Charlie Gordon, a
mentally retarded thirty-two-year-old man, is chosen by a team of
scientists to undergo an experimental surgery designed to boost
his intelligence. Alice Kinnian, Charlie’s teacher at the Beekman
College Center for Retarded Adults, has recommended Charlie for
the experiment because of his exceptional eagerness to learn. The
directors of the experiment, Dr. Strauss and Professor Nemur, ask
Charlie to keep a journal. The entire narrative of Flowers
for Algernon is composed of the “progress reports” that
Charlie writes.
Charlie works at Donner’s Bakery in New York City as
a janitor and delivery boy. The other employees often taunt him
and pick on him, but Charlie is unable to understand that he is
the subject of mockery. He believes that his coworkers are good
friends. After a battery of tests—including a maze-solving competition
with a mouse named Algernon, who has already had the experimental
surgery performed on him—Charlie undergoes the operation. He is
initially disappointed that there is no immediate change in his
intellect, but with work and help from Alice, he gradually improves
his spelling and grammar. Charlie begins to read adult books, slowly
at first, then voraciously, filling his brain with knowledge from
many academic fields. He shocks the workers at the bakery by inventing
a process designed to improve productivity. Charlie also begins
to recover lost memories of his childhood, most of which involve
his mother, Rose, who resented and often brutally punished Charlie
for not being normal like other children.
As Charlie becomes more intelligent, he realizes that
he is deeply attracted to Alice. She insists on keeping their relationship
professional, but it is obvious that she shares Charlie’s attraction.
When Charlie discovers that one of the bakery employees is stealing
from Mr. Donner, he is uncertain what to do until Alice tells him
to trust his heart. Delighted by the realization that he is capable
of solving moral dilemmas on his own, Charlie confronts the worker
and forces him to stop cheating Donner. Not long afterward, Charlie
is let go from the bakery because the other workers are disturbed
by the sudden change in him, and because Donner can see that Charlie no
longer needs his charity. Charlie grows closer to Alice, though whenever
the mood becomes too intimate, he experiences a sensation of panic
and feels as if his old disabled self is watching him. Charlie recovers
memories of his mother beating him for the slightest sexual impulses,
and he realizes that this past trauma is likely responsible for
his inability to make love to Alice.
Dr. Strauss and Professor Nemur take Charlie and Algernon
to a scientific convention in Chicago, where they are the star exhibits. Charlie
has become frustrated by Nemur’s refusal to recognize his humanity.
He feels that Nemur treats him like just another lab animal, even
though it is disturbingly clear that Charlie’s scientific knowledge
has advanced beyond Nemur’s. Charlie wreaks havoc at the convention
by freeing Algernon from his cage while they are onstage. Charlie
flees back to New York with Algernon and gets his own apartment,
where the scientists cannot find him. He realizes that Nemur’s hypothesis
contains an error and that there is a possibility that his intelligence
gain will only be temporary.
Charlie meets his neighbor, an attractive, free-spirited
artist named Fay Lillman. Charlie does not tell Fay about his past,
and he is able to consummate a sexual relationship with her. The
foundation that has funded the experiment gives Charlie dispensation
to do his own research, so he returns to the lab. However, his commitment to
his work begins to consume him, and he drifts away from Fay.
Algernon’s intelligence begins to slip, and his behavior
becomes erratic. Charlie worries that whatever happens to Algernon
will soon happen to him as well. Algernon eventually dies. Fearing
a regression to his previous level of intelligence, Charlie visits
his mother and sister in order to try to come to terms with his
past. He finds the experience moving, thrilling, and devastating.
Charlie’s mother, now a demented old woman, expresses pride in his
accomplishments, and his sister is overjoyed to see him. However,
Rose suddenly slips into a delusional flashback and attacks Charlie
with a butcher knife. He leaves sobbing, but he feels that he has
finally overcome his painful background and become a fully developed individual.
Charlie succeeds in finding the error in Nemur’s hypothesis,
scientifically proving that a flaw in the operation will cause his
intelligence to vanish as quickly as it has come. Charlie calls
this phenomenon the “Algernon-Gordon Effect.” As he passes through a
stage of average intelligence on his way back to retardation, Charlie
enjoys a brief, passionate relationship with Alice, but he sends her
away as he senses the return of his old self. When Charlie’s regression
is complete, he briefly returns to his old job at the bakery, where
his coworkers welcome him back with kindness.
Charlie forgets that he is no longer enrolled in Alice’s
night-school class for retarded adults, and he upsets her by showing
up. In fact, Charlie has forgotten their entire romantic relationship.
Having decided to remove himself from the people who have known
him and now feel sorry for him, he checks himself into a home for
disabled adults. His last request is for the reader of his manuscript
to leave fresh flowers on Algernon’s grave.
