preview on ( Flowers for Algernon )

     After Charlie Gordon has his surgery and begins to progress from mental disability to brilliance, he has an argument with one of his coworkers, Fanny Birden. Fanny tells Charlie that it was a sin for Adam and Eve to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, because in doing so, they traded eternal happiness for knowledge. The apparent tradeoff between happiness and intelligence is one of the most important themes in Flowers for Algernon. As he becomes more and more intelligent, Charlie discovers problems he didn’t even know he had, while also finding some new outlets for pleasure.

At first, it seems that there really is a strict tradeoff between happiness and intelligence. As a mentally disabled employee of Mr. Donner’s bakery, Charlie Gordon is extremely happy, and confident that he has many good friends. From the reader’s perspective, however, it’s apparent that Charlie’s coworkers treat him horribly: they make fun of his stupidity, trip him, and force him to dance for their own cruel amusement. Blissfully unaware of the truth, Charlie (at least in the beginning) is by far the happiest character in the book, but paradoxically, no reader would trade places with him. Ignorance is bliss. And yet Charlie’s bliss seems less “real” and less desirable than that of an intelligent person, since it’s based on the delusion that Charlie’s coworkers respect him. Keyes reinforces his point after Charlie becomes intelligent, and realizes, with a shock, that his coworkers, far from liking him, have always looked down on him. Charlie’s newfound intelligence brings truth, but it doesn’t bring him any joy—on the contrary, it reminds him how small and lonely his life really, whether he’s a genius or not.

Keyes complicates the idea that ignorance is bliss in two important ways. First, he shows that intelligence can also be bliss, if only from time to time. When Charlie becomes a genius, he throws himself into his research—there’s enormous pleasure to be had in discovering things for himself. At the same time, Charlie’s research doesn’t bring him total happiness; as he admits, his desire to learn is like a torturous, unquenchable thirst. Despite the fact that Charlie’s intellectual endeavors never bring him total happiness, he continues with them. This leads Keyes to his second important point: even if intelligence isn’t always blissful, it’s the “smart man’s burden” to continue with one’s studies, for the benefit of other people. Charlie senses that his research will never make him happy, but he also knows that he can help millions by pursuing his research—and this is a far stronger mandate than mere personal bliss can ever be.

In the end, Keyes doesn’t really refute the idea that ignorance is bliss: indeed, he shows that Charlie is at his happiest when he’s mentally disabled, and at his most miserable when he’s a genius. However, he questions whether bliss should be the only goal of the human race. As Charlie gets more and more intelligent, he becomes less happy—but this certainly doesn’t mean that his life is a failure. Charlie makes the choice to use his intelligence to help other people. This choice is grounded in his sense of responsibility to his fellow humans. Moreover, Charlie’s sense of responsibility would be utterly foreign to his blissfully ignorant self. This reminds us why Charlie is the hero of the novel, and also reiterates that there are good reasons to “leave the Garden of Eden.”

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Gulliver's Travels -commentary

Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels

Swift's greatest satire, Gulliver's Travels, is considered one of the most important works in the history of world literature. Published as Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts; by Lemuel Gulliver in 1726,Gulliver's Travels depictsيصور one man's journeys to several strange and unusual lands. The general theme of Gulliver's Travels is a satirical examination of human nature, man's potentialالامكانيات  for depravityالفساد, and the dangers of the misuse of reason. Throughout the volume Swift attacked the basenessلؤم  of humankind even as he suggested the greatest virtues  فضائل     of the human race; he also attacked the folly of human learning and political systems even as he impliedيتضمن فى معناه  the proper functions of art, science, and government. Gulliver's Travels, some scholars believe, had its origins during Swift's years as a Tory polemicistمحارب  , when he was part of a group of prominent بارزةTory writers known as the Scriblerus Club. The group, which also included Alexander Pope, John Gay, and John Arbuthnot, among others, collaborated on several satires, including The Scriblerus Papers. They also planned a satire called The Memoirs of a Martinus Scriblerus, which was to include several imaginary voyages. An immediate success, Gulliver's Travels was inspired by this work. Swift finished Gulliver's Travels was published anonymouslyمجهولة الهوية , but Swift's authorship was widely suspected. Alternately considered an attack on humanity or a clear-eyed assessment of human strengths and weaknesses, the novel is a complex study of human nature and of the moral, philosophical, and scientific thought of Swift's time which has resisted any single definition of meaning for nearly three centuries.

