PowerPoint on theme in Flowers for Algernon

1. What are the recurring themes of
Daniel Keyes’
Schwartz 2011-12

2. Alienation and Loneliness
• In an early "progress report," Charlie writes that he
wants to be smart "so I can have lots of friends who like
me."
• Unfortunately, once he becomes a genius, he discovers
that there are a whole new set of problems that prevent
him from establishing satisfactory relationships with
other people.
• He has substituted one sort of alienation for another, as
the condescension and cruelty he once faced from
humanity has been replaced by misunderstanding,
insensitivity, and fear.
• Almost everything Charlie does in the novel is motivated
by his desire to understand himself and establish
functional relationships with others.

3. The Treatment of a Mentally
Challenged Person by Society
• This is another important theme of the story,
made more complex by the dramatic changes in
the hero, and in his awareness of people.
• The readers see the injustice against him, with
the crowd at his work, where a few are
unreservedly kind and the others make him the
butt of their tricks.
• Finally, even the medical men, whose professed
aim is to improve the sad lives of mentally
retarded people, treat him as an ‘object’ and a
laboratory animal.

4. The Theme of Self-realization or
an Understanding of Self
• This is the chief need for Charlie and it makes
the book one with a universal significance.
• Although the situation in which Charlie finds
himself is a bizarre one, with his rapid
movement towards high intellect it gives him the
mental capacity to analyze and voice his need
for achievement, acceptance and love.
• He is also able to fulfill these needs and then
accept what is happening to him in a
philosophical manner, even after much suffering.

5. Motifs
• Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or
literary devices that can help to develop and
inform the text's major themes.
Changes in Grammar, Spelling, and
Punctuation
• Charlie's initial leaps forward in mental ability are
conveyed less by what he writes than by how he
writes. Keyes signals Charlie's changing mental
state through the level of accuracy or inaccuracy
of the grammar, spelling, and punctuation in
Charlie's progress