a child, Norma resented having a retarded brother. When Charlie indirectly ruined her chances for getting a dog, Norma rejected her brother and treated him cruelly. When familial permission is required for using Charlie in the experiment, the Beekman doctors contact Norma. Later, when Charlie visits his childhood home, Norma is surprisingly happy to see him. Matured and sensitive, Norma realizes that Charlie was sent away because of Rose's concern for her welfare. Norma begs Charlie to live with them in the house; times have been tough and Norma needs her big brother's help.

11.  Joe Carp :

Joe Carp and Frank Reilly taunt Charlie at the bakery, but Charlie thinks his friends are simply laughing because they like him. A mean-spirited jokester, Joe constantly concocts plans to humiliate Charlie. Frank and Joe get Charlie drunk at a bar and then ditch him, they try to make him look foolish by making him work the complicated dough mixer on April Fool's Day, and Joe trips Charlie on the dance floor at a party. Charlie realizes that Joe and Frank are not his friends; they are stupid people who mock the less-fortunate to make themselves feel superior.

12.  Frank Reilly :

A jerky coworker at the Bakery who joins Joe Carp in making fun of Charlie. Frank Reilly is a fast talker and ladies man who follows Joe's lead in humiliating Charlie.

13.  Gimpy :

Gimpy is a club-footed baker in Mr. Donner's bakery. He often defends Charlie and shows him kindness. Charlie remembers how Gimpy compassionately rewarded him a shiny good-luck piece even though he failed to learn how to make rolls correctly. With his increased intelligence, Charlie makes the astonishing discovery that Gimpy has been stealing from Mr. Donner by undercharging regular customers and pocketing the change. What is worse, Charlie realizes that Gimpy used him as an unwitting accomplice during deliveries. Charlie implies that he will tell Mr. Donner about the theft only if it continues, and Gimpy bitterly gets the hint.

14.  Mr. Donner :

Mr. Donner promised Herman, his best friend and Charlie's uncle, that Charlie would always have a place to work in his bakery; he would never allow Charlie to be sent away to the Warren State Home. Donner is a kind-hearted man and a fair boss. When Charlie's unexplained intelligence and peculiar behavior frightens his coworkers, Mr. Donner is forced to fire him from the bakery. During Charlie's tragic regression, however, Mr. Donner kindly takes him back.

15.  Fanny Birden :

A sympathetic cake decorator at Donner's Bakery who defends Charlie against their coworkers' cruel wisecracks. Years ago, Fanny referred Charlie to the Beekman Center for Retarded Adults when she learned of his desire to read and write.

16.  Dr. Guarino :

A fat, balding quack doctor who performs phony procedures and cheats patients out of their money. Guarino straps Charlie to a blinking, buzzing machine weekly, claiming that repeated sessions will increase his intelligence. Young Charlie becomes so upset that he wets his pants. Rose Gordon, desperate to make her son normal, forces Charlie to continue

Flowers for Algernon Major Objects&Places

ü  Progress Report :

According to Dr. Strauss' instructions, Charlie must record everything he thinks and remembers in these journal entries. The evolving sentence structure, spelling, and vocabulary of Charlie's first-hand reports exhibit his startling progress and eventual decline throughout the experiment. The Beekman doctors take photographs of the reports and read them to monitor Charlie's state of mind. When life becomes more complex for the emotional genius, however, Charlie decides to keep his progress reports private.

ü  Beekman College Center for Retarded Adults :

An old schoolhouse that has been used by the Beekman University clinic to provide special classes for the handicapped. On Fanny Birden's suggestion, Charlie registers for reading classes there and meets Miss Kinnian, his teacher. At the height of his intellectual powers, Charlie revisits the Center and disgusts Alice with his arrogant attitude. Finally, when his regression nears completion, Charlie forgets that he is no longer in Alice's class. He shows up at the Center and Miss Kinnian bursts into tears.

ü  Donner's Bakery :

Charlie works as a janitor in Mr. Donner's bakery. His uncle Herman, Mr. Donner's best friend, got him the job. Young Charlie loves the warm, comforting smells of the warm pastries, and he thinks that his mocking coworkers are actually his friends.

