Flowers For Algernon
Here's a test: what do progress reports, ethically questionable science, and a white mouse named Algernon all have in common? They are all foundations to this week's story.
The Facts
Text: Flowers For Algernon Author: Daniel Keyes Genre: Speculative fiction, Science Fiction, Epistolary Year: 1959 Available: Here (Free!) Trigger Warning: This story depicts some bullying and abuse of a mentally disabled character.
The Fiction
Epistolary stories are those narrated in the first person through the form of letters, diary entries, or in our more modern world in blog posts, tweets, etc. It is an old style of writing, one we don't see a lot in novels as much today, but used to be quite popular. Epistolary writing is sort of the older precursor to the "mockumentary" or "found-footage" film. It is a style of writing that tries to add a sense of realism into how you are experiencing the story. These cameras were found in the woods, all these character's are in a documentary, these letters or this journal were found in an attic and finally published and that's how your seeing them now.
While epistolary stories work quite well with horror, that is not the only genre they are confined to, and this week's story is an excellent example of how the format can be used to really convey a character's voice. That story is the Hugo award winning science-fiction tale Flowers For Algernon, which is told through a series of progress reports written by narrator Charlie Gordon. The titular Algernon is a mouse who has undergone a cutting-edge operation that has increased its intelligence three-times its natural level. Charlie Gordon, a mentally disabled man with a thirst to learn and improve, is the first human subject to undergo this operation.
Through the progress reports we see Charlie Gordon's journey before and after this operation as he goes from having an IQ of 68 to one over 200. We see how Charlie's relationships with people at work, his teacher Miss. Kinnigan, the doctors running the project, and even the mouse Algernon change as he becomes more intelligent. Charlie begins to outstrip even the genius doctors who came up with the experiment, and finds his genius as isolating as his disability was.
Then one day Algernon bites him. The mouse begins exhibiting increasingly erratic and violent behavior. The increased intelligence of the mouse also begins to fade. Running the numbers Charlie realizes that the same is about to happen to him, and the later half of the story follows the aching decline of his intelligence and abilities as he begins to loose memories and the skills he had gained from the operation. Algernon dies and Charlie buries him, as his relationships with the people around him change once again.
Unable to stay in New York with all the people who had known him as a genius now watching his decline Charlie decides to leave, and go somewhere no one knows what he has lost. The story ends with a plea by Charlie for someone to put flowers on Algernon's grave.
The Feeling
As said above in terms of form this story makes perfect use of the epistolary format. By telling the story through progress reports in Charlie's own hand Keyes is able to show the changes in Charlie through the changes in his writing. The early progress reports are full of misspellings, use simple vocabulary, and show off Charlie's earnest but naïve voice. After the operation the progress reports very slowly being to change with better spelling, a more complex vocabulary, and grammar until they almost read like a scientific journal.
The change in Charlie's voice reflects his change of mind as he begins to see the world around him differently because of his increased intelligence. It also adds another element to the tragedy of the story. When Charlie's intelligence begins to decline and he talks about forgetting things or not being able to read the books he once loved, that loss is reflected by a decline in his writing as it goes back to smaller concepts, vocabulary and misspellings.
Beyond just the style of its narration, this story stands out too because of its ideas and content. Like many good short stories written about on this blog and many great sci-fi works this story asks the reader questions and doesn't just give answer. Would Charlie have been better off if he never had the operation in the first place? Was it cruel? Is what happened to him (and Algernon of course) justified if it advanced science/humanity?
In content this is a story about intelligence, but in theme it is about compassion. There is a scene where pre-genius Charlie talks about his "friends" from the factory, using dramatic irony we the readers understand the abusive way they are treating him, but at this point in the story Charlie does not, and this scene was genuinely heart-wrenching for me to read when Charlie earnestly calls his tormentors his friends.
Whether he is the slowest or the smartest person in a room Charlie is always isolated, always on guard for being laughed at once he realizes how he was being treated. And yet whatever his intelligence he is characterized as compassionate. He has to work on it sometimes after the operation, but he always tries. Which is really Charlie's defining character trait and what makes him a protagonist so easy to care about and root for: he always tries.
Whatever a person's intelligence, whatever their education or background this story asks us to try and try and try to be better to each other and for ourselves. Whether that means standing up for a co-worker, giving someone a second chance when the world has left them behind, or leaving flowers for Algernon.
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