is it better to have loved than to have never loved at all?

Flowers For Algernon

I enjoyed reading Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes. On the surface, it's a story that discusses knowledge, intelligence, and their relation to the human experience through the character of Charlie Gordon, who undergoes an experimental surgery to remove his learning disability and increase his intelligence. But for me, it's a story that made me sad and reflective. I was bummed out for a few days afterwards.

On the human experience, the story clearly emphasizes that all humans are human, regardless of intelligence or learning ability (which is kind of the same thing--I can define intelligence as the capacity to quickly learn, retain, and apply new concepts). Charlie has the same intrinsic human desires and needs both before and after his intelligence-altering surgery (sexuality, social connections, goals, ...). Increased intelligence gives Charlie a more nuanced and complex way of expressing these human desires and needs, but he is still human without the intelligence.

The part that struck me the most was not Charlie's intelligence ultimately regressing back to before the surgery, but the short-lived romance between Charlie and Alice. Throughout the story, the relationship is slowly built up and up but keeps falling short, even when both parties want it to succeed. But finally, for one perfect moment during Charlie's regression, he and Alice are able to be together.

It is a moment so long-awaited by both characters, but at the same time, they know what they have together cannot last. Charlie's intelligence will eventually slip too far for them to be able to connect on a romantic level. Alice tells Charlie that she will try to forget him, and Charlie tells Alice that she must leave when he decides his mental capacity has regressed too far for the relationship to work. Perfection is attained by reaching a long awaited moment, and tragedy is made by taking away that moment.

As I read on the Wikipedia entry for Flowers for Algernon, early feedback on a version of the story was to change the ending "so that Charlie retained his intelligence, married Alice Kinnian, and lived happily ever after." I'm glad Keyes stuck with his decision to keep Flowers for Algernon a tragedy. It wouldn't be as impactful of a story if it didn't have that lingering gut punch of loss for the reader.

Loose Ends

I wanted to organize my thoughts in a more formal piece of writing, so I put together the short essay above. I think it lacks a clear thesis and structure, but it's good enough. Here's some other thoughts I had on the book, some of which I discussed with a friend.

• Alice and Charlie are kind of a B-plot of the story, interwoven between Charlie's surgery. Yet it impacted me more than the main story.
• A story that makes you feel is a good story
• Alice and Charlie reminds me a bit of the lyrics of Hologram by Snowmine. You dream so long of the perfect romantic moment, and then that moment is finally upon you.
• Charlie's vision on Straus's couch
• Starting the book with the Plato quote on darkness and light
• Correlation between sex/lust and intelligence
• The role of sex and sexuality as part of the human experience
• The unique misperceptions of Charlie by his mom, sister, and father and the "three blind mice" nursery rhyme
• Does the book present a problematic view of intelligence or not?
  • It seems to present the idea that everyone starts at some level of intelligence you cannot stray tremendously far from
• The inevitability of becoming senile?
• Is visiting the Warren home before he regressed symbolic of visiting the "afterlife"?
• I want to draw a picture of flowers on Algernon's grave. It's a powerful piece of imagery that pulls you back through the book and all the way back to the title.
• Charlie experiences both sides of the bell curve, where they paradoxically have the same outcome, even though there is different reasoning behind it. Charlie has trouble communicating to people on either side.
  • It's like the bell curve coding meme where both ends write minimal amounts of code, but for different reasons.
  • There's an elegance in approaching and interpreting things with a limited set of tools
• Is it one Charlie or two Charlies?
• Keyes does a great job making you feel Charlie's ascent through the spelling and grammar. Great tone, even if it's a little bit contrived.
  • When Charlie is smart, he also gets that "look at me I'm so smart" tone
• Does free association work?
• Is Charlie less kind when he is intelligent?
• What experiences did the author draw upon to create Charlie's broken childhood experiences?
• Living art sculpture is kind of a cool idea, even if it's being used jokingly in this context the describe Algernon's maze.
• The brightest candle burns twice as fast?
  More points from the Wikipedia entry
• Keyes had experiences with teaching learning-disabled students. He even watched one regress after leaving regular lessons.
• A lot of this book draws on experiences and inspirations through Keyes' life. It was also developed over 14 years. So a lot of thought went into this book. It also went through several drafts and iterations, such as from a short story to a longer story.
• Keyes refused to change the ending to one where Charlie is smart and lives happily ever after with Alice. The tragedy is central to the story, and I agree. I think it would feel less impactful otherwise. Keyes wanted you to think about the ascent and descent.
• Five months. That's the entire arc of Charlies ascent and descent. That's crazy fast.

Quotes

"Im mixd up but Miss Kinnian say dont worry spelling is not suppose to make sence" (Keyes 32)

"If only they wouldn't rush him. Why does everything have to be in such a hurry?" (Keyes 61)

"Fortunately, I don't think I'm capable of violence." (Keyes 82)

"But in my dream it was the maiden who held the sword." (Keyes 104)

"I see now when Norma flowered in our garden I became a weed, allowed to exist only where I would not be seen, in corners and dark places." (Keyes 155)

"A child may not know how to feed itself, or what to eat, yet it knows hunger." (Keyes 184)

"I see now that the path I choose through that maze makes what I am. I am not only a thing, but also a way of being--one of many ways..." (Keyes 203)

• Reminds me of Design For A Better World's discussion on "path dependence". We are where we came from.

"I said it because he needed it, but I felt hollow." (Keyes 210)

• Charlie complimenting a learning disabled person's woodworking. The world is always complex, but its concepts can always be made simpler, at the cost of some details.

"Alice is a great help to me now. She brings me sandwiches and coffee, but she makes no demands." (Keyes 219)

• Out of context, this quote is hilarious. Even in context, it's still funny.

"Pushing too hard will only make things freeze up. How many great problems have gone unsolved because men didn't know enough, or have enough faith in the creative process and in themselves, to let go for the whole mind to work at it?" (Keyes 223)

"I passed your floor on the way up, and now I'm passing it on the way down" (Keyes 266)

"It doesn't mean," she shrugged. "
"It just is--like a poem. I wanted to see you. (Keyes 268)

"Then all of a suddin I remembered some things about the operashun and me getting smart and I said holy smoke I reely pulled a Charlie Gordon that time." (Keyes 284)

• I found this quote from Charlie really funny, but at the same time, it's a very tragic moment between Charlie and Alice

"Its easy to have frends if you let pepul laff at you. Im going to have lots of frends where I go." (Keyes 286)