Argumentative Essay: Daniel Keyes Flowers For Algernon

Flowers For Algernon Argumentative Essay (Rough Draft) Intelligence is something that many people argue you need to thrive in the world. In the story Flowers for Algernon, the main character Charlie Gordon, has lived his whole life with a low IQ of sixty-eight. When two doctors picked him to have a surgery that would triple his IQ, it sparked some controversy whether or not he should have had the surgery. The doctors made a good choice choosing Charlie for the surgery, in the book Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. Charlie Gordon should have been chosen for this surgery because his emotional maturity grew with the progress of his IQ. One example of this is “We had dinner and a long talk. She said I was coming along so fast”(Keyes 197). Before the surgery Charlie was never able to express any emotion during his conversations. He could finally understand why or even how people were talking and acting towards him. “I knew what she was thinking about me”(Keyes 198). Charlie now knew how to read people’s facial expression and put that into context with the conversation they were having. Some might say that Charlie’s emotional maturity was not necessarily a good thing because he was not able to trust anyone for fear of being made …show more content…
Charlie later wrote how he felt about leaving New York “ i don’t want anything like that to happen to me again...everyone feels sorry for me” (Keyes 209). Charlie knew what he had done and was okay with leaving New York, so he could go and have a fresh start until the complications of the operation caught up with him. “It's good to know things and be smart”(Keyes 210). In the end Charlie was okay with making sacrifices to be smart just like he always wanted to be. Charlie got to see that no matter what he could never be intelligent for the rest of his life and he was okay with