Analysis of Literary Devices in Flowers For Algernon Essay

12 September 2011

Flowers for Algernon

I have recently completed the novel Flowers for Algernon, and I found it to be a fascinating novel for a variety of reasons. The themes of the book I found very interesting, which include how people treat the mentally handicapped, as well as the link between intellect and happiness. The novel revolves around a man, Charlie Gordon, with an I.Q. of 68, who works menial jobs in a bakery, but then goes in for experimental treatment in an attempt to raise his intelligence level. A his intelligence increases, many conflicts arise, such as his inability to converse with those he feels close with, his realization that he is viewed as a test subject rather than a real person, and his struggle to understand human sexuality. He learns that his intelligence will regress to what it was prior to the treatment, as Algernon, the mouse in the same situation as him, eventually regressed massively from where his intelligence once was. The story ends with him having regressed all the way back to mental retardation, going to a facility for the mentally ill, and his last wish being that someone put flowers on Algernons grave.

Due to the fact that Charlies intelligence was shifting essentially throughout the entire novel, the prose changed from extremely basic and simple to a more advanced form during the middle of the novel, and then back to simple towards the end once Charlie had regressed. For example, a paragraph at the beginning of the novel would read something like this, Prof Nemur said but why did you want to lern to reed and spell in the frist place. I tolld him because all my life I wantid to be smart and not dumb and my mom always tolld me to try and lern just like Miss Kinnian tells but its very hard to be smart and even when I lern something in Miss Kinnians class at the school I ferget alot. However, once Charlies intelligence has begun to skyrocket, paragraphs become more advanced, like this, That evening and for the next few days I immersed myself in psychology texts: clinical, personality, psychometrics, learning, experimental psychology, animal psychology, physiological psychology, behaviorist, gestalt, analytical, functional, dynamic, organismic, and all the rest of the ancient and modern factions, schools and systems of thought. The depressing thing is that so many of the ideas on which our psychologists base their beliefs on human intelligence, memory, and learning are all wishful thinking. There is an obvious change in Charlies character, for one because in the first paragraph, hes yearning to be smart enough to read and write properly, and in the second one hes inferring unwritten things that are eluded to in psychology text, although in both paragraphs he is motivated to learn. However, his desire to learn in the first paragraph is much more simple than his desire to infer background information about psychology texts. The theme has changed as well. In the first paragraph he yearns to be smart because he feels things would be better, for he would please his mother and Miss Kinnian. He has a motivation to learn to please others in the first paragraph. In the second paragraph however, he is obviously ore intelligent and intellectual, but hes taken a much more complex and morbid view from the knowledge hes acquired, like in the way he says that hes realized most ideas pertaining to psychology are just wishful thinking. However, he still wants to attain more knowledge at this point, like the more primitive Charlie.

As well as changes in the Charlies character and the overall theme, there is obviously two different styles of language in use. In the first paragraph the spelling is full of errors and there is no proper punctuation indicating the dialogue between himself and Nemur, and the second paragraph includes much more descriptive verbs, like I immersed myself in psychology texts, as opposed to descriptors such as very hard and I wantid to learn seen in the first paragraph, which are much more simple and in one case grammatically incorrect. The structure differs dramatically in both the paragraphs in numerous ways, like the lack of punctuation indicating dialogue which I already mentioned, as well as the proper use of the colon to provide a long list of things as seen in the second paragraph. Also, there were some run-on sentences in the first paragraph, whereas the second one made its points in concise, clear sentences. In addition, the imagery was much better in the second paragraph. Charlie saying, I immersed myself in psychological texts makes it easy to visualize a man deep into his studies, as opposed to something simpler such as if he were to say, I read psychology texts or something of that nature. In the first paragraph, Charlie talks about how he wants to learn, but that doesnt exactly convey how hard he wanted to learn. He could have said something more advanced, like I yearned for knowledge or I desperately wanted to acquire knowledge to help me in life. Another thing is that there are obviously numerous spelling errors in the first paragraph, like tolld, wantid, and lern. These errors obviously arent apparent in the second paragraph. Finally, a major difference in the paragraphs is the tone they have. In the first paragraph, Charlie sounds like a small child or someone with no power speaking up to a superior, in a simple and direct manner, whereas in the second paragraph, he seems much more morbid and pessimistic and complex, because hes reading advanced texts and making depressing inferences about them.

Flowers for Algernon had many different conflicts and themes throughout its story. A major part in creating these themes and conflicts was the different use of language throughout the novel. Gong from start to finish, the novels prose changed from simple to normal to advanced all the way back to simple. I honestly dont feel this book could have succeeded without the contrast in its writing style, because it added so much more character than something written bland and straightforward the whole way. Different styles of language made Flowers for Algernon, in my opinion, one of the best novels of all time.