Flowers for Algernon
By: Dan Roepke “Artificially Increasing Intelligence” Knowledge is a set of facts stored in the memory section of the human brain. Intelligence is a characteristic of ones self. Both knowledge and intelligence is a necessity for a human being to live a full well rounded life. In the novel “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes, Charlie Gordon receives an operation to heighten his intelligence. Charlie’s original I.Q. of 68 eventually surpasses the average human I.Q. to reveal the experiment a success, but only for a short while. Charlie should have the operation to artificially increase his intelligence because he gets a chance to feel emotions, to make a contribution to science and also ends up reaching his goal of fitting into society. Throughout the story Charlie experienced many different emotions that he had never experienced before because he didn’t have the common knowledge to understand them. One of his pleasant emotions he experienced was love.