Bouquet for Algernon
About This Novel
The author of "24 Billys" is a classic about caring for humanity, winning two science fiction awards, the Nebula Award and the Hugo Award, and was highly praised by the science fiction master Asimov! It has sold more than 5 million copies in the United States and has been adapted into film, television and stage plays many times. Cliff Robertson, the leading actor in the first adapted film "Charlie", won the Oscar for Best Actor. In 2015, the Japanese drama of the same name starring Tomohisa Yamashita gained high reputation. This novel explores the physical and psychological changes of the mentally retarded protagonist Charlie Gordon and the white mouse Algernon after medical intervention. Scientific experiments claiming to be able to transform intelligence have made breakthrough progress on the white mouse Algernon, and human experiments are urgently needed as the next step. Charlie Gordon, a mentally retarded person with a kind personality and positive learning attitude, became the best candidate. After the successful operation, Charlie's IQ jumped from 68 to 185, but emotions and memories he had never had before gradually emerged. From a mental disorder to the strongest brain, he realized that understanding is the greatest cruelty. After the success of "Flowers for Algernon", Keyes successively released works such as "Sally No. 5", "24 Billys", "Billy's War" and the memoir "Algernon, Charlie and Me", becoming a writer considered by readers to be the best at describing human psychology in a medical setting.
What Readers Think
Rating
Community(0)
Official(33)Scraped 11d ago
algernon
Because Grandpa Dizi mentioned it many times in Green and Blue Is there anyone who comes from Green and Blue like me?
I came here from Little Blue and Little Green. Charlie's fate was so tragic. It made people's emotions feel like they were on a roller coaster...
I saw it from the perspective of green and blue.
The frequency of typos is too high, and because because is used many times in the same paragraph. Translation level that needs to be improved
Typos are really annoying (")
days like fireworks
Charlie was placed in the open space like a firework. Some people trampled on him, some urinated on him, and spat on him. At this time, someone brought a lighter and lit him. He rushed to the top quickly and fieryly, exploded with a bang, shocking everyone, and then returned to the endless darkness, and the dust settled. It's been a long time since I've read a novel of this type. The typos throughout the text at the beginning made me even more uncomfortable when I was already suffering from aches and pains. I suppressed my headache while placing the e-book as far away from me as possible so that my eyes would not be focused on the local typos. Charlie had an unusual obsession with becoming smart, and he continued to self-analyze himself in his later years. This Freudian-like psychoanalysis showed us scenes of Charlie's childhood neglect and abuse. It turned out that Charlie just wanted to respond to his mother's expectations - her mother was ashamed of him and always wanted him to become smart. Because of the surgery, Charlie did become smarter, just like Algernon who had the same surgery. However, because he was too smart, the people around him, whether they were kind or mocking before, began to stay away from him. When his IQ reached its peak, he asked himself, "What's wrong with me?" Why do I always live alone in the world?" I suddenly remembered the conversation between Zarathustra and the boy about the trees on the mountain. The boy said, "... Loneliness is like thousands of years of ice and snow, which makes me shudder. Why do I stand so high? ... The height makes me extremely tired." Zarathustra replied, "This tree grows alone in the mountains and is taller than all humans and beasts. If it could speak, no one would understand it: it is too tall." Fortunately, Zarathustra could climb up without fear with his sacred ideas in mind. Charles did not have such good luck. Like Algernon, he was just a medical experiment. The side effects of the operation made him return to the ground in an elevator. Zarathustra only needs to move forward, but Charlie is bound by fate to countless gravitational accelerations. Later, Charlie and Dr. Strauss talked for the last time. When Charlie felt an incredible feeling of being one with the universe in his body, I was very happy. I knew that Charlie would eventually turn back into that imbecile, but his brilliance was unmatched. At this time, he was like the Utopia he mentioned. Plato's metaphor of the cave, "The people in the cave would say of him, he climbed high and low, but without using his eyes..." I think that the cave people would never see Charlie in the light, and even Charlie himself was about to forget it all, but the feeling at the time was so real, and that was enough. The only time Charlie had a direct confrontation with little Charlie, he said, "Who can say that my light is better than your darkness?" At this time, the light turned into white dots flowing in half of the black in the Bagua diagram, and the darkness turned into black dots corresponding to the white dots. They are equal and independent. Words have no emotions. We are good at putting on masks for them. When we no longer need our eyes, we can detect the true appearance of words. If I were to pass by Algernon's grave, I would definitely leave a bouquet of flowers.
