Flowers for Algernon

I finally finished this book after a long month of putting it off at the beginning of page 16; of course it was all for a good cause. Had too many exams close knitted week after week- and yes. Alhamdulillah I passed it all! (Do notice I dutifully exchanged ‘aced’ with ‘passed’ because I have no idea what my grade actually is.)

And how I feel for Charlie.

Even innocent little Algernon. Without the flowers on his grave.

The inexplicable truth is brilliantly written, explained and argued on limitations of human intelligence.

We search for it, attain it; and yet we still do fear it.

Why is it; in most of our minds the image of brilliance is one of Einstein with his unruly hair and crazy eyes, or poor old Isaac Newton? Even the ‘western idealism’ of smarts in interpreted into what we all know as the skinny, bespectacled kid a.k.a nerds.

Those aren’t the only greats of knowledge; you and I both know it to be true.

The journey Charlie takes from being a mentally retarded human being, well-loved and reasonably liked (or so he perceived), into a brilliant, knowledge fueled curious man. All in his own words and experiences.
Easily identifying all his past faults and mistakes in his mentally challenged perception into his newly educated, and normally functioning life he loses his friends, job and his trust and adoration of man kind.

I would suggest you pick it up and open your eyes to what lies beneath 

“What is wrong with a person wanting to be more intelligent, to acquire knowledge, and understand him and the world?” –Charlie Gordon

“Charlie, it’s not meant for man to know more than was given to him to know by the Lord in the first place. The fruit of that tree was forbidden to man. Charlie, if you done something you weren’t supposed to- you know, like with the devil or something-maybe it isn’t too late to get out of it. Maybe you could go back to being the good simple man you was before.”


God is great. His powers are not limited, so thus neither is His knowledge. So, what we achieve and what is given to us even in our journey or our search for something is all meant for us. If it wasn’t; we would not be able to find it in the first place. We always see only what we want to see. It’s human. We are limited. And we are not without our flaws.