Plot and Major Characters

Written in the form of a travel journal, Gulliver's Travels is the fictional account of four extraordinary voyages made by Lemuel Gulliver, a physician who signs on to serve as a ship's surgeon when he is unable to provide his family with a sufficient income in London. After being shipwrecked Gulliver first arrives at Lilliput, an island whose inhabitants are just six inches tall and where the pettinessتفاهة of the political system is mirrored in the diminutiveضآلة  size of its citizens.

Gulliver is referred to as the "Man-Mountain" by the Lilliputians and is eventually pressed into service by the King in a nonsensicalلامعنى لها  war with the neighboring island of Blefuscu. Gulliver finally escapes Lilliput and returns briefly to England before a second voyage takes him to Brobdingnag. There he finds himself dwarfed by inhabitants who are sixty feet tall. Gulliver's comparatively tiny size now makes him wholly dependent on the protection and solicitudeمواساة  of others, and he is imperiled   معرض للخطرby dangerous encounters with huge rats and a curious toddler. Gulliver, however, incursيتحمل the disdainازدراء  of the kindly and virtuous Brobdingnagian rulers when his gunpowder display, intended to impress his hosts as an exemplary product of European civilization, proves disastrous. An address Gulliver delivers to the Brobdingnagians describing English political practices of the day is also met with much scorn. Housed in a miniature box, Gulliver abruptly departs Brobdingnag when a giant eagle flies off with him and drops him in the ocean. He soon embarks on his third voyage to the flying island of Laputa, a mysterious land inhabited by scientists, magicians, and sorcerersالسحرة who engage in abstract theorizing and conduct ill-advised experiments based on flawed calculationsحسابات خاطئة. Here Gulliver also visits Glubbdubdrib where it is possible to summon the dead and to converse with such figures as Aristotle and Julius Caesar. He also travels to Luggnagg, where he encounters the Struldbrugs, a group of people who are given immortality, yet are condemnedمدانين  to live out their eternal existence trapped in feeble and decrepitهشة  bodies. Once again Gulliver returns to England before a final journey, to the land of the Houyhnhnms, who are a superior race of intelligent horses. But the region is also home to the Yahoos, a vile and depraved raceجنس منحرف of ape-like creatures. Gulliver is eventually exiled from Houyhnhnm society when the horses gently insist that Gulliver must return to live among his own kind. After this fourth and final voyage, he returns to England, where he has great difficulty adjusting to everyday life. All people everywhere remind him of the Yahoos.

Major Themes

Each of the four voyages in Gulliver's Travels serves as a vehicle for Swift to expose and excoriate some aspect of human folly. The first voyage has been interpreted as an allegorical satireنقد مجازى  of the political events of the early eighteenth century, a commentary on the moral state of England, a general satire on the pettiness of human desires for wealth and power, and a depiction of the effects of unwarranted prideالكبرالذى لاداعى له  and self-promotionحب الذات . The war with the tiny neighboring island of Blefuscu represents England's rivalry with France. In Brobdingnag, Gulliver's diminutive status serves as a reminder of how perspective and viewpoint alter one's condition and claims to power in society. The imperfect, yet highly moral Brobdingnagians represent, according to many critics, Swift's conception of ethical rulers. The voyage to Laputa, the flying island, is a scathing attack upon science in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and reveals Swift's thorough acquaintance with the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, the leading publication of the scientific community of his day. The third voyage unequivocally manifests Swift's contempt and disdain for abstract theory and ideology that is not of practical service to humans. But it is the voyage to the land of the Houyhnhnms that reveals Swift's ultimate satiric object—man's inability to come to terms with his true nature

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