Flowers for Algernon: Pages 119-165

Charlie and Alice's relationship continues to struggle. Alice believes that after the operation Charlie became a different person. Alice decides they need a break and she won't be coming to the convention. A few days later Charlie, Dr. Strauss, and professor Nemur leave for the convention. When Charlie gets on the plane he is terrified. Then the flight attendant tells him he needs to buckle his seatbelt. Charlie suddenly has a flashback to when he was a child. His mother took him to a doctor to make him smarter and the doctor strapped Charlie to a table. Charlie doesn't want to put his seatbelt on, but he has no choice. Charlie relaxes with his seat belt on and the rest of the flight goes smoothly.

When they arrive at the convention all the scientists gather in a room with Dr. Strauss, Professor Nemur, Charlie and Algernon. Charlie feels very uncomfortable and has an urge to let Algernon out of his cage. After a few speeches, Charlie opens the door to Algernon's cage. This causes complete chaos. Charlie catches up to Algernon and decides to take Algernon and go catch an airplane to NYC.

While reading this book I had many thoughts going through my mind. I can’t believe how poorly Charlie’s mother treats him. I don’t understand how a mother could look at her own child and think of them as stupid. I’m curious to see what Charlie will do; he will need to find a job soon. He is going off to live on his own and he doesn’t know anyone. Will he be able to make friends? I wonder if Dr. Strauss and Professor Nemur will find Charlie and Algernon. I can’t wait to keep reading and updating you.

Flowers for Algernon: Pages 82-119

In less than a forty page section of this book a lot has happened. Charlie continues to have many flashbacks and dreams. He is fired from his job at the bakery. The book moves very fast. It quickly changes subjects sometimes making it hard to follow. It’s really scary to see how Charlie was treated by his mother throughout his childhood. Charlie can remember she would whip him and scream at him for reasons he couldn’t understand. Throughout this book I noticed Charlie is often made fun of by groups of people, including his family and the workers at the bakery. I wonder if Charlie’s family knew what was wrong with him. While reading this book many questions have come up. Did they kick him out because he had a mental disorder? Was there a true reason behind Charlie being fired? Was Gimpy really stealing money? Some of these questions should be answered later on in the book and some may be left for the reader’s imagination to answer. 

Flowers for Algernon: Pages 41-82

Charlie continues to learn more. He is starting to understand what’s going on around him. Charlie is beginning to understand who his true friends are. When Charlie goes to a party with some of his friends from the bakery they get him drunk and give him fake food to eat. This is when Charlie learns that a lot of the guys at the bakery were pretending to be his friend but they were really just making Charlie look like a fool. 

Charlie starts to remember his dreams. He dreams that he asked Gimpy, a man who works in the bakery to write his progress report because he forgot how to write. He tells Gimpy exactly what to write but instead Gimpy writes a ton of curse words. This causes Ms. Kinnian, Dr. Strauss and Professor Nemur to become outraged with Charlie. Charlie then realizes why he had this dream it was a version of what happened to him in elementary school when he asked someone to write something for him. Charlie begins to get upset easily and he believes he can’t trust anyone. He moves on but is still uneasy about trust. Charlie continues to excel and earns a raise at the bakery. Charlie decided to ask Mrs. Kinnian to the movies to celebrate. Charlie starts to realize he has feelings for Mrs. Kinnian, but she clearly states it is not okay for them to have a relationship.

The book is very quickly progressing. Everything is spelled correctly now. Thankfully, because the misspelled words were driving me crazy. I really like how the book is written from Charlie's perspective. I think it helps to show him progressing and learning as the book goes on.  I'm curious to see what will happen between Charlie and Mrs. Kinnian. I wonder if Charlie will find his sister and parents. I hope he does.

Flowers For Algernon: Pages 1-40

Charlie is an adult in his early thirties. He lives a very unusual life. He was born with a severe learning disability. He works a job as the janitor at a local bakery and attends Beekman School for retarded adults. Dr. Strauss and Professor Nemur are looking for a candidate to have a surgery they invented to increase the candidate’s IQ. Charlie is eligible for this operation. The operation has never been done on a human, but they have done it on a mouse named Algernon. The operation was a success for Algernon and in the beginning of the book Algernon is smarter than Charlie. Charlie becomes frustrated with Algernon when they do mazes and Algernon beats him. Charlie feels really dumb and he wants to have the surgery. Professor Nemur and Dr. Strauss agree to give Charlie the surgery. When the surgery is over Charlie doesn’t seem any smarter but the doctors/scientists aren’t worried.  They give him a T.V. to turn at night which should help him to learn and they correct him when he spells something wrong. Charlie begins to become smarter, he is able to beat Algernon in the mazes and he can read and write better. Charlie begins to feel a connection between him and Algernon they don't compete anymore but Charlie still likes to visit Algernon.

The writing style of this book is very interesting. The book is written from Charlie’s prospective. It is written as Progress Reports which are presented as a series of short entries Charlie is supposed to write for the scientists. The spelling in the beginning of the book is horrible, everything is spelled the way it sounds (which is, interestingly, not the correct way to spell many words!). As the book goes on the spelling becomes better and eventually nothing is spelled wrong. I thought that was an interesting way of showing Charlie progressively becoming smarter. So far I am enjoying the book, I'm curious to see how Charlie's knowledge progress as the story goes on. I can't wait to read more and give you guys more updates!