Flowers for Algernon is a 1966 novel by Daniel Keyes that tells the story of Charlie Gordon, a man with an intellectual disability. The novel is told through a series of progress reports documenting Charlie's experience in an experimental surgery that temporarily increases his intelligence. As Charlie's intellect rapidly improves through the early reports, his writing transforms from simple phrases to proper grammar and spelling. However, the surgery's effects prove to be temporary and Charlie's intelligence later deteriorates, returning him to his original mental state. The novel explores how intelligence is defined and valued in society and how Charlie is affected by his shifting mind.

1. Flowers for Algernon
by Daniel Keyes
Published in 1966
Intelligence and Algernon
Unit Novel:

2. What was happening in America in 1966?
The Civil Rights
Movement
Who fought for
their rights and
the rights of
others?
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. looks on as President
Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act into
law on July 2, 1964.

3. Racial
Minorities
Women
LGBTQIA
Community

4. People with Disabilities

5. What is Person-First
Language?

6. The Big Question:
How do we define
intelligence and what
value is it given in our
society?

7. Unit Goals
I will be able to:
• Recognize why author chooses to write the way
he or she does, or “word choice”
• Observe changes in word and style choice
• Provide evidence for my findings

8. Let’s read “progris riport 1 martch 3” aloud.
What did you notice about the first several Progress
Reports?
Was it confusing to read? Why?

9. Was it easier to read the passage out loud or silently?
GROUP UP! Come up with some ideas for
helping ourselves understand what
the narrator (Charlie) is saying while we read.
BACK TOGETHER:
Let’s share some ideas!

10. How would you describe or characterize
Keyes’s writing style?
What do we learn about Charlie as a result?

11. Key Devices
Device Definition
unreliable narrator
first-person
narrative
epistolary
novel
a character whose telling of the story is not
completely accurate or credible due to
problems with the character's mental state or
maturity
the narrator tells the story from his or her
point of view
uses forms like letters, diary and journal
entries, and other types of documents, to tell a
story and deliver a message

12. • Do you think Charlie is an unreliable
narrator?
• What makes him an unreliable narrator?
• How can you support this with evidence
from the text?

13. What makes someone
“smart” or “intelligent”?

14. Tracking Charlie—
Double-Entry Diary Project
• Track Charlie’s intellectual changes and Keyes’s changing word
choice as you read the novel.
• 50 Entries will be due when we finish the book.
• Only do a few entries at a time. 15 entries will be due for
Progress Reports 1-11 (pgs. 1-113).
• Each entry has two parts: Observation and Evidence
• Each observation should include two strong sentences, and
each piece of evidence should be a cited quote from the book
with a page number.

15. GET STARTED EARLY!!!
YOU WILL BE GLAD YOU
DID!!!