The+Strangers-5th+hour

The Strangers-5th hour Lisa McLellan Gabriella Ammiano Darby Church Jessica Trionfi

Flowers For Algernon By. Daniel Keyes

Born With an unusually low IQ, Charlie Gordon has been chosen as the perfect subject for an experimental surgery that researchers hope will increase his intelligence - a procedure that has already been highly successful when tested on a lab mouse named Algernon. Charlie's intelligence expands until it surpasses that of the doctors who engineered his metamorphosis. The experiment appears to be a scientific breakthrough of paramount importance, until Algernon suddenly deteriorates. Will the same happen to Charlie?

Book Summary
====At the beginning of the novel, we are introduced to Charlie Gordon. Charlie can read and write-he just can't spell very many words unless he looks them up. Charlie is very ambitious and eager to become smart like everyone around him. He works at a bakery, Donners Bakery, and his Uncle Herman helped him get the job. He also goes to Miss Kinnian's class at Beekmin College Center for Retarded Adults, to learn. Miss Kinnian recommends him for a scientific experiment that could change the world, and make it better for people like Charlie. Charlie takes certain tests to test his I.Q. and to see if he is eligible. As he goes to take these tests, he meets Algernon. Algernon is the only mouse that has stayed smart for a long time after the surgery. Charlie and Algernon race in a maze, Algernon beating Charlie every time. After all of the tests, Charlie is selected and must write progress reports for his doctors.==== ====Charlie slowly progresses into a very intelligent man. He starts seeing what's happening around him-how he gets used to make others look smart, how people are constantly laughing at him for doing stupid things, and how everyone doesn't like him after he becomes smarter. Charlie continues to learn and be a part of this experiment, and he starts learning of his past. He wasn't treated very great as a child. His mom hated that he wasn't like the rest of the kids; she tried to get him like the rest-until Norma came along. Norma is Charlie's sister, and the reason why everything in his home changed. He remembers that his mom was always showing anger toward him, and he never knew why. He was always scared. Charlie's mom wanted him gone, to be put into the Warren State Home so his sister could have a better life. This made an argument between his parents, ending in the solution of taking him to his uncle's house.==== ====Charlie is super intelligent by the middle of the book, aware of everything, but has lost his passionate side after finding out that everyone has never really been his friend, only using him. He starts a relationship with Alice-Miss Kinnian. At first, she doesn't want to get involved because they are involved professionally. They never have a relationship because the old Charlie is standing in the way.==== ====The convention comes up only months after Charlie's surgery, and Prof. Strauss, Prof. Nemur, and Burt all go together with Charlie for the big revealing. During this convention, Charlie gets upset. He doesn't like to be viewed as inhuman and doesn't like that they say he was 'created.' He always had a life but now he can see it clearer. Charlie flies back to New York, escaping with Algernon, and buys a small apartment for himself. He loses contact with everyone, and wants to be by himself for a while. He ends up going to see his dad at his barber shop. He wants him to know the new Charlie, but he can't bring himself to do it. He also becomes romantically involved with the lady across the hall, Fay. They dance and go drink every night of the week.==== ====Charlie soon comes back into contact with the lab, and starts doing his own experiment. He notices Algernon's strange behavior is getting worse, and he bites the other mouse in the cage, so he takes Algernon back to the lab. Charlie soon becomes erratic. He knows he's running out of time and is becoming angry at almost everyone. He now wants to spend all of his time learning and being alone-he wants to solve the problem in the experiment. By becoming totally centered on trying to find the problem, him and fay break up.==== ====Charlie knows at some point he's not going to be smart as he is, and wants the truth from the doctors. They tell him that if the experiment goes wrong he will be put into the Warren State Home. This brings us to the part where Charlie sees the home for the 'first time.' Seeing how people humor the patients there frustrates him, because that's what everyone does to him. Before he goes back to the old Charlie, he wants to visit his mother, so she can finally be proud of him.==== ====We find out that Charlie's mother has some kind of amnesia, and keeps switching back and forth between the "new Charlie" and the "old Charlie.' Norma comes home to find them, and she and Charlie catch up. Her and Charlie make contact, bringing rose back into the conversation. She stands up and shouts at Charlie like he's young again, say never to touch her that way with those thoughts. The two of them calm her down and Charlie leaves.==== ====Charlie and Alice finally connect in the way they weren't able to. She cleans up after him, and he soon becomes so unbearable she packs her stuff up and leaves. After that, Charlie lounges around the apartment, staying in bed most of the time, until he finally goes to get a job back at the bakery. He now is back to where he once was mentally, but can remember most of what happened to him, just not why. He goes to class at school, as he walks in and takes his seat in Ms. Kinnian's room, he remembers he doesn't go there anymore.====

__Wrote by. Jessica Trionfi__
In the novel Flowers for Algernon the doctors perform a series of tests on Charlie to determine his intelligence. One of those tests include the Rorschach inkblot test. The test was the most widely used projective test in the 1960s. It uses inkblots to determine a person’s personality characteristics and emotional functioning. It has been thought to detect underlying thought disorder. In the beginning Charlie is unable to see any images in the ink. All he says is he sees ink spilled on the paper. After his surgery he is able to see pictures, as he progresses. This is thought to be a sign that he is getting smarter.



Another test used to determine Charlie’s intelligence is an IQ test (intelligence quotient). Your IQ is a score derived from one of several different standardized tests. The average score is 100. IQ scores are used as predictors of educational achievement or special needs. In the 1960s IQ tests began to fall out of favor, because of racially and culturally specific test questions. Charlie has an IQ was below the normal average in the beginning of the book. Towards the end he begins to overpass the doctors and scientists. To us he would be a genius.



I feel the way Charlie and people like Charlie were treated back in the 60s was almost inhumane. People did not treat them as human beings. They were laughed at and used for other people's entertainment.Back in the 1800s and 1900s mentally unstable people were put into mental homes. There they endured things that no one should ever have to go through. They were used to do experiments. This is one reason why I feel it was unfair of the scientists to ask Charlie if he wanted the surgery to get smarter. He did not know better, of course he is going to say okay. Mentally retarded people were used on experiments that no sane person would ever sign up for. Treating someone who is different than you like an animal is not fair. We have come a long way since those times. Mentally unstable people are given the help they need and can somewhat live in our society. Gabriella Ammiano

Vocabulary:
 * Euphemism: an inoffensive or indirect expression that is substituted for one that is considered offensive or too harsh.
 * Paradoxical: seemingly contradictory but nonetheless possibly true.
 * Vacuous: devoid of matter.
 * Coalesce: fuse or cause to grow together.
 * Deleterious: harmful to humans.
 * Exigent: demanding attention.
 * Pompous: puffed with vanity.
 * Platitude: a trite or obvious remark.

The few pictures shown above are different covers for the book Flowers for Algernon. I felt that seeing different covers for the book impacted how I thought the characters would look, as well as seeing pictures from the movie, or different interpretations on how the characteres were viewed. The pictures above show how Charlie was thought to have looked before and after the operation. These pictures are not how I imagined Charlie to look, so it gave me a different point of view after seeing these pictures when I finished reading the book. I pictured Charlie to be more of larger looking man, not as thin as these pictures portrayed him to be. The way he was described in the beginning of the book left me to think that he was a larger man with no intention of hurting anyone at all, similar to Lennie from Of Mice and Men. Lisa McLellan