In the book Flowers for Algernon by author Daniel Keyes a major theme has to do with the mistreatment of the mentally disabled. By Keyes creating a fictional situation of augmenting the intelligence of someone with diminished intelligence he was able to portray society’s mistreatment of the handicapped from an interesting prospective. Charlie Gordon the main character in the book was born with an unusually low IQ of 68, thus rendering him mentally disabled in our society. Charlie agrees to go through with an experimental procedure, called “operashun”, to potentially increase his intelligence. As Charlie grows more intelligent effectively he is transformed from a mentally retarded man to a genius; he realizes that people have always based their feeling towards him on their feeling of superiority. For example his co-workers at the bakery had always treated him as a ‘friend’ in his mind – “It had been all right as long as they could laugh at me and appear clever at my expense, but now they were feeling inferior to the morn. I began to see that my astonishing growth had made them shrink and emphasized their inadequacies.” Everyone had treated him as intellectually inferior, in some cases with outright cruelty; where others tried to be kind but ultimately had been condescending in their charity. An example of outright cruelty were the pranks played on Charlie when he worked at the Bakery or the cruel jokes made about him – “Sometimes somebody will say hey lookit Frank, Jo or even Gimpy. He really pulled a Charlie Gordon that time. I don’t really know why they say it but they always laff and I laff too.” Overall the book has definitely caught my attention in this area, of behaviour towards the mentally handicapped, in my life. It has led to some awareness of the way in which I have perhaps looked down on those with disabilities instead of looking at what they have to offer to the world. Everyone has a different job in this life and who am I to say that I am superior to a classmate or the homeless man walking down the street. Perhaps I should dedicate the time to getting to know these extraordinary people on our community. But first I feel in the step in the right direction would be to learn to treat these people with the dignity and respect they deserve.
By Lindsay MacLean
Your book sounds really interesting! I find it very sad that the theme of people treating the disabled, whether mentally or physically, with an attitude of superiority carries over into real life. I am glad that this book can give some insight to readers about how these people may feel, and that they all have something to offer in this world. Good job!:)
ReplyDeleteEven though it's a grim idea, isn't that just reflective of human condition? I mean, if you see someone who is different you in some way, you are going to notice that difference, and no matter what you do, it will affect how you treat them. For example, if somebody is handicap, and you know, either you will go out of you way to help them bcause of their disability, or you will make fun of them and be cruel. Even if you try to act like you don't notice, it will subconciously impact how you treat them. It doesn't mean that you will be cruel, but simiply that people never treat two people exactly the same because we are affected by the differences we see between them.
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