Flowers for Algernon Quotes

Charlie: “Prof Nemur says if it werks good and its perminent they will make other pepul like me smart also. Mabye pepul all over the werld. And he said that meens Im doing somthing grate for sience and Ill be famus and my name will go down in the books. I dont care so much about beeing famus. I just want to be smart like other pepul so I can have lots of frends who like me.” (Progress Report 6)

Charlie recounts a conversation he has had with Professor Nemur earlier which highlights the fundamental difference between him and the professor. It is Nemur whose actual intention is to become famous and great through this experiment, whereas all Charlie wishes is to make friends with his increased intellect. Charlie doesn’t long to join society to enhance his social standing but to gain friends, as he is lonely. Ironically, when he does become intelligent, he becomes even lonelier.

Dr Strauss: “The more intelligent you become the more problems you’ll have, Charlie. Your intellectual growth is going to outstrip your emotional growth. And I think you’ll find that as you progress, there will be many things you’ll want to talk to me about.” (Progress Report 9)

Dr Strauss’s comment foreshadows what will eventually come to pass with Charlie, underscoring the central theme of the book, which is the need for balance between emotion and intellect. Charlie cannot just be purely an intellectual being, as no human can be. As his ability to assess, perceive, and imagine continues to develop, Charlie experiences a kind of second puberty—moral and emotional questions surface in plenty that he must resolve in order to evolve into a more mature human being.

Charlie: “I wasn’t his son. That was another Charlie. Intelligence and knowledge had changed me, and he would resent me—as the others from the bakery resented me—because my growth diminished him. I didn’t want that.” (Progress Report 14)

This passage records Charlie’s emotional turmoil when he goes to visit his father, Matt, hoping to establish his identity and know more about his childhood. However, Matt does not recognize this Charlie and he too cannot bring himself to reveal his identity to his father. This reluctance reveals the split identity that Charlie constantly experiences as he grows smarter. While his intelligence starts increasing, he feels that the former Charlie—the intellectually disabled self—watches over him, remaining at the back of his mind. In this quotation, Charlie realizes that he is no longer the older Charlie, the one who was liked. Now, he is the smarter version, who is resented by his colleagues at the bakery and perhaps his own father too would now reject him for who he is. For years, Matt had tried to identify with his intellectually disable son and had had to confront a lot of difficulty in trying to persuade his stubborn wife into accepting Charlie’s disability. However, with this new version of a super smart Charlie, Matt might feel that his years of effort have been wasted; perhaps even feel betrayed. While Charlie is now intellectually superior, he continues to be plagued by doubts and hesitation regarding social acceptance. He is currently two people but neither person can have a complete life or a whole history.

Charlie: People think it’s funny when a dumb person can’t do things the same way they can. (Progress Report: April 13)

Charlie: “Now I understand one of the important reasons for going to college and getting an education is to learn that the things you’ve believed in all your life aren’t true, and that nothing is what it appears to be.” (Progress Report: April 27)

Charlie: “How does a person go about learning how to act toward another person? How does a man learn how to behave toward a woman?” (Progress Report 11: May 1)

Charlie: “People resent being shown that they don’t approach the complexities of the problem—they don’t know what exists beyond the surface ripples.” (Progress Report: May 15)

Alice Kinnian: “Don’t think about it,” she whispered. “Feel it. Let it sweep over you like the sea without trying to understand.” (Progress Report: May 17)

Charlie: “So this is how a person can come to despise himself—knowing he’s doing the wrong thing and not being able to stop.” (Progress Report: May 25)

Charlie: “How strange it is that people of honest feelings and sensibility, who would not take advantage of a man born without arms or legs or eyes—how such people think nothing of abusing a man born with low intelligence.” (Progress Report: June 23)

Charlie: “The world around me and my past seem far away and distorted, as if time and space were taffy being stretched and looped and twisted out of shape.” (Progress Report: July 27)

Charlie: “Whatever happens to me, I will have lived a thousand normal lives by what I might add to others not yet born. That’s enough.” (Progress Report: July 28)

Charlie: “Intelligence without the ability to give and receive affection leads to mental and moral breakdown, to neurosis, and possibly even psychosis.” (Progress Report: August 11)