Summary

“Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes tells the story of Charlie Gordon, a mentally retarded adult who keeps a journal tracking his progress while enrolled in an experiment to artificially increase his intelligence. The first entries in his journal present him as going through some psychological tests to see if he is a good subject for the experiment. Charlie goes to a night school where Miss Kinnian teaches him to read and write, and he also works in a factory as a janitor. He thinks his work colleagues are his friends because they laugh when he is around, but, in fact, they are laughing at him. Charlie takes some more tests in which his abilities are compared to that of a mouse called Algernon, which also had his intelligence increased and always beats the man.

Charlie is eventually chosen for the experiment and Dr. Strauss and Dr. Nemur perform an operation on him. After the operation, Charlie goes back to work but feels frustrated because he does not seem to be getting smarter. The...