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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