Write With Me, Learn With Me Vol. 2

All right, kiddies; I'm back with another exciting installment of "Write with me, Learn with me". What is this strange thing you ask? (Well, you ask if you are new to my blog.) The truth is, I'm always trying to learn more about my trade - writing - and how to improve myself. So what I am doing is posting my assignments here on my blog for constructive criticism/thoughts as to how I can improve.

Today, the assignment I'm posting is my Argumentative Paper for my Comp. class (taken here at my local college). The assignment was "If all books were made illegal, what one book would you choose to memorize and tell to future generations?" This assignment came because we were reading Fahrenheit 451 by Bradbury in class. I chose Flowers for Algernon to write my paper on and argue why this book should be kept above all others.

**I do want to warn the reader that, with the professor's permission, I took some creative license with this paper in the way of grammer and punctuation. If you have read Flowers for Algernon then you will understand; if you have not, here is a brief synopsis.

The story is told by Charlie Gordon, a mentally handicapped man, who wants nothing more than to be smart. Charlie undergoes experimental brain surgery to increase his intelligence but finds that its effects are not lasting. The entire story is told in the first-person and is written in the form of personalized Progress Reports by Charlie himself. In the beginning, Charlie's grammer, spelling, and punctuation are on level with his I.Q. of 68. As his intelligence increases, due to the surgery, he learns and evolves. Unfortunately, we also witness Charlie's loss of intelligence but that he gained so much more wisdom in the end with his same progress reports.

My warning is that my argumentative paper was written exactly how the book is written by the author, Daniel Keyes, as a person evolves and deevolves intellectually. So, here is my paper. All input is appreciated!

