Flowers for Algernon Analysis

Flowers for Algernon takes places in rollicking 1960s New York, around the same time the book was written. We're out of the era of the poodle skirt and just getting into the groovy kind of radicali...

Third Person (Omniscient)All righty, things are about to get a little complicated up in this P.O.V. In other words, at least two and possibly more personalities are writing as Charlie. First of all...

Flowers for Algernon has plenty of newfangled scientific machinery, but that's not necessarily what makes it science fiction. Nope, it's science fiction with a side of philosophy, and grapples heav...

Let's get one thing out of the way: this ain't light reading, Shmoopers. Sure it's fun to see Charlie achieving his goals, but Daniel Keyes tries to convey a generally somber tone. Check this passa...

Charlie's writing style changes somewhat after he undergoes surgery—his words get bigger and his sentiments get more grandiose—but if you check out the sentence structure throughout the book, C...

Why would Algernon want flowers? Something tells us he'd be just as happy with some tasty nibbles. When Algernon dies, Charlie tells us "I wept as I put a bunch of wild flowers on the grave" (258)....

Any one who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eyes are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light, which is...

Big spoiler alert ahead, Shmoopers, and it's a tear-jerker: Charlie is finally back to square one, and then some; his intelligence has regressed to the point where he can barely take care of himsel...

There's some creative spelling in the first few chapters, like when Charlie "askd Prof Nemur if I coud beet Algernon in the race after the operashun" (Progress Report 7, March 8), but you shouldn't...

Write This Down Charlie's writing like a maniac to make sure he remembers everything, just like Dr. Strauss told him to. See, he's going to finally get smart after going through this experimental...

Algernon might have been buddies with Doogie, a genetically enhanced mouse studied at Princeton in 1999. And yes, they named him after Doogie Howser, MD. (Source)Want to keep on reading about smart...

A pretty big chunk of Flowers for Algernon is dedicated to Charlie's desire to have sex, inability to have sex, inability to have sex without emotional attachments, and—finally—his ability to h...

Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (9.36)Theodore Dreiser, An American Tragedy (9.48)F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (9.48)Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward, Angel (9.48)John Milton, Paradise Lost (17....