from green and blue
I'm from Green Blue, it looks good
The typo is to highlight the male protagonist's intelligence. . . There is no more behind
A very nice novel. The further the story goes, the stronger the feeling of powerlessness in the face of fate becomes. Even though Charlie never gave up the fight and calmly accepted his ending in the end, this did not weaken the tragedy of the story in any way. The story is very expressive and the translator's translation is also very interesting. Anyway, thumbs up
When I first started reading it, I had the idea of helping him correct typos (don't you wake up?
Rating
Community(0)
Official(33)Scraped 11d ago
algernon
Because Grandpa Dizi mentioned it many times in Green and Blue Is there anyone who comes from Green and Blue like me?
I came here from Little Blue and Little Green. Charlie's fate was so tragic. It made people's emotions feel like they were on a roller coaster...
I saw it from the perspective of green and blue.
The frequency of typos is too high, and because because is used many times in the same paragraph. Translation level that needs to be improved
Typos are really annoying (")
days like fireworks
Charlie was placed in the open space like a firework. Some people trampled on him, some urinated on him, and spat on him. At this time, someone brought a lighter and lit him. He rushed to the top quickly and fieryly, exploded with a bang, shocking everyone, and then returned to the endless darkness, and the dust settled. It's been a long time since I've read a novel of this type. The typos throughout the text at the beginning made me even more uncomfortable when I was already suffering from aches and pains. I suppressed my headache while placing the e-book as far away from me as possible so that my eyes would not be focused on the local typos. Charlie had an unusual obsession with becoming smart, and he continued to self-analyze himself in his later years. This Freudian-like psychoanalysis showed us scenes of Charlie's childhood neglect and abuse. It turned out that Charlie just wanted to respond to his mother's expectations - her mother was ashamed of him and always wanted him to become smart. Because of the surgery, Charlie did become smarter, just like Algernon who had the same surgery. However, because he was too smart, the people around him, whether they were kind or mocking before, began to stay away from him. When his IQ reached its peak, he asked himself, "What's wrong with me?" Why do I always live alone in the world?" I suddenly remembered the conversation between Zarathustra and the boy about the trees on the mountain. The boy said, "... Loneliness is like thousands of years of ice and snow, which makes me shudder. Why do I stand so high? ... The height makes me extremely tired." Zarathustra replied, "This tree grows alone in the mountains and is taller than all humans and beasts. If it could speak, no one would understand it: it is too tall." Fortunately, Zarathustra could climb up without fear with his sacred ideas in mind. Charles did not have such good luck. Like Algernon, he was just a medical experiment. The side effects of the operation made him return to the ground in an elevator. Zarathustra only needs to move forward, but Charlie is bound by fate to countless gravitational accelerations. Later, Charlie and Dr. Strauss talked for the last time. When Charlie felt an incredible feeling of being one with the universe in his body, I was very happy. I knew that Charlie would eventually turn back into that imbecile, but his brilliance was unmatched. At this time, he was like the Utopia he mentioned. Plato's metaphor of the cave, "The people in the cave would say of him, he climbed high and low, but without using his eyes..." I think that the cave people would never see Charlie in the light, and even Charlie himself was about to forget it all, but the feeling at the time was so real, and that was enough. The only time Charlie had a direct confrontation with little Charlie, he said, "Who can say that my light is better than your darkness?" At this time, the light turned into white dots flowing in half of the black in the Bagua diagram, and the darkness turned into black dots corresponding to the white dots. They are equal and independent. Words have no emotions. We are good at putting on masks for them. When we no longer need our eyes, we can detect the true appearance of words. If I were to pass by Algernon's grave, I would definitely leave a bouquet of flowers.
from green and blue
I'm from Green Blue, it looks good
The typo is to highlight the male protagonist's intelligence. . . There is no more behind
A very nice novel. The further the story goes, the stronger the feeling of powerlessness in the face of fate becomes. Even though Charlie never gave up the fight and calmly accepted his ending in the end, this did not weaken the tragedy of the story in any way. The story is very expressive and the translator's translation is also very interesting. Anyway, thumbs up
When I first started reading it, I had the idea of helping him correct typos (don't you wake up?
