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A review by randanopterix
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I thought I had read this once in grade school in my textbook a long time ago and so when I saw that it was available on Libby, I picked it up out of curiosity. Turns out I did NOT read this book. The version in my dreadful Pearson textbook was an aggressively abbreviated version that diluted the point of the novel down to "He was stupid at the beginning, then he got smart, then he was stupid again at the end. Isn't that just so sad?" Stripping out all of the relevant ethical questions about society's treatment of mentally disabled people, the abuse of disabled children, and the cloying pity and dehumanization of disabled people by advocacy groups and medical science.
This book is a misery (this is definitely the point). I spent much of this book in two minds, feeling chafed at first by the writing style of early progress report entries, feeling like they are a little too stereotypical in the way they portray Charlie's mind and writing. I can justify the choices made here reasonably, to make early-book Charlie as likeable and innocent as possible to contrast with his changed self later in the story, but it still bothers. I was then chafed by how the main character is genuinely unlikeable in the further entries in the story (this is also the point, I'm aware).
What I wasn't expecting from this story was the complicated social commentary on the treatment of people like Charlie. The book is a thought experiment asking, "what if someone with a mental disability was capable, if only for a short time, of expressing themselves. What horrors could they tell?" I was pleased to discover that the book, when recounting the tragedy of Charlie, was direct in displaying that the misery he suffered as someone with a mental disability was not necessarily a direct result of his disability but rather a result of the unjust treatment from the people around him and the long-lasting trauma of his mother's abuse.
You get the sense that Charlie maybe even could learn to read and write on some level, but the stress of trauma, the threat of being beaten if he made a mistake has created severe mental blocks that will keep him from meeting his true potential for the rest of his life. The true tragedy of this story is that Charlie could have been happy, if only a hand had been extended to him in kindness and patience early in his life instead of frustration and cruelty.
I'm going to include some quotes in here just because I won't be able to reference them later after I return this book to the library:
"But what you did for me - wonderful as it is - doesn't give you the right to treat me like an experimental animal. I'm an individual now, and so was Charlie before he ever walked into that lab."
"But I know now there's one thing you've all overlooked: intelligence and education that hasn't been tempered by human affection isn't worth a damn."
"Intelligence is one of the greatest human gifts. But all too often a search for knowledge drives out the search for love."
I only looked up the publication date after I was done but I can certainly see why this book was so significant for the time (1959!) and a lot of the questions raised in it are still relevant to this day, almost 65 years later. It's a beautiful, heartbreaking, thoughtful, miserable book.
This book is a misery (this is definitely the point). I spent much of this book in two minds, feeling chafed at first by the writing style of early progress report entries, feeling like they are a little too stereotypical in the way they portray Charlie's mind and writing. I can justify the choices made here reasonably, to make early-book Charlie as likeable and innocent as possible to contrast with his changed self later in the story, but it still bothers. I was then chafed by how the main character is genuinely unlikeable in the further entries in the story (this is also the point, I'm aware).
What I wasn't expecting from this story was the complicated social commentary on the treatment of people like Charlie. The book is a thought experiment asking, "what if someone with a mental disability was capable, if only for a short time, of expressing themselves. What horrors could they tell?" I was pleased to discover that the book, when recounting the tragedy of Charlie, was direct in displaying that the misery he suffered as someone with a mental disability was not necessarily a direct result of his disability but rather a result of the unjust treatment from the people around him and the long-lasting trauma of his mother's abuse.
You get the sense that Charlie maybe even could learn to read and write on some level, but the stress of trauma, the threat of being beaten if he made a mistake has created severe mental blocks that will keep him from meeting his true potential for the rest of his life. The true tragedy of this story is that Charlie could have been happy, if only a hand had been extended to him in kindness and patience early in his life instead of frustration and cruelty.
I'm going to include some quotes in here just because I won't be able to reference them later after I return this book to the library:
"But what you did for me - wonderful as it is - doesn't give you the right to treat me like an experimental animal. I'm an individual now, and so was Charlie before he ever walked into that lab."
"But I know now there's one thing you've all overlooked: intelligence and education that hasn't been tempered by human affection isn't worth a damn."
"Intelligence is one of the greatest human gifts. But all too often a search for knowledge drives out the search for love."
I only looked up the publication date after I was done but I can certainly see why this book was so significant for the time (1959!) and a lot of the questions raised in it are still relevant to this day, almost 65 years later. It's a beautiful, heartbreaking, thoughtful, miserable book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse