Flowers For Algernon And Other Stories Essay, Research Paper

The most obvious contrast between Flowers for Algernon and other short stories,

such as ?A & P? and ?Miss Brill? is the length. But length is not

the topic for this short essay. The predominant difference, besides length, is

the number of fully realized characters in the story. In ?A & P? and

?Miss Brill? the only fully developed characters are Sammy in ?A &

P? and Miss Brill in ?Miss Brill.? In the short story ?A & P? by

John Updike, there is a character, Sammy, who is shown experiencing about 15

minutes (maybe less) of life in a market. Besides Sammy, the rest of the people

in the story are basically cardboard characters that create conflict for Sammy.

The reader never really gets to know the store manager or the girls because they

are all looked at through the eyes of Sammy. In a longer story, other characters

might have been fleshed out and given more complex and real personalities

instead of acting as catalysts for the plot. In the short story ?Miss Brill?

by Katherine Mansfield, there is a character, Miss Brill who is a completely

developed character. The other characters in the story?the people in the park

and the two teenagers on the bench next to her?only help to develop Miss Brill

further. The reader never knows any of the supporting characters (if they can

even be called supporting). Just as in ?A & P? they are nothing more

than catalysts. In the long short story ?Flowers for Algernon? by Daniel

Keyes, Charlie Gordon is, indeed, the main character. In this story however, he

is not the only character. The other characters in the story are not just things

to move the plot along and develop Charlie as a character, but are full

characters themselves. Alice, Charlie?s ?love interest? cares for Charlie

even before the operation. She is conflicted in the way that she wants Charlie

to be smarter, but is not so sure of the operation. Her feelings come out pretty

obviously in the last scene when Charlie (after his high IQ has dwindled back to

where he was, or even less) goes back to class. When she sees him back in the

class for people with learning problems, she runs out crying because of what has

happened to Charlie. We understand why she does what she does, and also can

relate to her feelings and emotions. The difference between stories like ?A

& P,? ?Miss Brill,? and ?Flowers for Algernon? is that short

stories present an opportunity to focus on the personality of a single character

while longer stories can have a more developed supporting characters. Focusing

on only one character does not make a story of any less worth than a story with

fifty developed characters. It is just a different style of writing.