[SPOILERS!] I have just finished Flowers For Algernon for the first time. I’m an emotional wreck after reading this than I was after reading A Little Life

So I started and finished *Flowers For Algernon* by Daniel Keyes today. I hated the way the adults and people in position and authority treated Charlie. How dare they?! To see Charlie go from >!having severe lack of intelligence to having above average intelligence and contributing to the field dedicated to others suffering from his disabilities and then folding back into lack of intelligence!< was and is the most heartbreaking thing I have ever read. That journey itself and what he >!had done to him by people in position of authority was brutal.!<

Though he is fictional, I am extremely proud of Charlie. To keep wanting to learn and be educated before and after >!the (extremely illegal and unethical!) operation made me so happy. Even when at the end of the story he moves away to Warren State Home and Training School he takes with him some books and says he will try to read everyday in the hopes of being smart again.!<

Whilst I loved reading *A Little Life* and believe it is a wonderfully written book and was brutal it was also (having thought about it) just so in your face. Even though ~~you~~ I devoured the chapters, it’s not a book I’m ever rereading. In contrast, I think *Flowers For Algernon* is a book I hope to reread. It was such a beautiful and gripping read.

There were two of many instances that stood out for me. The first made me almost bawl my eyes out on the train. It is when he is recounting the time when >!his mother sees him pick up his sister.!< The quote is below.

>!One time when they were in the kitchen and I was in my bed she was crying. I got up to pick her up and hold her to get quiet the way mom does. But then Mom came in yelling and took her away.
And she slapped me so hard I fell on the bed.!<

>!Then she startid screaming. Dont you ever touch her again. Youll hurt her. Shes a baby. You got no business touching her. I dint know it then but I guess I know it now that she thought I was going to hurt the baby because I was too dumb to know what I was doing. Now that makes me feel bad because I would never of hurt the baby.!<

>!When I go to Dr Straus office I got to tell him about that.!<

Poor Charlie. I can understand his frustration(s) when he says ample times that >!he is a person and wants to be treated as one.!<

The second time is near the end when he says to >!Miss Kinnian!< the below.

>!I dont want Miss Kinnian to feel sorry for me. Evry body feels sorry at the factery and I dont want that eather so Im going someplace where nobody knows that Charlie Gordon was once a genus and now he cant even reed a book or rite good.!<

>!Im taking a cuple of books along and even if I cant reed them Ill practise hard and maybe I wont forget every thing I lerned. If I try reel hard maybe Ill be a littel bit smarter then I was before the operashun. I got my rabits foot and my luky penny and maybe they will help me.!<

>!If you ever reed this Miss Kinnian dont be sorry for me Im glad I got a second chanse to be smart becaus I lerned a lot of things that I never even new were in this world and Im grateful that I saw it all for a littel bit. I dont know why Im dumb agen or what I did wrong maybe its becaus I dint try hard enuff. But if I try and practis very hard maybe Ill get a littl smarter and know what all the words are. I remember a littel bit how nice I had a feeling with the blue book that has the torn cover when I red it. Thats why Im gonna keep trying to get smart so I can have that feeling agen. Its a good feeling to know things and be smart. I wish I had it rite now if I did I would sit down and reed all the time. Anyway I bet Im the first dumb person in the world who ever found out somthing importent for sience. I remember I did somthing but I dont remember what. So I gess its like I did it for all the dumb pepul like me.!<

>!Good-by Miss Kinnian and Dr Strauss and evreybody. And P.S. please tell Dr Nemur not to be such a grouch when pepul laff at him and he woud have more frends. Its easy to make frends if you let pepul laff at you. Im going to have lots of frends where I go.!<

>!P.P.S. Please if you get a chanse put some flows on Algernons grave in the bak yard …!<

How can this not make you want to cry? This is the saddest, most emotional book I have ever read. Oh man Charlie, I’m so so sorry 🙁

>!RIP Algernon!<

by IXMCMXCII