Characterization of Charlie Gordon

The most important character in the short story “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes is Charlie Gordon, the protagonist and the narrator.

Charlie Gordon, the narrator of the short story, is a developing character in terms of both outer and inner characterization.

Outer characterization

In his initial outer characterization, the narrator presents himself as a 37-year-old man, working as a janitor at Donnegan's Plastic Box Company.

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Inner characterization

The inner characterization of Charlie follows the same pattern as his outer one. Initially, he is a naive person, a feeble-minded individual who wants to become smarter: “Miss Kinnian says maybe they can make me smart. I want to be smart.”

Though he is aware that he is not smart, Charlie acts in a childlike way, unable to see that other people – namely his work colleagues – make fun of his lack of intelligence. Quite the contrary, he finds most of the people nice, and assumes them to be his friends:

Then Frank Reilly said what did you do Charlie forget your key and open your door the hard way. That made me laff. Their really my friends and they like me. Sometimes somebody will say hey look at Joe or Frank or George he really pulled a Charlie Gordon. I dont know why they say that but they always laff.

He also considers his reading and writing teacher, Miss Kinnian, smart, as well as the two doctors who are performing the experiment, although he is not particularly fond of Dr. Nemur: “I like Miss Kinnian becaus shes a very smart teacher.”; “That Dr Nemur is a grouch.”

Before starting to see the effects of the operation, Charlie becomes frustrated and impatient, and develops a grudge against the mouse, Algernon, who is smarter than he is: “Nothing is happining. I had lots of tests and different kinds of races with Algernon. I hate that mouse. He always beats me.”

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