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64 pages 2 hours read

Daniel Keyes

Flowers For Algernon

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1966

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

During Reading

Reading Questions & Paired Texts

Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

“progris riport 1-Progress Report 10”

Reading Check

1. What makes Charlie a good candidate for the experiment?

2. What is the experiment meant to accomplish?

3. Who is Algernon?

4. Where does Charlie work?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What are the Rorschach and Thematic Apperception Tests, and how do they correlate to Charlie’s intelligence?

2. What is Charlie’s true relationship with Joe and Frank, and in what ways is this demonstrated in relation to The Dignity of All Humans?

3. How does the reader understand that Charlie is becoming more intelligent during the days after the surgery?

4. How do the memories that Charlie begins to experience about his family relate to the theme The Psychological Impact of the Past?

Paired Resource

Multiple Intelligence Quiz

  • This online quiz will allow students to identify their personal intellectual strengths.
  • This connects to the theme Acquiring Intelligence Versus Developing Emotions as students compare their different kinds of intelligences, such as verbal, naturalistic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, etc.
  • What intelligence(s) does Charlie portray prior to and after the surgery? In what ways is this demonstrated?

Rorschach Test

  • This website details the purpose of the Rorschach test along with providing a TED-ed video and examples of the test itself.
  • This connects to the theme Acquiring Intelligence Versus Developing Emotions and The Psychological Impact of the Past. In addition to students using this test to reflect on their own intelligence and emotions, it delves into psychoanalytic ideas in which childhood affects future actions and beliefs.
  • Why does Charlie struggle to complete the Rorschach Test? Once he gains intelligence, what is likely to happen? What might he see in relation to his past experiences?

“Progress Reports 11-13”

Reading Check

1. What do Alice and Charlie do together?

2. Why was Charlie fired from his job?

3. What does Alice accuse Charlie of doing when conversing?

4. Why does Charlie fly to Chicago?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How might Charlie’s memories of his mother affect Charlie’s ability to act on his feelings toward Alice?

2. How is Charlie conflicted about Gimpy, and how does this relate to the theme Acquiring Intelligence Versus Developing Emotions?

3. Which memories about Rose emerge as Charlie delves deeper into his past, and how do these memories help him understand his current condition? 

4. How does the way Dr. Nemur, Dr. Strauss, and Burt treat Charlie provoke him to let Algernon out of its cage?

Paired Resource

Charlie Gordon Conference Scene

  • This 8-minute scene from the 2000 film Flowers for Algernon depicts Charlie Gordon presenting at the conference in Chicago.
  • The theme this best connects to is Acquiring Intelligence Versus Developing Emotions and The Dignity of All Humans. This scene demonstrates a contrast between Charlie before and after the surgery while illustrating Charlie being shown as an experiment rather than a person.
  • In what ways is this scene similar to the scene in the book? How is it different? Evaluate which conveys the themes of the novel more effectively and explain why.

“Progress Reports 14-15”

Reading Check

1. Who is Fay Lillman?

2. What does Charlie do when he visits his father’s barbershop?

3. What must Charlie be allowed to do if he returns to the Wellberg Foundation?

4. What is happening to Algernon?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What is the significance of Charlie hallucinating younger versions of himself?

2. How does Charlie’s experience with another young man with an intellectual disability affect his decision to return to the Wellberg Foundation?

3. How has Algernon’s behavior changed, and what does this suggest about Charlie’s future?

Paired Resource

Ozymandias” by Percy Shelley

  • This poem details a traveler who finds the remains of a once-magnificent statue of a lost king, putting into perspective the impermanence of human achievement.
  • This poem takes a different approach to the theme of The Dignity of All Humans as it offers a recontextualization of human accomplishments such as Charlie’s fleeting intellectual achievements. It also ties into the theme of Acquiring Intelligence as the reader realizes the transience of any single person’s importance.
  • In what ways does this poem comment on the intellectual fluctuations of Charlie and Algernon?

“Progress Reports 16-17”

Reading Check

1. Which two family members does Charlie reconnect with?

2. Where will Charlie go if he loses his intelligence?

3. What does Charlie regularly do at Algernon’s grave?

4. How is Charlie feeling regarding his activities with Fay?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. In what way was Charlie’s visit to Warren State Home a positive experience?

