Flowers for Algernon

Question:


With close reference to the short story 'Flowers for Algernon', do you think that the gift of intelligence is a blessing or a curse?


Answer:

To a large extent, intelligence is a curse because Charlie did not have many friends and was lonely when he became intelligent. However, to a certain extent, intelligence is a blessing because Charlie could find out the flaws of the experiment done on him, and learn a lot of interesting things very quickly.

Firstly, when Charlie realises that he became smart, he begin to learn many things. For instance, Charlie learnt foreign languages and many subjects and also, he stated that ‘mine (IQ) is going to be over 200 soon’. This can be shown as Charlie could accomplish things in days and weeks in what normal people have to do in a lifetime.

However, Charlie soon realises that there were communication breakdowns between average people and him. For example, Charlie’s co-workers signed a petition to strip him of his job as they felt that Charlie was getting too smart for them and felt inferior. Also, Miss Kinnian said that Charlie was already smarter than her as he was able to read a whole page at a glance and remember every single thing he read. This was one disadvantage of being intelligent.

Furthermore, Charlie found himself looking down at others who were mentally retarded like him (before). One incident could be when Charlie saw a dishwasher accidentally dropping dishes and breaking them. When the people in the room laughed at the boy for being mentally retarded, Charlie found himself joining in. Luckily, he remembered in time that he used to be like the mentally retarded boy who doesn’t understand anything at all.

When Charlie found that Algernon was not behaving normally and died eventually, he figured that he would face the same fate. However, he did not sit and wait for the same fate to befall him. Instead, he researched and finally, after a few weeks, he found the flaw in the doctor’s experiment and also found out the surgical stimulus to which he was subjected, which he called the ‘Algernon-Gordon Effect’. And, after a few more weeks, the ‘Algernon-Gordon Effect’ took effect on Charlie and his IQ decreases.

Thus, from the above evidence, I can conclude that, to a large extent, the gift of intelligence is a curse because Charlie could not communicate with his co-workers and he was lonely. However, to a certain extent, the gift of intelligence is a blessing because Charlie could contribute a lot to mankind.