Flowers For Algernon
Part One
Kenneth Vazquez
Voice Analysis Of Charlie
Charlie's voice in Flowers For
Algernon is described as a mentally
challenged person who is very
enthusiastic towards becoming smart.
Voice: Tone
Charlie's tone is that of a kid who is
discovering and figuring things out for
the first time. He sounds excited
towards learning things. For example,
when he is told that he will learn from
the tv in his sleep.
Voice: Diction
Charlie uses phonetic spelling in the
way he writes. Writes things such as
"gess" instead of "guess". He has a
average vocabulary but he uses it to a
minimum.
Voice: Syntax
Charlie mispells many words, and he
asks questions when he is lost. He
asks the doctors how is he supposed
to learn in his sleep.
Community Relationships
Ms. Kinnian: Ms. Kinnian is Charlie’s
teacher and mentor, the person he
looks up to, and who recommended
him for the operation. She is his
helper, and Charlie trusts her.
Community Relationships
Drs. Nemur and Strauss: These are
the researchers who are working
Charlie. Charlie doesn’t understand
most of what they say or do, but he
tries really hard to please them,
because he wants them to pick him.
They start out in disagreement
whether or not to use Charlie.
Community Relationships
Charlie’s Co-workers: Charlie trusts
his co-workers and thinks they are his
friends (especially Joe and Frank).
However, they make fun of Charlie,
calling any kind of stupid behavior
pulling a “Charlie Gordon.” Charlie
doesn’t realize this…
Conflicts
The main Conflict in this Section is
whether or not Charlie will be selected
for the operation. He desperately tries
to pass the “tests” so that he can be
smart.
Theme
Charlie learns the hard lesson that
change takes time; he is impatient
with the changes that are happening
to him.
Summary
We meet Charlie who gets tested
to see if he is a good candidate
for a surgery to make him a
genius. He gets a Rorschach
test and races Algernon the
mouse (and loses) but he still
gets picked. We learn how he
gets made fun of for being
stupid, and we see how
frustrated Charlie is with the slow
progress. He takes out his anger
on Algernon (the mouse)