Books: Flowers For Algernon

There are some works you can never really understand when you first read them. I suspect "Flowers For Algernon," written by Daniel Keyes, is one of them. Like a lot of people my age, I read this novel as a kid (required reading in my middle school, if I recall correctly). In hindsight, though, it has the most relevance for someone who's 70 years old, not for someone in the 7th grade.

The plot should be familiar to anyone who's read the story or seen one of the many adaptations - Charlie Gordon, a mentally challenged janitor, volunteers for a radical new intelligence enhancing surgery. The story is told in the form of journal entries, and they get more and more refined as Charlie's intelligence increases. Eventually, he becomes smarter than the doctors who invented the procedure, and soon figures out that his intelligence is temporary. The last phase of the book concerns his gradual decline and the depression it causes him.

When I was a kid, I never realized how closely this mirrors the problems someone facing Alzheimer's disease suffers. The inability to remember or understand something that you wrote yourself, the difficulty you have in communicating with other people - it all hits home a lot harder when you realize Charlie's experience isn't just science fiction, but day to day life for millions of people. Combine the fact that Charlie's eventual death from the procedure is implied, and you have a rather effective allegory. Of course, it might not be what Mr. Keyes had in mind; it certainly didn't cross mine when I was eleven.