Dec 20, 2009

Flowers for Algernon | Style

Point of View
Keyes's remarkable use of first-person "I" point of view is perhaps the most important source of Flowers for Algernon's narrative power. Charlie's journey from an IQ of 68 to one almost three times as high, and his fall back into subnormal intelligence, is told in the form of "Progress Reports" written by Charlie for the scientists conducting the experiment that raised his IQ. The reports before and soon after the operation are written in non-standard English, full of the kind of mistakes one would expect from writing by a mentally...