Last winter, a friend wrote only one sentence after reading this book in the middle of the night: “After reading Flowers for Algernon, I sat on the balcony for a long time until the cigarette burned out.” There was no plot introduction, no personal reflection, only this sentence. I stared at the line for a few seconds and thought to myself: what kind of story could leave someone in silence for so long? In this way, I opened the book with this question.
Facts have proved that it was indeed a book that leaves you sitting in silence long after finishing it. The most special thing about this book is that it is written entirely in the form of “Progress Reports”. That is, the journals written by the protagonist himself. The person who wrote these reports was an adult man with an intellectual disability who did odd jobs at a bakery. He is so simple that people’s hearts soften, and his biggest wish is to become smart. One day, he became the subject of a brain surgery experiment, and the mouse named Algernon had done the same operation one step ahead of him. You may vaguely guess what happens later, but what really makes people feel uncomfortable is not the twist of the plot, but how he comes to understand and endure it step by step, and finally watches everything slip away from him.
The deepest pain: not the loss, but the sober fall after having it
The most heartbreaking thing about the whole book is not Charlie’s original ignorance, but his soberness towards loss. In the last few progress reports, typos reappeared, and the sentences became shorter and chaotic. Charlie was like a drowning man desperately grasping the last straw – that straw was called “memory self”. What readers see is not only the fall of intelligence, but also the last struggle of a soul before darkness.
Some people say that Charlie’s most painful moment is the revelation of the truth by being ridiculed, while others say that the most painful moment is watching himself return to the original point. But among the two confusions that Charlie himself has experienced, the pain of awakening from darkness to light is far more unbearable. When he can finally see the world clearly, he finds that the kindness he thought in the past was just a mockery, the friend he thought was just a watcher, and the loved one who thought could not accept a defective child. The pain of awakening cuts far deeper than the subsequent mental decline. Because the recession at least still has the residual warmth of “once had”, and awakening brings a re-judgment of the whole life.
Wisdom and happiness: two parallel lines that never intersect
Charlie didn’t get the expected happiness after he became smarter. Instead, he found that the “friends” in the bakery had been laughing at him, and the “friendships” he cherished were worthless. The harm caused to Charlie by this cognitive turn is double: on the one hand, his self-identity has created a crack – his past life has almost become a joke; on the other hand, he can never return to that innocent happiness. Although the happiness of ignorance is false, at least it does not hurt; now, he is sober, but he can never go back.
This book delivers a core message: Wisdom has no inherent connection with happiness, and dignity should never be measured by IQ. Whether his intelligence is 68 or 185, Charlie is essentially the Charlie who longs to be hugged and afraid of being abandoned. Society’s ridicule of the mentally retarded and the use of genius are essentially out of the same mistake – the distribution of dignity according to intelligence.
Triple criticism: scientists, society and family
The power of this book is also that it reveals the same focus from multiple levels: scientists only care about experimental data and academic fame, and regard Charlie and Algernon as “achievements” rather than “life”; society always habitually ridicules, pity or fears the mentally retarded, and feels inferior and hostile to geniuses; and the family– Charlie’s mother couldn’t accept that he was flawed, and his sister was ashamed of him – to let the reader see that the closest love may also be conditional. These three are intertwined and point to the fact that people always use intelligence to measure the value of others, but forget human nature itself.
Algernon: an unavoidable mirror
Algernon is not only an experimental partner, but also a mirror image of Charlie’s fate. It experienced the peak of intelligence, abnormal behavior, decline and death before Charlie, and outlined the inescapable future trajectory for Charlie step by step. When Charlie buried Algernon and asked others to offer flowers for it, I think he was actually silently mourning his unspeakable fate. This is the most powerless setting – you clearly see your end in advance, but you don’t even have a chance to change. This sense of powerlessness is more worrying than any tragedy.
Despite the heartbreaking ending, the book does not convey despair. I would like to emphasize here that even if Charlie’s intelligence declines, he always retains the kindness in his bones, and his behavior of asking others to offer flowers to Algernon is the best proof. Kindness is never a gift of wisdom, but an innate part of human nature. He has always been the “person” who is willing to be kind to others and pure and sincere. The author did not give readers false hope, but let the tragedy end completely and let the cruelty appear completely. I think this is exactly the most honest tribute to that brief light.
Charlie Gordon had the ability to understand the world for a short time, and then lost it completely. But he has really existed, worked hard, loved, and suffered deeply. The process of reading this book is actually the process of offering a bouquet of flowers to Charlie. This is neither sympathy nor pity, but remember – remember a soul who was extremely eager to be understood, remember a person who never gave up kindness in the gap between light and darkness.
Just as Charlie didn’t forget Algernon, we shouldn’t forget him.