ü  Rorschach test :

A psychological personality test in which a person is asked to describe what he sees in a series of 10 inkblots. The test administrator gauges the subject's response to form, color, location, and content, and then attempts to describe the subject's personality by comparing scores to established norms.

ü  Maze :

Charlie and Algernon run mazes in the Beekman laboratory under Burt Selden's supervision. The maze administers a small electrical shock when Algernon makes a wrong turn, and it rewards him with food when he finds the solution. The mouse is too fast for Charlie at first, but when his intelligence begins to increase, he beats Algernon easily. When Charlie hijacks Algernon from the Chicago psychology convention, he buys an apartment and sets up a three-dimensional maze for Algernon's continued practice and mental exercise. Fay humorously calls the maze 'modern art with a living element.' When Algernon's behavior becomes erratic, he refuses to run the maze; he slams himself against the walls and becomes listless and forgetful.

ü  Warren State Home and Training School :

The gray, hopeless institution which houses retarded children and adults. Charlie's mother threatened to send him to Warren as a child, but Uncle Herman rescued him from the dismal institution. Charlie learns that the Beekman doctors arranged for him to be sent to Warren in the event of the experiment's failure. When mental regression seems probable, Charlie visits the Warren State Home on an drizzly day. The overworked staff, vacant expressions, disinfectant smell, and affection-starved boys depress him. When Charlie's mental depletion occurs, he goes to Warren to avoid everyone's pity.

ü  Lucky rabbit's foot :

 When Charlie's IQ is low, he clings to superstitious good-luck pieces like his rabbit's foot, horseshoe, and lucky penny. He keeps these good luck charms with him during his operation. Later, when the experiment fails, Charlie wonders if the loss of his lucky rabbit's foot caused his mental regression.

ü  Welberg Foundation :

The foundation that funds Nemur and Strauss' experiment and later supports Charlie's individual research project. Professor Nemur concludes his research prematurely because he wants to impress his Welberg foundation colleagues .

ü  Teaching Machine :

An odd, television-shaped set that repeats words throughout the night. It implants knowledge and stimulates memories as Charlie sleeps. More often, however, the set keeps Charlie awake and makes him cranky.

ü  Dough mixer :

Joe Carp and Frank Reilly mischievously encourage Charlie to operate the complex dough mixer, intending to humiliate him on April Fool's day. To their surprise, however, Charlie handles the mixer like an expert and Mr. Donner gives him a promotion.

ü  Locket :

 Young Charlie presented a locket and a valentine to his pretty classmate, Harriet. The valentine contained an obscene message written by Hymie Roth, rather than Charlie's intended love-note. Charlie was beaten up and forced to leave the school. Charlie remembers, however, that Harriet never returned the locket.

ü  Spinner :

Young Charlie loves bright, shiny toys. His 'spinner' is a string threaded with bright colored beads and rings. He spends many hours watching the spinner twirl and unwind. Angry that her son is abnormal, Rose slaps the spinner out of Charlie's hands and orders him to play with alphabet blocks instead. Without his spinner, Charlie looses control and wets himself.

ü  Knife :

Rose Gordon hysterically threatened young Charlie with a knife the night she demanded Matt to send him away to Warren. The painful memory and bloody knife reoccur in Charlie's nightmares. When Charlie visits his mother and sister as an adult, Rose lapses into a bizarre reenactment of the past and threatens her son with a kitchen knife.

ü  The International Psychological Convention :

 Charlie and Algernon are the prime exhibits at the psychological convention in Chicago. During Professor Nemur's presentation, Charlie feels like a side-show attraction; no one treats him like a human being. Acting on impulse, Charlie opens Algernon's cage and sends the convention into an uproar. The mouse leads the psychologists on a race throughout the hotel. Charlie heads back to New York with Algernon secure in his pocket.

ü  IQ :

Meaning 'intelligence quotient,' the IQ is a number used to express a person's relative intelligence. IQ is calculated by dividing a person's 'mental age' (as reported on a standardized test) by his chronological age, and then multiplying the resulting number by 100. Through the course of the experiment, Charlie's IQ jumps from a low of 68 to a superhuman peak of 185.

