Jake Whitney Week 4

I really did not like either novel, but if I had to choose one, I would pick Flowers for Algernon. Although it was hard to get past Charlie's initial poor spelling and grammar, the plot was much more enjoyable compared to Of Mice and Men. Of Mice and Men lacked any real flavor to me for two reasons. One, because it was too short and two, because of the time period it was set it, I really had no connections to the characters in the novel. I think the both novels say that society expects everyone to be average. If you are too slow then you are ostracized because you cannot communicate with those around you but on the other end of the spectrum, society will ostracize you (or in Charlie's case, you ostracize society) because your intelligence far exceeds your peers so you cannot establish a connection with them. Charlie really portrays both ends of this spectrum. He is first made the mockery of the bakery when all the other workers play cruel jokes on him but he is too dumb to understand that they are laughing at him and not with him. Then as his intelligence skyrockets, he realizes that the world is cruel and self-serving and he tries to alienate himself from that.