Flowers for Algernon Discussion Questions

Throughout the novel, Algernon’s experiences parallel Charlie’s. How does Algernon serve as a metaphor for Charlie’s experiences?

Algernon and Charlie may be different living beings but have their intelligence enhancement surgery in common. Charlie, while being a mentally disabled man, is friendly and warm and liked and protected by those around him. However, as his intelligence grows, he becomes increasingly listless and angry at the world and loses friends.

Algernon is a sweet, harmless creature but when he becomes intelligent, his behavior becomes erratic and he tends to harm himself in his cage. He also violently bites and hurts the female mouse Minnie, who keeps him company.

Like Charlie, Algernon is aggressive, not likeable, and self-destructive once he becomes intelligent. Unfortunately, he does not survive as Charlie does. As Algernon starts to decline before Charlie, this suffering foreshadows Charlie’s own future.

How is the old Charlie comparable with the new Charlie? In their varying personalities, does the difference of intellect and empathy come to the fore?

The old Charlie and the new Charlie have nothing in common. The old Charlie is empathetic, warm, friendly, and loved by his colleagues and teacher; the new Charlie is snubbed for “acting clever” and for being an egoist. He has intellect on his side but it does not make him popular or a fit in his society. This is a reason for great strife in the new Charlie who cannot imagine why people do not like him.

The difference of intellect and empathy certainly comes to the fore in Charlie Gordon’s varying personalities.

Are Professor Nemur and Dr Strauss wrong in undertaking a brain experiment that alters what one is born with? Are they right to “play God”?

Professor Nemur and Dr Strauss are the men behind the brain experiment to enhance intelligence. Nemur is a scientist and surgeon and Dr Strauss is a psychotherapist. One can debate the pros and cons of their decision to undertake the challenge of increasing a human being’s intelligence. On the one hand, it is a brave, demanding, and deeply meticulous challenge but on the other hand, it plays with human anatomy on a fundamental level and is bound to have its flaws and disadvantages.

In the man versus God situation, believers will reject the idea of changing what God has given to mankind, but in the race to be the most superior species on the planet, man will always create his own challenges and solutions.

The debate of accepting human flaws and constantly trying to improve the human condition (in this case, by enhancing human intelligence) is at the very core of this book.

How are Alice and Fay different in their relationship with Charlie Gordon?

Alice Kinnian was formerly Charlie’s teacher when he was mentally disabled. Fay is Charlie’s neighbor when he becomes an intelligent man. Alice’s relationship with Charlie goes through dramatic shifts—from being a caring teacher to being attracted to Charlie to eventually crumbling before his superior intellect, which makes him less likeable.

Fay, on the other hand, has no history with Charlie and sees him as any other man. For Charlie too, Fay is a new individual and her markedly different persona—her obsession with dancing, her messiness, and her carefree attitude—all contribute to Charlie’s attraction toward her and to Fay becoming the first woman he is physically intimate with.

Charlie is truly in love with Alice while Fay is a midway relationship for him.

Do you blame Charlie’s mother Rose for his behavioral patterns? Comment on the impact of parental attitudes on a child’s development.

As Charlie begins to understand himself better, with his enhanced intelligence, he is able to analyze memories from his childhood that show Rose to be a bad, insensitive mother. Rose loved her son and was patient with him until she had a second child—a daughter named Norma, who did not suffer from the same mental disabilities as Charlie.

Rose’s relationship with Charlie changed dramatically after the arrival of Norma. She put her daughter first and almost seemed to consider her son a burden and a detrimental presence in Norma’s life. This led Rose to becoming an abusive and cold mother who could not understand Charlie’s needs.

Parental attitudes most certainly have a big impact on a child’s development—as is apparent in Charlie’s own remembrances. He panicked and wet his pants only when his mother was unreasonably angry or lost her temper.

Unlike his father, Rose had no patience for a mentally disabled son and this led to Charlie’s decline until he was completely rejected by his family and left to the mercy of his uncle and some benevolent strangers.