Lecture

Flowers for Algernon is a 1966 novel by Daniel Keyes that tells the story of Charlie Gordon, a man with an intellectual disability. The novel is told through a series of progress reports documenting Charlie's experience in an experimental surgery that temporarily increases his intelligence. As Charlie's intellect rapidly improves through the early reports, his writing transforms from simple phrases to proper grammar and spelling. However, the surgery's effects prove to only be temporary. In the later reports, Charlie's writing and intelligence begin to deteriorate back toward his original state as the surgery's effects wear off. The novel explores what it means to be intelligent and how society defines and values intelligence.