“Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes

1. “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes 8th Grade Literature OMMS

2. About theAuthor • Daniel Keyes was born in 1927 in Brooklyn, New York. • He attended Brooklyn College, where he earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees. • He went on to become a fiction editor at Marvel Science Fiction and also worked as a high school teacher for developmentally disabled adults. • Having published science-fiction stories since the early 1950s, Keyes drew on his experience in the classroom and his love of science fiction to compose a short story called “Flowers for Algernon” in 1959.

3. Key Facts • Genre: Science fiction • Date of first publication · Short story published in 1959; expanded novel form first published in 1966 • Narrator:  Charlie Gordon, a mentally disabled man who undergoes experimental surgery to increase his intelligence.

4. Point of view  · The novel is told in the form of first-person “progress reports” Charlie keeps throughout the course of the experiment. • Setting: New York City during the mid-1960s • Themes: Mistreatment of the mentally disabled; the tension between intellect and emotion

5. Motifs  · Changes in grammar, spelling, and punctuation; flashbacks; the scientific method • Symbols  · Algernon

6. Cast of Characters • Charlie Gordon -  A thirty-two-year-old mentally retarded man who lives in New York City • Works at Donner’s Bakery as a janitor and delivery boy, and is the hardest-working student in Alice Kinnian’s literacy class for retarded adults. • Algernon -  The white mouse that is the first successful test subject for the experimental operation Charlie later undergoes.

7. Alice Kinnian -  Charlie’s teacher at the Beekman College Center for Retarded Adults. • She originally recommends Charlie for the experimental operation because she is impressed by his motivation. • Frank Reilly and Joe Carp -  Two employees at Donner’s Bakery who often pick on Charlie.

8. Professor Harold Nemur -  The scientist in charge of the experiment. • Nemur treats Charlie as a laboratory animal rather than a human being • Dr. Strauss -  The neurologist and psychiatrist who performs the experimental operation. • Unlike Nemur, Dr. Strauss maintains interest in and concern for Charlie’s emotional development.

9. Literary Focus • Stereotypes: A fixed idea about the members of a particular group that does not allow for any individuality. • Stereotypes are often based on misconceptions about racial, social, religious, gender, or ethnic groups. • Identity: The distinguishing character or personality of an individual • Discrimination: Prejudiced outlook, action, or treatment

10. Literary Focus Genre: Science Fiction • Science fiction is a genre of fiction in which the stories often tell about science and technology of the future. • It is important to note that science fiction has a relationship with the principles of science—these stories involve partially true-partially fictitious laws or theories of science. • It should not be completely unbelievable, because it then ventures into the genre fantasy.

11. Genre: Science Fiction • The plot creates situations different from those of both the present day and the known past. • Science fiction texts also include a human element, explaining what effect new discoveries, happenings and scientific developments will have on us in the future. • Science fiction texts are often set in the future, in space, on a different world, or in a different universe or dimension.