At the beginning of Flowers for Algernon, Charlie is one fearless guy. Sure he's a little scared to go under the knife, but he's also cool with trusting his life to a bunch of strangers who want to use him as a science experiment. As the book goes on, Charlie gets more and more worried that the people he trusted don't know what's right for him, and that suspicion comes with a hefty dose of—you guessed it—fear. If there's anything that's going to keep Charlie from living large, it's that nagging feeling that he could lose everything in the blink of an eye.
Questions About Fear
- Why isn't Charlie afraid before he undergoes surgery?
- What scares Charlie about going in public after the surgery?
- Do you think Alice calms Charlie's fears or makes them worse?
- How would this story be different if Charlie was scared from the beginning?
Chew on This
Charlie feels fear only when he starts enjoying his life as an intellectual and figures out how much he has to lose.
Charlie's fears lead him to write the "Algernon-Gordon Effect" paper, arguably one of his most impressive accomplishments.