

Alice confronts him with how his intelligence has changed him - and not for the better. As a child he was emotionally scarred by his mother, who shamed him for normal sexual development. However, as soon as he realizes he is running out of time, he devotes his life to working in the lab and concluding Nemur and Strauss’ experiment, calling it the “Algernon-Gordon Effect: A Study of Structure and Function of Increased Intelligence.” His conclusion of the study is that, “Artificially-induced intelligence deteriorates at a rate of time directly proportional to the quantity of the increase.” As soon as Fay realizes that Charlie isn’t looking to just hang out and have fun anymore, she quickly moves on.Ĭharlie’s relationship with his teacher Miss Kinnian becomes romantic, but he is unable to connect with her emotionally because his emotional intelligence cannot keep up with his intellect. He meets his next-door neighbor, Fay, an eccentric artist who is a welcome diversion to Charlie. Charlie realizes that this will soon happen to him, too, and he has a limited amount of time. He frees Algernon at a scientific convention in Chicago where they are being showcased and put on display, and they take off to an apartment Charlie rents in New York City.Īs the days pass, Charlie notices that Algernon begins to regress, and he eventually dies. Charlie comes to see himself reflected in Algernon, as they are both caught in the cage of this experiment and not treated as individuals. He races Algernon and eventually wins against him, surpassing Algernon in intelligence.

When he meets Algernon, he learns that Algernon needs to run a maze in order to eat, and Charlie thinks that is unfair. Meanwhile, Charlie has developed a sense of kinship with the lab mouse Algernon, who underwent the same procedure that Charlie did. He also crosses Gimpy when he confronts him for overcharging customers and pocketing the extra change, which seems to cement his firing.

He realizes that his “friends” at the bakery, Joe, Frank, and Gimpy, have been laughing at him, not with him, and he loses his job at the bakery because the change in his intelligence scares his coworkers. Strauss are in charge of this experiment.Īfter the experiment, Charlie’s intelligence increases, along with his awareness of how others perceive him. He is chosen for an experiment at Beekman College by Miss Kinnian, his teacher at the Beekman College Center for Retarded Adults, because he has motivation to learn. of 68, and he is blissfully unaware of the cruelty with which he is treated by his “friends” at the bakery where he works. The novel is written as a series of journal entries, known to Charlie as “progress reports”, a requirement from his doctors for the experiment. Start Mijn Gratis Proefperiode* Flowers for Algernon Summary
