Flowers for Algenon - PowerPoint Presentation

Flowers for Algenon Vocabulary

refute – (verb) to prove wrong using evidence Charlie used his research to refute the work of Drs. Nemur and Strauss.invariably – (adv.) always Charlie’s co-workers invariably laughed at his mistakesregression – (noun) return to an earlier or less advanced condition. After his regression the mouse no longer could find his way through the maze.verified – (verb) confirmed Charlie wanted the results of his research verified by other scientistsobscure – (verb) hide Charlie wanted to obscure the fact that he was losing his intelligence.deterioration – (noun used as an adj.) worsening, decline Because of his mental deterioration, Charlie could no longer read German.hypothesis (noun) theory to be proved The doctor’s hypothesis was that they could improve intelligence through surgery.introspective – (adj.) looking inward, thoughtful Charlie kept an introspective journal of his thoughts and feelings. Flowers for Algernon - Vocabulary

Word has been leaked to the media about Drs. Strauss and Nemur’s scientific experiments. It has sparked a national debate on several levels. Is it morally responsible to artificially increase our intelligence, or should we be happy with what we’ve go? Did they improve or ruin Charlie’s life? Write a letter to the doctors expressing your opinion. Use evidence from the short story, the movie, and life to support your opinion. Follow the guidelines for writing a business letter as outlined on the back of this handout.Letter to theDoctors

Flowers for Algernon – Letter to the doctors

Doctor Nemur and Doctor StraussNemur Laboratories243 Wakefield Ave.New York City, NY 11435Dear Dr. Nemur and Dr. Strauss:Hello, my name is , and I am a scientist at a lab in Chicago. I have read of your work on Charlie Gordon and felt the need to write to you. I felt that your work, even though it was with purely good intentions, was very morally wrong. I am all for helping others, especially the mentally and physically impaired, but this experiment crossed the line. My thoughts are that increasing intelligence artificially is just unnatural; Charlie’s life was ruined through this experiment, and now Charlie has left all those he knows and loves because of it. This experiment crossed the ethical line through all of those reasons.Increasing someone’s intelligence, even with the best of intentions in mind, is just wrong. You are trying to control things that aren’t meant to be controlled. Charlie was made to do things a certain way and liv his life a certain way. By increasing his intelligence, you turned Charlie into a completely different person than he was before. He was no longer a nice, happy man with an IQ of 68, but a genius with an IQ approaching 200 (over 200 at his peak intelligence). He was made for an ignorant but happy life, and making him smarter, someone he’s not, was unnatural and wrong. I strongly hope that you don’t try this again, or that another scientist doesn’t try to copy your work.

Through this experiment, you wanted to change Charlie’s life for the better, but it was ruined. He lost his job at the factory he worked at because his fellow workers became scared of him. He may have been slightly mocked by the workers before the operation, but he was liked at least. Add that to the facts that in his many progress reports he said how he felt depressed and lonely much of the time. There were also mentions of thoughts of suicide as he mental state was regressing. He shut out all those who cared about him as he realized everything that was happening to him, and he deteriorated rapidly. He stayed in bed for days on end, in one instance in his journal, he states he believes he stayed in bed a whole week not even knowing where the time went. In the end, he even went as far as pushing away the woman he loved, Alice Kinnian. This experiment forced so much unhappiness and loss on a once happily ignorant man.Charlie Gordon has left your town now. This experiment caused him to uproot his whole life in hopes of finding a place where no one knows him or what happened to him – a place where Charlie Gordon – doesn’t exist and he could start over. He was willing to leave all those he knew in hoping for a fresh start away from the experiment. He was happy as a worker at Donnegan’s factory, but now he if off who knows where with no one he used to know to help guide him. You took away his life through this experiment that was meant to change his life for the better.Charlie’s experiences are why this experiment should never be repeated again. Not only did the experiment not work, but neither did the attempt to improve his life. You did an experiment that was unnatural trying to increase his intelligence artificially, ruined his life, and he has now left his town and all of the people who care about him. I would hope that after reading his, you can rid yourselves of this idea for good and advise all others in your field to step back and look at the consequences of experiments like this one. Thank you for taking the time to read my opinion.Sincerely,