Flowers For Algernon
...it must be true, because whenever Charlie and
Algernon run a race (Algernon is in a real maze; Charlie has a
pencil-and-paper version), Algernon wins. How did that mouse
get to be so special, Charlie wonders?
The answer is that Algernon's IQ has been
tripled by an experimental surgical procedure.
The scientists who performed the experiment
now need a human subject to test, and Charlie
has been recommended to them by his
night-school teacher, Miss Kinnian. Charlie's a good candidate
for the procedure, because even though he currently has an I.Q.
of only 68, he is willing, highly motivated and eager to learn.
He's convinced that if he could only learn to read and write, the
secret of being smart would be revealed to him.
Charlie wants to be smart because he works as a janitor in a
factory where he has many friends, but even as he goes along
with their hijinks, he suspects his friends mock him. The
opportunity to be made smart--really smart--is irresistible, even
though there's a chance that the results of the operation will only
be temporary. Because Charlie wants his co-workers to accept
him.
And therein lies the tale. Charlie does indeed get smarter. He
struggles to absorb as much knowledge as he can in whatever...
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