Essay | Flowers for Algernon: Emotional Growth

In the novel Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes, Charlie has much growth after the operation. One of the many mental and physical growths he collected was emotion. I noticed that as soon as Charlie started developing emotions they were all bad feelings and negative thoughts. Emotions can be good or bad; but for Charlie it was all downhill.

The story follows the mind and life of a mentally retarded man, Charlie Gordon, who is 32 years old. Charlie attends a night school in hope that he will one day be intelligent like his teacher, Miss Kinnian, who he considers a "genius." When offered the chance to have his IQ tripled, despite the risks and the chance of losing it all, he agrees. Throughout the time of his knowledge he experiences love, betrayal, heartbreak, embarrassment, loneliness, loses his job at a bakery due to his intelligence and grows in many...
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