Flowers For Algernon Essay, Research Paper

Do you remember seeing the mentally handicapped kids walking down the hall at school? What did you do when you saw them? Did you duck in a dark back hallway and try to avoid all contact with them? If you did then you re probably one of Charlie Gordon s friends . Or so he would think. In the book Flowers For Algernon by Dave Keyes Charlie Gordon is a mentally retarded adult. He soon receives an operation that will triple his IQ. Book doesn t sound good? How about the movie Charly which tries to follow the same tragic plot line but , like many other book to movie s doesn t quite fulfill the stories potential. The book Flowers For Algernon and the movie Charly have many differences.

Even though Flowers For Algernon and Charly are along the same lines three main differences in Flowers For Algernon are that one Charlie wants a relationship with Miss Kinnian but does not act upon it aggressively. In the book he says We ( Charlie and Miss Kinnian) had dinner and a long walk. Also he says The thought of leaving her behind makes me sad. I m in love with Miss Kinnian Also, Charlie keeps a journal. He goes in-depth in his mind and his heart. We can physically see him getting smarter or dumber, because his spelling is so bad. I dont know why im dumb agen or what I did wrong maybe its because I dint try hard enuff. This is the example of his journals. Finally, Charlie works in a Plastic Box company. I ve quit my job with Dunnegans Plastic Box Company. These are some of the changes in Flowers For Algernon.

Here are some differences in Charly . Charlie s tries to get Miss Kinnian in a serious relationship even though she doesn t want one. Then later she does end up wanting one. We see this because in one part he tries to force himself upon Miss Kinnian. She then throws him off and calls him a moron. Then she gets engaged to Charlie. Also, in Charly he does not keep a journal. He merely tells us what he thinks and what is going on in his mind and heart. Sometimes we don t even know what s going on with him. Finally, Charlie works in a bakery. His friends play a trick on him putting a bunch of dough in his locker. Also they ask him if he wants to operate the dough machine. These are some changes in Charly .

The changes are sometimes positive and sometimes negative. The way that the director played in the relationship of Miss Kinnian and Charlie made it almost to much of a love story and dulled my emotions for Charlie. I think he did this in order to extend the time of the movie and to try and get more emotion in it. This was a very bad thing to do, due to the fact it made lessen emotional to Charlie in the end. The part where they changed the journal was a very bad move. They made this change because it is very difficult to express a journal in a movie that is supposed to be action. Although it is understood why they made this change it impacts the overall story extremely badly. The next change is that Charlie works in a plastic box company not a bakery. The reason they made the changes in this is to make the boys have more opportunities to make fun of him. This impacted the movie positively due to the fact that it opened up more jokes so that the emotion for Charlie is increased.

There are many differences between Charly and Flowers For Algernon by Dave Keyes even though they follow the same basic story. So the next time you see a mentally handicapped person walking down the halls of school or even life what are you going to do? Are you going to say hi and slap hands or are you going to duck into that dark, back hallway that society calls prejudice.