In Daniel Keyes book, Flowers For Algernon, Charlie is a thirty year old man who is mentally challenged. Charlie works at a bakery as a janitor and delivery boy. His goal in life is to become more intelligent. He is excited when two respected scientists believe that they can perform an operation to help make him more intelligent. He begins to write his personal story before his surgery and continues to write as he recovers. After a few weeks, it appears that he is becoming smarter as his writing and grammar improve. Slowly, Charlie begins to increase in intelligence. For example, he starts reading more advanced books. Also, he shocks his coworkers because they are so used to seeing him struggle.
Charlie's struggles began early in life. He has flashbacks of when he was younger. Charlie's mother, Rose, beat him just for being mentally challenged. She sent him
away unable to really understand his special needs.
Although Charlie's mental capacity increases, socially he is still like a child. Charlie's main interest is Alice. She, however, does not want to get in trouble for having a relationship with her student. She becomes angry with Charlie because he becomes too smart.
Charlie's life seems to go downhill as his intelligence improves. It all starts to unravel when Charlie sees one of his coworkers steeling money from the business. As a result, the owners fire him because his coworkers are disturbed by his sudden intelligence.
The last straw for Charlie is when the scientist take him to Chicago for a convention. At the convention, Charlie learns that scientists do not recognize his humanity. He feels like a lab animal. This causes him to go into a panic and he leaves the conference. He gets on a plane and goes back to New York. On the why back from Chicago, he realizes he is going back to his original self.
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