Team+Snow+Leopard

Team Snow Leopard!!!!In

Katelyn Yaczik Stephanie Mesaeh Jackie Wesner Ellie Klein

=
Throughout the novel __Flowers for Algernon__, there were many repetitive symbols. Some of them were more obvious than others, while we didn't really think about the others while we were reading the story. Here are just a few:======
 * ======The window: The window is a symbol of Charlie's separation from the outside world. The window shows him as an observer, a person who can watch the world, but cannot fully participate in it. The window also represents all of the factors that keep the mentally retarded Charlie from feeling normal, or accepted in society.======
 * ======Adam and Eve and the tree of knowledge: This Bible story was told to Charlie from Hilda, the nurse at the hospital, mentioned by Fanny at the bakery, and he referenced it while reading __Paradise Lost__. The story of Adam and Eve is very similar to Charlie's journey from mentally retarded to intellignt. As the forbidden fruit does for Adam and Eve, Charlie's operation gives him all of the intelligence and capacity in the world. Hilda and Fanny both imply that Charlie, like Adam and Eve, defied God's will by receiving the operation and becoming more intelligent. The author leaves it up to us though, on whether we think Charlie deserved to regress back to his mentally retarded state.======
 * ======The knife: The knife is a symbol of his mother's threats and punishments. Charlie has many dreams about women, which his mother punished him for being around, and those dreams all ended with a person holding a knife. It is also linked to the knife his mother pulls out when she demands his father to take him away.======
 * ======Algernon: Algernon is more of a parallel to Charlie. They are both under the control of the scientists, and are at their control and whim, being forced to run through Hey wants your address mazes. They are both viewed as almost being created by the scientists, and feel like more of an "exhibit" at the conference, than a guest.======

Katelyn Yaczik
Charlie & Algernon Charlie and Algernon are remarkably alike. They have obvious similarities as well as a few that are not so obvious. Obviously both Charlie and Algernon were the first of their kind to have any kind of semi-successful intelligence enhancement surgery preformed on them. Unfourtunaly both also lost that intelligence at an alarmingly rapid pace with dangerous side effects. During Algernon's regression the mouse becomes violent and unpredictable. He bites Fay and nearly kills his only companion. Charlie also lashes out at everyone around him. He gets into arguments with Professor Nemur, Doctor Strauss, Burt, and even Alice. At both periods of low intelligence Charlie is extremely forgetful. During his regretion Charlie went back to his usual patterns, working at the bakery and going to night school to learn how to read. He even forgets the things he himself discovered. When going back to read one of his old reports he says that he doesn't understand most of the words. Algernon does the exact same thing. The mouse forgets all of the patterns he has learned to help him solve mazes. This angers Algernon and the mouse becomes hostile whenever he encounters a dead end. -Ellie Klein

"Old" Charlie vs. "New" Charlie After the operation, Charlie began gaining intelligence. That much was obvious. What wasn't obvious at first was the unwavering feeling of being watched that Charlie began to feel everywhere. He noticed it while he was in the park with Miss Kinnian, the boy watching them while they were alone in the park. Charlie could see the boy, while Miss Kinnian could not. It occurred whenever Charlie was close to Alice, stopping him in his tracks because he had always associated women and sexual thoughts with being punished. Because his mother had beaten him as a child for things like this, (though she didn't know so at the time), she was putting another sort of mental handicap on him.

Charlie confronts his past self on one occasion, while he is drunk. Though he is looking into the mirror, he believes he's talking to the "old" version of himself.

Whenever "new" Charlie sees "old" Charlie, he is angry. The "old" Charlie is stopping him from fulling living his new life, it's a piece of him that will always remain to drag him behind his full potential. Keyes does not reveal if the same thing occurs with Algernon. Who knows? Maybe the mouse had gained intelligence to a certain point, but that "old" version had reminded him how much simpler life had been before he had to solve puzzles to eat and run mazes 24 hours a day. If this was the case, maybe the mouse's regression was by choice. Keyes does not reveal if this is the case, but he does seem to foreshadow that  the same thing will happen to Charlie. That "old" version may even be a flaw in the experiment. Charlie may not have wanted to revert to his old ways, but perhaps his will power was not enough to overcome the bad effects. While the operation can increase intelligence, it can never fully eliminate the flawed aspects of the mind. -Stephanie Mesaeh

In __Flowers for Algernon__, Charlie is a mentally impaired middle aged man. He doesn't realize the way people treat him is terrible. He thinks that everyone is his friend and when people laugh at him, he laughs along. All of the workers at Donner's Bakery treats him as and inferior human being. Charlie doesn't know of course, but as the reader, you get the hint.
 * Charlie's Treatment **

Even as a kid, Charlie's mother treated him terribly. She always thought of him as abnormal, and once she realized he coldn't be helped, she gave up on loving him. Once she had a baby that was normal (Norma), she realized that she wasn't the problem, it was Charlie. He didn't have a very good environment as a child.

When Charlie gets the chance to go through a surgery to increase his intelligence, he immediately wants to go through with it. He wants people to like him more than they already do. But when he starts going through treatment, even the doctors consider him inferior. In fact, they don't think of him as being human before the surgery. They think that they "created" him. Charlie is still treated in a terrible way.

When Charlie starts to get extremely smart, does the way people treat him change? I actually believe that it it worse. Workers at the bakery still don't like Charlie and he is still treated terribly. They think of Charlie as "snobbish" and even the doctors at the treatment facility find him annoying. It seems as if Charlie is never going to be treated kindly. -Jackie Wesner