“Flowers for Algernon”

By: Daniel Keyes

About the Author: Daniel Keyes

• Photographer, merchant, seaman, & editor• Majored in psychology in college• Wrote many fiction and nonfiction novels• Minds of Billy Milligan is about a man with

a multiple personality disorder.• “Flowers for Algernon” is his best known

work, which won the Hugo Award of the Science Fiction Writers of America in 1959.

“Flowers for Algernon”

• Was adapted into the film Charly• Also adapted into a Broadway play Charlie

and Algernon• The idea for the novel came to Keyes after

he met a mentally disadvantaged young man.

• He wondered, what would happen “if it were possible to increase human intelligence artificially.”

Purpose for Reading

• Build vocabulary

• Respond to text through writing (journals), listening and speaking (discussions and debate).

• Relate a story to personal experience.

• Summarize sections of a story.

• Recognize parts of the plot and create a plot chart.

Vocabulary• Psychology – study of mind & mental & emotional

processes• Tangible (adj.) – can be understood; definite; objective• Specter (n.) – disturbing thoughts• Refute (v.) – prove to be false by argument or

evidence• Illiteracy (n.) – inability to read or write• Obscure (v.) – conceal or hide• Syndromes (n.) – symptoms that occur together and

characterize a specific disease or condition• Introspective (adj.) – inward looking; thoughtful

Observation Journal

• Point of view (POV) refers to the vantage point from which a story is told.

• Pick a character in “Flowers of Algernon” and imagine you are observing Charlie’s progress.

• Write several entries in their observation journal to describe the events from their point of view.

• Support your observations with specific details from the story.