Flowers for Algernon

by Daniel Keyes

Hmm...

Book that question you on your life. How is your life? Or more precise, How you feel about your life.

This book is a diary written by the main character, Charlie Gordon. He recorded his daily activities since someday and stop at someday. (forgot the date in the diary)

He is mentally disabled, I would said. With IQ only 68, he can read and write simple words and do simple jobs. You will find grammar and spelling mistakes here and there, as, the words are written by him.

He is the first man to undergo an operation which able to change the mentally disabled/not so clever people to  a clever one. The scientist had done an experiment on Algernon, a rat?? 

Before the operation, he is a cleaner in a bakery. The owner treats him well and the people like him. He is friendly to everyone. One more thing is, he is HARDWORKING and willing to learn. I admire Charlie with one simple reason: He is hardworking. He always dreaming of becoming clever and actually working hard to become clever. (clever for him is to have normal IQ as others)

The operation is successful(at first) and he is actually turning into a genius. He can remember everything he read, learn things fast and, able to understand his surrounding. Before this he had a simple mindset: Whenever a person smile at him, it means person likes him. But with the wisdom he had after the operation, he understood that people are actually laughing and making fun of him. Moreover he is in LOVE, a thing something which troubled him. This Charlie changed and lost in the middle of wisdom.

The story goes on when the scientist discover the side effects on Algernon. It is no longer intelligent and can hardly survive. In the end, it died. Charlie buried it in the backyard. 

Bit by bit, Charlie is turning back into a mentally disabled person. He can hardly remember what he did and wrote before. Yeah. The same old Charlie is back in the end. He continue to work hard to become clever and hopefully can be cleverer than the Charlie before the operation. 

I would say, Life is short. We have to be dare to dream, and dare to do. 

Though the wisdom Charlie had cannot last forever, he can proudly said: I had been a clever one before!! No regret.