ü  Gordons Barber Shop :

Matt Gordon always dreamed of getting out of sales and opening up his own barber shop. Charlie learns from a newspaper article that his father opened up a shop in the Bronx. Charlie visits the run-down, empty little barber shop as a regular customer, never revealing his identity to his father.

ü  The Algernon-Gordon Effect :

A Study of Structure and Function of Increased Intelligence: Charlie's independent research report, funded through the Welberg Foundation. In the study, Charlie pinpoints the flaw in Nemur's experiment: 'Artificially-induced intelligence deteriorates at a rate of time directly proportional to the quantity of the increase.' That is, the higher the gain in IQ points, the faster the subject's mental regression will occur. Charlie sends his report to Professor Nemur, Dr. Strauss, and the Welberg Foundation. Later, when his IQ declines, Charlie can no longer make sense of his own discovery.

Flowers for Algernon Orientation

A mother who wants her son born with a clever but it was Charlie, a floor sweeper, was born with an IQ of 68 and was always the derision of his friends, until one day experiment intended to increase human intelligence turned him into a genius. mastered 24 languages ​​and his IQ to 210.

Flowers for Algernon Complications

	Ø  Learning languages Ø  Better reader Ø  Petition/ lost job Ø  Dr. Nemur and Dr. Strauss know less than Charlie Ø  Dishwasher/ broken dishes Ø  Algernon goes downhill Ø  Deterioration Ø  Sickness Ø  Back at the factory Ø  Back to Miss Kinian’s class

 

Ø  Rorschach ink blots

Ø  maze race

Ø  Miss Kinian’s night school

Ø  IQ of 68

Ø  Operation

Ø  Factory

Ø  Crazy TV

Ø  Party and headache

Ø  Learning, spelling, punctuation

Ø  “Friends” mocking him

·         Climax 

·         After the operation Charlie alters very gradually. Even then, he is rather docile and willing to abide by the research team’s decisions. The turning point comes at the Chicago psychology convention. It is here that Charlie gets disgusted with his and Algernon’s ‘exhibit’ status and with the way he is spoken of as if he was not human before the operation. The last straw is hearing of Algernon’s erratic, unexplained behavior, which has been concealed from him. He then decides to release Algernon from his cage and together they escape to New York. After this point he lives in a new apartment with Algernon, takes charge of his life and relationships, and faces the outside world on his own. 

·         "When algernon bites charlie because this shows that algernon is changing and soon charlie willbeto!!"
is a climax but another one is when he is at the diner and the mentally challenged boy who works there drops the dishes and everyone laughs at him. At first Charlie does also, but then notices he is slow, and relizes how much people make fun of people just like Charlie, and Charlie decides he wants to do something to improve the human mind and help people like who he once was.

Flowers for Algernon Resolution

·         Some falling actions are that Algernon dies, Charlie starts to regress ; He cannot read german, understand his file report, ect.. Then the resolution is since he knows he will eventually pass away after loosing all his intelligence he leaves New York and dies.

·         Charlie runs away to New York where no one will know he was once smart so he can start over.

My Response To This Novel

You curious?

Please find the answer in the novel Flowers For Algernon

Fiction novel that presents a conflict between intellectual, emotional, and happiness spoken Epistolary style. We highly recommend this novel to read, because this novel is a fiction novel that uses a convincing hypothesis, so it's no wonder when you get Hugo Award and the Nebula Award. Do not you miss this one novel. Happy reading!

This novel is very inspiring us, where Charlie who has an IQ of 68 was the spirit of his life is so hard for a skill he wants to accomplish, no doubt if Charlie bias bias the benchmark ourselves how zeal to achieve a goal that has long we dream, This novel was written using language that is detail and depth to the reader's bias quickly and easily understand the story "I highly recommend this novel to read, because this novel is a fiction novel that uses a convincing hypothesis .."

But the weakness of the novel is actually almost none, in my opinion. But I think there are endings that did not go smoothly, because the novel is said at the end of the story that Charlie does not know what will be the same as Algernon nasipnya or not but he believes that he is smart without refractive surgery tanpi the effort and hard work alone. Until finally he leave everything and go somewhere, that's all part of my less clear.

You are curious about the fascinating and moving story of Charlie???

Please read the novel and feel passionate story with depth.

happy reading.