Week Two; Flowers for Algernon

In the novel, Flowers for Algernon, the author influences mentally handicapped people as those who aren’t as fortunate or able to be ‘normal’ human beings. The author also shows that even though some aren’t as fortunate as others, people should still be given a chance at something they want to succeed in and do for themselves. When Charlie receives the opportunity to increase his intelligence, that became his second chance. Although it wasn’t easy and did cause a lot of troubles for him, Charlie realized things that he wasn’t able to when he was mentally handicapped. For instance, he got to see how people make fun of retards and he learned how people treated him when all along he was oblivious to it. This novel hasn’t really affected the way I feel toward mentally handicapped people because I have always looked at them with the same respect as anyone else because that’s what they deserve. They can’t help that God made them that way! In the end of the novel, Charlie’s intelligence starts to regress and I think that is a good way of the author showing us that no matter what happens in life, we are always going to be the person we were created to be and we can’t change that. I think that it’s a good thing this novel is read in high school because it can help us be more aware of the mentally handicapped people and the way they feel. It can also be a positive way for us to learn how to act towards them and make them feel even more accepted in school :)