In the novel Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, the author seems to be portraying how nothing in life lasts forever. This is shown multiple times throughout the story, such as when Charlie first received the surgery, lost his job at the bakery, and when the surgery results wore off. The author presents this idea to communicate to the readers how it is important to not get too uncomfortable when things in life change like moving schools or houses and to not hold on to materialistic items.
In the book, when Charlie first receives the surgery, he begins to change rapidly and begins to understand how the world thinks of him. He soon realizes how his ‘friends’ at the bakery aren’t really his friends. Charlie speaks about this when he says “Thinking…show more content… Charlie’s intelligence intimidates his coworkers and he begins outperforming them in tasks they were very good at such as working the bread maker. They complain to Mr.Donner about Charlie and in response, Charlie gets fired. “But something happened to you… They’re all upset. Charlie, I got to let you go” (Keyes p.104). Keyes is portraying how circumstances do change and throughout life, people do not know when these unexpected events may occur. The Charlie that the workers at the bakery originally mocked and made fun of, is now a source of fear for his coworkers. The author includes this in the story to show how people are afraid of what will ruin their reputation when situations in life change. In the era of time when this book was written, people would quite frequently make fun of those with a disability. People, like Charlie’s coworkers, become timid when someone, once inferior changes and becomes superior to them because those who were once superior now have no one to mock and show their mental dominance over them. For Joe and Gimpy, they believed that they were better than Charlie because Charlie was mentally disabled and they were not. In the world, the idea of superiority it's quite common. It is seen everywhere especially in many world leaders and can be dangerous for the well-being of the country they are serving. They tend to believe that they have an unlimited…show more content… This is shown from Charlie’s failed results to make him permanently more intelligent too, in the real world, having to deal with a bad presidency. People always wish for a life-changing event to occur to them. In Charlie’s case, he wished to become more intelligent so that he can fit in but when his IQ skyrockets, he is still isolated because he is now smarter than everyone