The+Smarties-5th+hour

= //The Smarties-5th hour// = Brianna Lipa Sara Frost Nicole Wesley Maria Perez

__A Reoccurring Motif__ After Charlie receives his surgery, when he faces situations that are emtionally difficult for him, he will see the situation through "old" Charlie's eyes. Such as when Charlie becomes drunk at Mrs. Nemur's party, he knows what he was saying was rude, but yet, the "new" intelligent Charlie does not seem to have the emotional sensitivity to others' feelings. However, Charlie recalls that the "old" Charlie was watching from afar and confronts him in the mirror. He then realizes this "shadow" Charlie is almost like his conscience who holds his geneorsity within him. Charlie decides not to give in and go back to his old loving, yet mentally handicapped, self. He is determined to continue down the path of genius for as long as he can. -Nicole



         Here are some inkblots that may have been used in the Rorschach test. Charlie in the book always seemed to hate the Rorschach test and they made him upset at the beginning and end of the book. -Maria

**__Symbols__**
In the book the idea of a window symbolized Charlie because he spent most of his life watching others through a window as a child. Even in his time before the operation he always stood off to the side watching others almost like looking out of a window never actually being there, but always watching. That was how he pretty much lived his life only watching learning from just watching never actually getting involved. After the operation Charlie feels as if old Charlie is watching him and he always is either at the window or the door way watching off to the side. Lastly, every time he pictures his childhood he sees himself looking out the window watching the other children live their lives or waiting for something. -Maria

Charlie changes throughout the story, and it is believed by numerous characters that he changes for the worse. Charlie starts off handicapped, yet he is very much liked. He was always friendly to everyone and he had a caring sense about him. Although, his "friends" were laughing at him, he was just glad they were laughing at all. As the story progresses, and Charlie's intelligence increases, his personality alters. To me, Charlie acts like he is superior to everyone around him. He went for so long being laughed at, as a "dumb" guy. However, he was liked by everyone. As he gets smarter, his attitude changes. He believes that he is smarter than his doctor's and he is at a much higher level of intelligence than everyone surrounding him. He starts pushing the people who care about him away, such as Alice, and his doctors. Then, when the down fall of the story occurs and his intelligence diminishes, he returns to the state he was in before the operation.

-Sara

As we could see Charlie become more intelligent his attitude towards other changes. The nice Charlie that we had come to know and loved slowly fades away. He finds himself in a race against time to discover new information in his disability and how to solve it. Every day he fears of not finding answers, of running out of time. However even has his intelligence slowly decreases he tries to fight back, struggling to hold onto his knowledge. At the end of the book when Charlie had said to put flowers on Algernon’s grave I found much more meaning behind his statement. I felt that he compared himself to Algernon. Instead of placing flowers on Algernon’s grave he meant on his own. He knew that soon his life would end up like Algernon's......... dead.

-Brianna