Daniel Keyes

Theme is the general truth behind the story. Sometimes it is called the lesson or moral of

the story.

Science has a moral responsibility to society. Or just because we can, should we? Learning new material increases knowledge;

knowing when to use it, is wisdom.

It is a diary or journal. Charlie calls them progress reports.

This is a first person narration. This limits the reader to seeing only what

Charlie sees.

Charlie Gordon

Charlie seems uneducated, mentally slow, and childlike.

He also seems happy and enthusiastic.

He couldn’t see any pictures.

He wanted to become smart.

He thought school could make him smarter.

He cannot tell the difference between imagination and lying.

Would he be able to tell why this baby is crying?

He is a white mouse used for a laboratory experiment in intelligence.

He’s a white mouse. That’s the only thing that Charlie can see

that makes Algernon different from any other mouse.

He wants to be smart.

It will triple his intelligence. His IQ will change from 68 to 204.

A rabbit’s foot, a lucky penny, and a horse shoe

He has become frustrated and angry. He does not think the operation has worked.

What he does not realize is that learning is difficult and sometimes even painful. His frustration is evidence that he really is learning.

Getting smarter takes time. Algernon had the operation earlier, and

so he has a head start on Charlie.

No, they are using him for entertainment.

He thinks they are his friends because they spend time with him.

They also laugh with (at) him. He sees only the laughter, not that it is at him not with him.

He tries to sleep through it.

They abuse him and make fun of him.

Charlie beats Algernon.

Charlie begins to develop a sense of conscience.

There is no longer any challenge in racing him.

He feels protective of Algernon. He feels it’s wrong for Algernon to have

to pass a test in order to earn his food.

The experiment has ramifications beyond Charlie.

Regardless of what happens to Charlie, science has learned from him and his operation.

It shows a deeper understanding of the world.

It leaves the concrete world and enters into the abstract.

WHY?

She always give him a reason. She explains things to him. She genuinely cares about him as a

person, not just as a laboratory experiment.

There is no contest. Charlie always wins.

He realizes that their friendship was fake.

They were making fun of him to make themselves feel more powerful and smarter.

He now is able to use his imagination.

He sees her as a beautiful, attractive woman.

The people at the factory fear the changes they see in Charlie.

Since writing proved to be too slow for his thoughts, he was learning how to type.

He finds it difficult to communicate at their level.

He laughs, then he sees himself in the busboy.

He realizes that others have been laughing at him right along.

A physical disability is obvious.

A mental disability is not.

He decides to continue on with the scientific investigation into human intelligence.

He has become vicious and unpredictable.

He, too, will begin to fail.

He and Algernon have followed the same path in character development.

To work on his own special project: The Algernon-Gordon Effect.

Intelligence will decrease at the same rate or even faster than is was increased.

The intelligence increase is only temporary.

It creates a strange sort of déjà vu for him.

It feels like someone else wrote his reports.

He has no understanding of what he wrote.

He is perplexed by the work.

The format is returning to his original style.

The spelling is slipping. They are becoming shorter.

He still loves her, but she has now become to him as before.

She is his teacher, not a girlfriend.

They are protective of him.

They are more comfortable with him now that he has returned to his old way.