Name ______________________________
Ninth Grade: Summer Reading Study Guide: Flowers for Algernon
Progress Reports 1-8, March 3- March 31
1. What is a Rorschach test? Why is Charlie being given this test?
2. How do Charlie’s friends at the bakery treat him?
3. What kind of scientific techniques are the scientists using in their treatment of Charlie?
Progress Reports 9-10, April 1-April 28
4. By April, how has Charlie changed intellectually?
5. Dr. Strauss tells Charlie that the more intelligent he becomes, the more problems he will have.
Why is this?
6. Why does Charlie encounter hostility at the bakery?
Progress Report 11, May 1-May 25
7. Who is Alice Kinnian? How does her relationship with Charlie change in May?
8. Charlie begins to think Professor Nemur doesn’t relate to him as a person? Do you agree? Use evidence from the text to support your opinion.
9. Why is Charlie fired from the bakery?
Progress Reports 12 and 13, June 5-June 13
10. How has Charlie changed from the beginning of the book?
11. What is the underlying reason for Charlie’s first argument with Alice on June 6?
12. Why do seatbelts make Charlie so uncomfortable?
13. How could the researchers have treated Charlie to make him feel better?
Progress Reports 14-15, June 15-July 9
14. Why did Charlie describe his mother as being “two different people”?
15. How is Fay Lillman different from any of Charlie’s previous acquaintances?
16. In what ways is Charlie’s visit to his father a disappointment?
17. How is Algernon changing?
18. Is Charlie maturing emotionally? Cite examples from the novel to support your answer.

Progress Report 16, July 14-September 27
19. Describe Warren State Home and Training School.
20. What is the Algernon-Gordon effect?
21. What is your impression of Charlie’s mother and sister after Charlie visits them?
22. In what way is the window Charlie recalls symbolic?
Progress Report 17, October 3-November 21
23. How does the first word of this progress report set the tone for the remainder of the book?
24. Have the people at the bakery changed? Are they Charlie’s friends?
25. What is Charlie’s final request to the people conducting the experiment?