Scenes

250-300 flower of algenon

   Charlie has made arrangements with the Welberg Foundation to conduct his own research at Beekman, and Professor Nemur feels slighted. Burt is happy to have Algernon back at the lab, but Algernon's behavior disturb him. Algernon has regressed. Charlie notices a freezer and an incinerator in the lab. He realizes that animal test subjects are disposed of when experiments fail. Charlie asks Burt to give Algernon to him if and when the mouse dies; he does not want Algernon merely to be disposed of in the incinerator.  Professor Nemur admits that, in the event of failure, Charlie would be sent to the Warren State Home.

   On a rainy day, Charlie drives out to the Warren State Home for a tour.  At the lab, Algernon refuses to eat or run mazes. Alarmed by Algernon's decline, Alice visits Charlie at his new apartment. Fay crashes in on Alice and Charlie's meeting. Contrary to Charlie's expectations, Fay and Alice become instant friends and the three chat late into the night. Alice worries that Charlie's drinking, dancing and late nights with Fay interfere with his work at the lab. Charlie reassures Alice that he loves her. Though he continued to be with fay.

   Charlie works all hours at the lab, to Fay's annoyance. He cannot rest, for he must fit a lifetime of research into several weeks. Fay finds a new boyfriend, but Charlie hardly cares; he is deeply involved in his work. Professor Nemur's controlling wife throws a cocktail party, and Charlie attends with friendly intentions. he begins to drink heavily. Rude and emotional, Charlie loses control and reverts back to the old Charlie Gordon. He rushes to the bathroom and sees the old Charlie, staring back at him in the mirror. Confronting his reflection, Charlie says, "I'm not your friend. I'm your enemy. I'm not going to give up my intelligence without a struggle.

   Deeply depressed, Charlie consider suicide until he realizes that his life belongs to the old Charlie Gordon. During a therapy session with Dr. Strauss, Charlie experiences a bizarre out-of-body hallucination, filled with light and the sensation of floating. He envisions a dark cave and Plato's words haunt him: "...the men of the cave would say of him that up he went and down he came without his eyes.

3rd flower of algenon

 Doctors sit on a jet bound for the international psychological convention in Chicago. The stewardess' polite tried to strap Charlie's seat belt conjure memories of his childhood visits to the cheater Dr. Guarino. Promising to make young Charlie smart, Dr. Guarino strapped Charlie down under a blinking, humming machine. Terrified, Charlie wet his pants and mortified his mother. Matt Gordon objected to continued treatment with the phony doctor, preferring to use the money to get out of sales and to open his own barber shop. Even though Dr. Guarino took advantage of his parents, Charlie remembers Guarino as a kind and encouraging man. 

Newspapers take upon the emotional story of Charlie's flight from the convention. Charlie slip across a background article on his own family, accompanied by a jarring photograph of his mother and sister. The picture reminds Charlie of the night his frustrated mother decided to send him away to the Warren State Home for Norma's protection.

Charlie moves into a new apartment and meets his strange next-door neighbor, a free-spirited artist named Fay Lillman. Locked out of his apartment, Charlie hopes to use Fay's fire escape to access his own window. The flirtatious and half-naked painter invites him in and, surrounded by her mess, they quickly become friends. 

After a few drinks, Fay follows Charlie across the fire escape and back into his own orderly apartment. Fay discovers a three-dimensional plastic maze that Charlie constructed for Algernon's routine exercise. Charlie finds his nutty and lively neighbor very attractive.

flowers of algenon 1-50

   Charlie is thirty-two years old, he has a job at Donner’s Bakery, and he takes Miss Alice Kinnian’s literacy class at the Beekman College Center for Retarded Adults for three times a week. Charlie has an IQ of sixty-eight and he is a poor speller. He hopes that Dr. Strauss and Professor will choose him for an experiment intended to improve his IQ. Miss Kinnian recommended him for the experimental surgery. Dr. Strauss' tells Charlie must record everything he thinks and remembers in these journal entries.

   Charlie worries that Professor Nemur and Dr. Strauss will cut him from the experiment because he has failed a Rorschach test. Professor Nemur asks Charlie why he tries so hard to learn, and he tells professor that when he learns something in Miss Kinnians class at the school, he cannot remember what he had learned. Charlie wants to be in experimental operation, but it has never been tested on humans. The doctors need permission, but apart from his uncle Herman, Charlie has not spoken to his mother, father, nor sister Norma for many years. He worried too much and it cause himself cant sleep.
 
   Charlie experienced "crazy tests" to see whether or not he is a suitable subject for the Beekman experiment. A Test needs Charlie to invent story lines based on pictures, but he scared that he will be hit for telling lies about people whom he does not even know. Charlie races against the smart mouse ten times, and each time Algernon solves the maze first. Dr. Strauss and Professor Nemur decide to use Charlie in the experiment. He will be the first human being to have his intelligence raised by surgery. Dr. Strauss reassures him that Charlie is good-natured and determined to learn. Professor Nemur warns Charlie that the experiment might fail or succeed only temporarily. Full of courage and superstition, Charlie believes his rabbit's foot will help make a success.

   Charlie feels scared in the hospital. Charlie's co-workers have not been told why Charlie is having an operation. Miss Kinnian visits and Charlie senses that she is nervous. Clutching his lucky rabbit's foot, his good-luck penny, and his horseshoe, Charlie hopes the operation will make him smart like other people so that he will have many friends. Charlie resumes his progress three days after the operation. Charlie reports that the operation did not hurt. Charlie hopes the operation will make him smart enough to discuss religion and politics with Joe Carp,Frank, and Gimpy. Charlie complains that he does not know how to remember. Miss Kinnian visits and tells Charlie to be patient. Becoming smart will take time and a lot of hard work, but she has faith that he will succeed.

flowers for algernon