“Knowledge is dangerous. Once you know something, you can't get rid of it. You have to carry it. Always.” - Samantha Shannon In the science fiction novel “Flowers for Algernon'' by Daniel Keys. Charlie a autistic adult, is given a surgery that is supposed to make him smarter. In “Flowers for Algernon'' the surgery has improved Charlie’s quality of life for example: In the short time Charlie was smart he made a major contribution to science, since the surgery made him more emotionally aware Charlie was able to see that he loves Miss Kinnian, and upon his return to Donnegan’s Plastic Box Company he sees that Joe Carp and Frank Reilly truly are his friends.
In the short period of time Charlie was smart he was able to make a major contribution to science. Charlie discovers the effects of the surgery on both him and Algernon. “The unforeseen development, which I have taken the liberty of calling the Algernon-Gordon Effect, is the logical extension of the entire intellectual speed-up. The hypothesis here proven may be described simply in the following terms: Artificially increased intelligence deteriorates at a rate of time directly proportional to the quantity of the increase.”(Progress Report 13 June 5) If Charlie wouldn’t have had the surgery he couldn’t have found this important discovery, which is beneficial information to psychologists and brain surgeons everywhere. Another side effect Charlie discovers is that death is an inevitable outcome of the surgery. “Algernon died two days ago. Dissection shows my predictions were right. His brain had decreased in weight and there was a general smoothing out of cerebral convolutions as well as a deepening and broadening of brain fissures.”(Progress Report 13 June 10) Since the results of the surgery had already been published it is unknown whether or not other surgeons had yet again performed the same surgery, but if his progress reports are read there is a chance nobody would die because of the surgery.
Since the surgery made Charlie more emotionally aware he was able to see that he loves Miss Kinnian. When Charlie asked Miss Kinnian to go to dinner with him he noticed features about her he didn’t see before. “I don’t understand why I never noticed how beautiful Miss Kinnian really is. She has brown eyes and feathery brown hair that comes to the top of her neck. She’s only thirty-four! I think from the beginning I had the feeling that she was an unreachable genius-and very, very old. Now every time I see her she grows younger and more lovely.” (Progress Report 11 April 28) Now that Charlie's mental functioning has improved it has also improved his emotional functioning, so he is now capable of feeling complex emotions such as being ashamed, nervous, or love. Another thing that was worth noting was that the thought of leaving Miss Kinnian made Charlie sad. “ ”You’ll see how different branches of learning are related. There are many levels, Charlie like steps on a giant ladder that take you up higher and higher to see more and more of the world around you. I can see only a little bit of that, Charlie, and I won’t go much higher than I am now, but you’ll keep climbing up and up, and see more and more, and each step will open new worlds that you never knew existed. (...) The thought of leaving Miss Kinnian made me sad. I’m in love with Miss Kinnian.”
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