The Worth of a Book Is to Be Measured by What You Can Carry Away from It
Summary:
The dehumanization of intellectually handicapped people and the role of intelligence in one's happiness are key themes in "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes.
The worth of a book is to be measured by what you can carry away from it. In that case Flowers for Algernon must be a great book because this book has a endless amount of life lessons to offer. Like intelligence does not equal happiness or knowledge is nothing without wisdom. This book also reflects back to the 60's and the mistreatment of the mentally disabled. The lesson that could be learned from this book would be great lessons to learn and would help today's society.
The dehumanization of intellectually disabled people in society, using "Flowers for Algernon." Details how Charlie Gordon, is humiliated by his mother and other people in his life. All through the novel Charlie is mistreated, people look down on him like he is a lesser being. For example his co-workers Joe, Gimby and Frank make fun of him all the time. Even Nemur thinks Charlie was stupid and useless before the operation. Nemur states that Charlie was practically an inanimate object before the operation. Charlie was angry at that comment. Even when Charlie gets smart Nemur still treats him like a stupid kid. "Step right this way and see the side show! An act never before seen in the scientific world! A mouse and a moron turned into geniuses before your very eyes." Nemur said this when they were at the science convention. What you take away from this novel is the appreciation that society has changed for the better and we don't treat people like that any more.
Intelligence does not equal happiness for Charlie in the novel. Intelligence is something that has always been valued, and highly respected. It is often thought being intelligent means that you are the most successful, and productive. But rarely do those things alone create happiness. Even as Charlie became smart he still was not happy. Charlie was warmhearted and trusting, but as his intelligence increases he grew cold, arrogant, and disagreeable. The more he understands about the world, the more he needs human contact. His intellect was more advanced then his emotions there for they conflicted and Charlie was confused and felt bad for himself. After Charlie finds out that he is mentally handicap is going to come back he contemplates suicide but does not go through with it. The reason he was so distraught is that he did not want to become what he was before and did not want to live with those kind of people. "It's easy to have friends if you let them laugh at you, I'm going to have lots of friends were I go." Its just like the saying money can't buy you happiness, there is more valuables in the equation that make it happen.
One of the greatest sayings of all time is " knowledge is nothing without wisdom and wisdom is nothing without knowledge." Knowledge and wisdom commonly mistaken to be practically the same thing, but this is not true, and one without the other is rather inefficient. Knowledge is something that can be acquired through books and television. Knowledge is facts and figures that come together and give us information. Knowledge can be lost as quickly as it is gained. Wisdom is the ability to apply knowledge where it is needed and withhold it when it is not. Wisdom is being able to control oneself in a situation and successfully resolve it. Wisdom can be faltered by immaturity and wrongly led by misinformation. A man who has wisdom may have great judgment, but what of judgment if there is no knowledge to guide it. This applies perfectly to Charlie, he is brilliant but he is seeing the world in a new light and has no experience in other words he has no wisdom. You need both if you wish to be successful in today's society and this novel shows you this in life like situations.
Flowers for Algernon is a great novel and can be interpreted in many ways but one thing is for certain you can take away the knowledge and understanding of Charlie's life experience and apply them to your life. The concept that intelligence does not equal happiness and that " knowledge is nothing without wisdom and wisdom is nothing without knowledge" are great lessoned that Charlie learned through out the book. The novel also showed you the mistreatment of the mentally disabled back in the 60's, when this book was written. All and all " The worth of a book is to be measured by what you can carry away from it" and this novel has endless life lesson that can be learned just by reading it and makes it a great book.
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