Rohan Bhoola
Topic: In Flowers for Algenon, by Daniel Keyes, criticizes a society that values intelligence
above all else.
Daniel Keyes criticizes the value of intelligence and opens our eyes to a different perspective we
have never truly seen before. Intelligence is generally looked highly upon throughout history and
Daniel shows us a situation where intelligence does not live up to its hype. Firstly, what is
intelligence, intelligence is a mechanism used to solve problems, it is gained through using our
senses. It helps us to navigate/react to the external world appropriately and it is the basis for
action for all living things.
Within the story there is an apparent trade-off between happiness and intelligence. Which
ultimately shows us how and why intelligence is not as valuable as it made out to be. We see as
Charlie gains in intelligence his emotional connection deteriorates equally. There are few reasons
behind this the first being, Charlie becomes to advanced for his friends. It is natural for people to
migrate toward a person that they relate with but when this connection is severed those same
friends tend to avoid that person. An example of this is Ms. Kinnian trying to avoid Charlie as
she felt embarrassed for not understanding the topic of conversation that Charlie had brought
forward. Also, Charlie does not know how to be patient with her as he understands topics a lot
faster than Ms. Kinnian would. With not having any friends and not being able to talk to many
people Charlie starts to grasp his full potential and becomes selfish and self-centered. This is also
evident as Charlie starts to block everybody out and quits his job.
Through the time with himself, Charlie starts to realize problems that he had never known he had
before. This was extremely detrimental to his mental health because as his intelligence rapidly
increased so did the problems, which fell onto his shoulders like a pile of bricks. As a result he
became depressed. We see this when Charlie states, “I never knew my “friends” wanted me
around to make fun of me.” After a while of having the increased intelligence we saw that
Charlie became desensitized, he decided it were better to ignore his heart and follow his head.
We saw a clear example of that when Algenon died, he was not broken like he would have been
before the surgery instead he cried a little and dug a grave, that is it.
Now it is evident that “as intelligence increases, emotional connection decreases” or just
connection as a whole but why is this important for humans to have this connection? Well, our
co-operation is the pinocle to our success as a species. Without co-operation and
affection/emotion our species would have been like any other. Another reason would be that for
anything to happen effectively we need diverse opinions on the matter and if we do not have
access to those opinions because of intelligence then intelligence dissipates in value. A good
example of this is Drs. Nemur and Strauss and how they worked together in the creation of the
technique to increase intelligence.
Intelligent people naturally are more aware of the complexities of a situation and are more likely
to worry or be pessimistic about the situation. Charlie would have never known about his fate if
he never studied Algernon. Therefore, he would have been ignorant toward the situation and
would have lived in bliss, Ignorance is Bliss.
Daniel Keyes portrays intelligence through different means, by showing you how it is
detrimental to emotional connections and mental health. He also shows how having intelligence
desensitizes you, creates an ego and how ignorance is blissful.