Excerpt via Term Paper:
Blossoms for Algernon:
The Search For Artificial Intelligence
Daniel Keyes sf novel Flowers for Algernon, first printed in 1966, relates the storyplot of Steve Gordon through a diary (a collection of “progress reports”) authored by Charlie, a mentally-challenged guy who through experimental nuclear physics evolves to a genius. Although many scientist and researchers in today’s highly scientific age happen to be striving for ways to increase the mental capacities of human beings through biological and artificial means, when Plants for Algernon first appeared, this kind of ideas were pure sci-fi. Yet irrespective of Charlie’s tragic outcome inside the novel, it seems like a wise idea to continue to pursue any and all means to boost the mental capabilities of humans, due partly to the requirement for highly-intelligent males and females who will deal with unimagined conditions in the isolated future.
At the outset of the book, the reader can be introduced to Charlie in the first-person narrative, pertaining to he produces, in the language of a incredibly simple-minded and clearly uneducated person, that “Dr. Strauss says I should rite down what I think… I avoid no how come but he says its essential… I hope each uses me becaus… maybe they will make me smart” (“progris riport 1, pg. 1). Coming from Charlie’s perspective, it appears that he considers getting smart as being a necessary attribute for success in the world, not to mention that this individual equates cleverness with being loved and accepted simply by his peers. In the new, Charlie’s wish to be smart comes true, pertaining to Dr . Strauss and his team of scientist perform a brain procedure on Charlie based on a great experiment done on a mouse button named Algernon. And in a few weeks, the operation actually is a complete success, for Steve become more brilliant than the experts that performed the procedure.
However , with all of this manufactured brilliance, Steve soon finds out that intellect comes with a cost, for he finds that his co-office workers do not understand what has took place to him. Thus, this individual turns incredibly arrogant and takes on an excellent attitude which only alienates him, specifically from the scientist that developed his genius. When Steve finally decides to spend his mom a visit, she rejects him; his father will the same, due to not rising the great alterations that have visit their kid. But most detrimental of all, Steve discovers that his intellect is a stumbling block with Alice, the instructor that at first recommended him for the brain surgery. Essentially, Charlie’s new brilliance has made him an outcast that could be when compared to a highly-intelligent child that cannot correspond with nor remain in his colleagues or even his elders.
However the most tragic aspect lies in the fact that Algernon, the mouse applied as the foundation for the brain surgery, drops dead in the research laboratory which causes Charlie to comprehend that the try things out on him as well is going to fail. For Daniel Keyes, this proved to be the “fatal flaw” inside the character of Charlie Gordon, for through this plot device, Keyes expresses his underlying idea and causes the reader to consider if the desire to reach beyond one’s capabilities is known as a dangerous precedent and if science should be utilized to successfully alter a person’s mental state of mind and consequently his whole personality.
Plants for Algernon is a job of science-fiction, yet it contains as its fundamental theme the will for technology to broaden human understanding. But instead of utilizing the positive aspects of this kind of desire, Keyes focuses on the possible tragic outcomes associated with science as well as its quest for ultimate knowledge. Thus, as a story written from this perspective, Bouquets for Algernon presents to the reader a ponderous question, namely, perhaps the benefits obtained from higher knowledge are worth the purchase price. In regard to unnatural intelligence, Steve is the quintessential “guinea pig, ” much like Algernon the mouse button
