Flowers for Algernon

I was at Harris @ Suntec this evening after I had my identity card photo finally taken. I bought two books - What Your Birthday Reveals About You & The New Highway Code Book 1 (Basic Theory of Driving).

After I paid for my purchases and before I left, I noticed a paperback in my fave color - hot pink! The cover's only illustration is a mouse. I thought it was interesting but I didn't have time to browse as the store was closing.

This was what I found on the internet about the Hugo Award for Best Short Story (1960) and joint winner of Nebula Award for Best Novel (1966).



"Any one who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eye are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light, which is true of the mind's eye, quite as much as of the bodily eye."

In the short story, Charlie Gordon is a 37 year old man with an IQ of 68 who works as a janitor at Donnegan's Plastic Box Company. He has surgery to increase his intelligence, following a similar successful experiment on Algernon, a laboratory mouse. The surgery is successful and Charlie's IQ triples.

As he becomes more intelligent, he falls in love with his former teacher, Alice Kinnian but he soon passes her level and they are unable to relate to one another. As Charlie's intelligence peaks, Algernon unexpectedly loses his increased intelligence and dies and Charlie discovers that his intelligence increase is also only temporary.

Unable to do anything to prevent the change, Charlie reverts to his original mental state in a swift reversal of his original growth. He tries to return to his original life and job at the plastic box factory but cannot stand everyone feeling sorry for him so he decides to move away.