Set during the height of the civil rights movement in the United States, Flowers for Algernon delves deeply into the fundamental right of all individuals to be treated with dignity, irrespective of their life situations. In the novel's beginning chapters, the harsh realities faced by those with mental disabilities are vividly portrayed as Charlie suffers from relentless verbal and physical abuse by his bakery coworkers. Once he acquires genius-level intelligence, he encounters a different form of dehumanization, as the scientists conducting the experiment regard him "as if I were some kind of newly created thing.... No one ... considered me an individual—a human being." This theme is strikingly illustrated when Charlie watches a slow-witted boy being ridiculed for dropping dishes in a restaurant. He angrily admonishes the patrons: "Leave him alone! He can't understand. He can't help what he is … but for God's sake, have some respect! He's a human being!"