2. What is the significance of the “Algernon-Gordon Effect?”

3. Why does Charlie’s visit to Alice’s class upset her?

4. Which characters treat Charlie with dignity and respect at the end of the novel? Which ones do not?

Recommended Next Reads 

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

  • This novel follows a 15-year-old with autism named Christopher Boone as he attempts to investigate a mystery involving his neighbor’s dog.
  • Shared themes include The Dignity of All Humans, Acquiring Intelligence vs. Developing Emotions, and The Psychological Impact of the Past.   
  • Shared topics include cognitive differences, perceptions of reality, family dynamics, and loneliness.       
  • The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time on SuperSummary

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

  • In order to escape a prison sentence, Randle McMurphy pleads insanity and is placed in a mental hospital where he clashes with employees such as Nurse Ratched and inspires other patients to reconsider freedom in a perceived authoritarian regime.
  • Shared themes include Dignity of All Humans and Psychological Impact of the Past.
  • Shared topics include mental health, ethical dilemmas, and tensions between individuals and society.
  • One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest on SuperSummary

Reading Questions Answer Key

“progris riport 1-Progress Report 10”

Reading Check

1. He has good motivation. (progris riports 1-6)

2. Increase Charlie’s intelligence (progris riports 1-6)

3. A lab mouse (progris riports 1-6)

4. A bakery (Progress Reports 7-8)

Short Answer

1. The Rorschach Test (also known as an inkblot test) and the Thematic Apperception Test are meant to assess Charlie’s ability to think critically and come up with original ideas about what he is perceiving. He is unable to do so, demonstrating his below-average IQ. (progris riports 1-6)

2. Prior to Charlie’s surgery, he believes that Joe and Frank are his friends at the bakery. However, as he becomes more intelligent, Charlie notices that he is not treated with respect by his two colleagues as they trick him into eating wax fruit and purposefully get him drunk, only to later abandon him. (Progress Reports 7-9)

3. The progress reports become more grammatically correct and legible as Charlie learns to spell. Furthermore, the entries begin to detail the development of emotional intelligence such as recognizing Gimpy’s kindness, Joe and Frank’s disrespect, and his sexual attraction to a woman. (Various Progress Reports)

4. Once the television is established in his room while he sleeps at night, he begins to recall his family and their primarily negative reactions to him such as ignorance, fear, and anger. As such, these memories of the past cause Charlie shame and other negative emotions about himself. (Progress Report 10)

“Progress Reports 11-13”

Reading Check

1. They go on a date. (Progress Report 11)

2. Workers complained about him. (Progress Report 11)

3. Talking down to people (Progress Report 12)

4. For a conference about the experiment (Progress Report 13)

Short Answer

1. Charlie remembers how his mother had beaten him because he had an erection. Due to such a strong, negative affiliation with sexual attraction, Charlie is psychologically affected by the memory and fears being attracted to Alice. (Progress Report 11)

2. When Charlie finds out that Gimpy steals from the bakery, he feels conflicted because Gimpy is also his friend. Charlie had hoped that an increase in intelligence would help him solve difficult personal dilemmas such as this and is upset because this is not the case. (Progress Report 11)

3. Charlie remembers that Rose was ashamed of his neurodivergence and wanted Charlie to be “like other kids.” As such, Charlie realizes that his own motivation to increase his intelligence was fostered through Rose’s own guilt and shame. (Progress Report 13).

4. Charlie feels that the scientists treat him as a specimen rather than with the human dignity he deserves. As such, he pretends to let Algernon out, causing pandemonium, and then flies home back to New York with the mouse. (Progress Report 13)

“Progress Reports 14-15”

Reading Check

1. Charlie’s neighbor and sexual partner (Progress Report 14)

2. He receives a haircut anonymously. (Progress Report 14)

3. Study intelligence procedures for neurodivergent people (Progress Report 15)

4. Decreased brain function (Progress Report 15)

Short Answer

1. Charlie sees younger versions of himself whenever he becomes sexually attracted or active with another individual, representing the innocence of his inner child and the shame he feels by exposing his past self to these mature experiences. (Progress Report 14)

2. Charlie identifies the young man’s situation and remembers his life before the procedure. Appalled that others treated the boy with disrespect, he decides that he would dedicate his intelligence toward increasing the mental aptitude of all intellectually neurodivergent people to help them be treated with dignity. (Progress Report 15)

3. Algernon’s actions are becoming more erratic, and his intelligence and memory are waning. Since Algernon and Charlie received the same surgery, it is implied that Charlie may experience the same degenerative symptoms. (Progress Report 15)

“Progress Reports 16-17”

Reading Check

1. Rose and Norma (Progress Report 16)

2. Warren State Home (Progress Report 16)

3. Place flowers on the grave (Progress Report 16)

4. Weary and burnt out (Progress Report 16)

Short Answer

1. Charlie sees employees of the State Home treat the patients in their care with respect and kindness, something Charlie did not experience growing up. (Progress Report 16)

2. Charlie hypothesizes that the speed and quantity of intelligence increasing is directly proportional to the rate in which it would decline. Dr. Nemur validates this discovery, confirming that this would happen to Charlie. (Progress Report 16)

3. Charlie momentarily forgets that he is not in Alice’s (Miss Kinnian’s) class anymore since the surgery. This moment of amnesia upsets Alice as she feels despair and guilt for Charlie’s worsening condition. (Progress Report 17)

4. Charlie is treated with disrespect through actions such as Fay locking her door so Charlie cannot visit and one of the new bakery employees insulting him. However, others have grown to treat Charlie with dignity, such as Frank and Joe supporting him, along with Alice and Dr. Strauss continuing to visit him. (Progress Report 17)

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