Most Smart Pirson In The Wurld

There is a sayin told win we ar litel Do to other peepl what you wunt thim to do to you It’s a good sayin and peepl don’t go by it oftin Cept for some vary few peepl You see it all the tym on the street and on the telivishun We are told two that peepl are gud and peepl are kind And you see this all the tym with peepl at chirch or the nice boys who help peepl at the groshry stor And in storees riters rite two like a book calld Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes This riter rote a gud book about a man who wants to be smart like other peepl he knos and like a vary speshul mous named Algernon who can run mazus Charlie Gordon is a gud man who is gud to other peepl just like the sayin we ar all told as litel kids But ol Charlie cant think so gud Charlie just wunts to be smart like the peepl he knos and he even gos to a collug to learn speshul At this collug Charlie is picked by speshul docters for a sergery to make him smart Charlie thinks he will wayk up aftir the sergery smarter and he dus Aftir the sergery Charlie gets smart lik other peepl lik the mous Algernon and ol Charlie starts to see peepl arnt so nice and gud aftirall The sham is that peepl ar like that all over In Flowers for Algernon peepl who reed it and Charlie finds peepl ar mean to him when he used to think they wer his frinds that the docters who gav him the speshul sergery arnt vary smart at all evin tho they messd with his jeans that he dosnt no how to talk to gurls that he wus startin to remimber stuf that hurt about how peepl treatd him from win he wus litel and that bein smartr thin everyone els dosnt make him happyer
One of the first things Charlie notises in Flowers for Algernon is that peepl ar bein mean to him win he ust to think they wer his frinds. Charlie has two gud frinds at work, Joe Karp and Gimpy. Joe and Gimpy ust to tayk Charlie out aftir work and ust to joke around with Charlie all the tym. Aftir Charlies speshul sergery, Joe and Gimpy still treet Charlie the same, but Charlie starts to notis that Joe and Gimpy arnt bein funny win they say things like “Don’t be a Charlie Gordon” (-)like he ust to think. Charlie rites in his Progris Riports about how Joe and Gimpy ar reely bein mean to him and, you kno, peepl are mean. You can see it on the street at the peepl who pass up the person walkin in the rain or cold, and also in the mean things peepl say win other peepl fall down or say sumthin wrong. Course not all peepl are mean. Charlie knos that becus his teacher at the collug is kind to him. But one person being nice while the whol wurld isn’t doesn’t make thos that aren’t ok.
Of course Charlies doctors are also nice to him. Even if it is for their own reesons. See Charlies doctors are trying a new type of sergery surgery – a speshul surgery – to trick Charlies old dum brain into being smarter. Lots of doctors have tried doing the same thing threw the years. Acordin to Alex Boese, riter of Elephants on Acid and Other Bizarre Experiments, in 1927 Dr. Il’ya Ivanor, wirld-renownd xpert on veterinary reproducktiv biolog, tried to inseminate girl chimps with human spirm! That didnt work to good, and peepl were reel mad about the hole idea and he spint som tym in a prisen camp. But Charlies doctors think their surgery works pretty good because of the mouse named Algernon, the speshul mouse who got super smart and stayed that way aftir his surgery for a long tym. Dr……….. told Charlie all about how smart Algernon stayed; he said “Charlie we werked on this for a long time but only on animals like Algernon. We are sure thers no fisical danger to you but there are other things we cant tell until we try it.” (8) And this is tru about stuf like xperiamintel surgery like, according to the United States Govirmint, Nazi doctirs deprived Jewish prisonirs of oxigin to find out how long their bodys would keep living aftir they stoped breathing becawse one Jewish man had lived longer than all the other Jews they had xperiaminted on (144-147). They thot that mayb this man or the other peepl were brokin somehow. But why do the scientists keep trying to fix all the peepl who are broken, like Charlie? It makes you wonder what xactly is broken in Charlie aftirall?
Although Charlie does find out that something about him is not so right after all. Charlie had never had a girlfriend before, but he starts to think about girls more. Espeshully Especially when he starts to notice “how beautiful Alice Kinnan is” (54). He is reely really drawn to her “pigeon-soft brown eyes and feathery brown hair” (54), so Charlie asks her out on a date. On their date, things began to change between Charlie and Alice. Their relationship became charged with a new kind of electricity, with an unknown sexuality. Despite Charlie’s development intellectually, on an emotional level he was “still just a boy” (65). Sexuality in humans has been a long debated topic among doctors and sycho psychologists. And it was a large debatable topic in Flowers for Algernon when the book was written in 1959. The somewhat explicit scene between Charlie and the woman on the park bench was a hot button debate. Many groups believed it demonstrated a loose morality and opened the door on sexuality outside of marriage, especially since the woman is married and pregnant with another man’s child while soliciting Charlie. However, the open exploration of Charlie’s sexuality is one of the most significant moments in the story on a developmental level. Until that moment, the reader views Charlie as a rather one-dimensional character, possessing an unheard of depth of knowledge with little to no social or sexual knowledge. There are numerous studies of sexuality bridging the gap between intelligence and social interaction. With clear correlation drawn between intelligence and sexuality, it is hard to imagine Flowers for Algernon without the topic.
However, Charlie’s sexual revelation comes at a steep price; he is forced to face uncomfortable insights into his own history. These insights, however, do explain Charlie’s sexual retardation as having stemmed from deep-rooted psychological scars inflicted upon him as a child by his family. On page 78 of the novel, the reader is given such an insight into Charlie’s past during a dream. Little Charlie has seen his sister climbing out of the bath naked, and he gains an erection from it. His father attempts to diffuse the situation, but his mother, Rose, is not to be swayed. Instead, she screams, “holding a leather belt in her hand” (78) and threatens young Charlie. Despite the vehemence of her warning “If you ever touch a girl, I’ll put you away in a cage, like an animal, for the rest of your life” (78), Charlie experiences a natural reaction to his deepening involvement with Alice that changes him from a static one-dimensional character into a more developed and interesting character. In a short span of time, Keyes deepens the reader’s involvement and connection to Charlie. Intelligence has been a long standing connection among today’s modern society, however, social and sexual communication and relation is a instinctual and well-documented reaction that stems back to prehistoric man. For instance, phermones still play a vital role in the inter- and intrapersonal relationships man forges on a daily basis. Nurmerous studies done at Oxford indicates an increased correlation between prehistoric phermones and modern day relationships. To exclude Charlie’s sexual development from Flowers for Algernon would be akin to excluding the entire surgical procedure that had adapted his infantile brain to the intellectually stimulated one, and without both forms of development Keyes would have found little to document.
One of the key componints of Flowers for Algernon is Charlie’s emotional developemint. Despite his low intelliginc intelligence, Charlie felt welcome in the simpel life he had always led. And, although it is shown that many of the peepl Charlie interacted with on a daily basis are oftin cruel or unkind, “it was home” (72) to him, and it offered a plac of security and shelter. Once his intelliginc intelligenc skyrockets to the point of genieus, Charlie begins to feel lik an outsyder. He becomes emoshunaly distant from everyone he knos when he points out that “intelligence has driven a wedge between me and all the people I knew and loved” (75). The isolashun leevs Charlie alone in a wurld he dosnt understand and cant conneckt to. Lots of studys show how peepl just lik Charlie who got reel smart reel fast cant talk to peepl around them. Thers peepl tho that dont agree with Flowers for Algernon tyin soshul stuf with intelliginc but thre medikel gernals did riports on soshul and intelliginc bein tyd togethir. And most docters git it rite most of the tym And probly if the mous Algernon culd talk hed have told peepl himself but mys cant talk only squeek Aftir Charlie lirns he is the most dum smart pirson in the wurld becuz he cant talk to peepl he feels reel bad and remimbers that lots of peepl likd him win he was a dum pirson becuz they laffed and wer his frinds lik Joe Carp and Gimpy And win he gits dum agin Carp and Gimpy stik up for him a new werker Meyer Klaus says “I hear you’re a very smart fella-a real whiz kid. Say something intelligent.” (214) Aftir that Gimpy tells Charlie they ar gona set peepl strait that bother Charlie agin And Charlie remimbers “It’s good to have frends” (215) So its easy to see that bein smart aint always the sam as bein likd just lik them doctrs sayd befor And evin Charlie knos at the end that he may not hav bin smart at the beginnin of the book but he was hapy cuz peepl likd him When he got his intelliginc he wasn’t hapy cuz he new peepl wer makin fun of him so by the end he lirns that evin tho he is dum agin peepl ar his frinds and mabee it is beter that he is dum and likd and not smart and mad fun of
In Flowers for Algernon peepl lirn that bein smart dosnt reely hav much to do with how hapy a pirson is no mater how they play with ther jeans or how many fance sergerees they hav or evin how they talk to gurls But they do lirn that Charlie is mad betr at the end becuz evin tho he isnt any smartr he can remimber the good things about bein him lik peepl likin you win they can laff with you and that gurls ar not so scare and can be gud frinds But the best thing Charlie lirns is that hes a gud pirson if hes dum or if hes smart It’s a gud lesin for Charlie to lirn or anybody to lirn becuz every pirson no mater how dum or smart shuld be treatd nice Peepl can lirn in Flowers for Algernon that the importint stuf about bein peepl is how we treet other peepl Like the old sayin we ar told as kids Do to other peepl whut you wunt thim to do to you Charlie wint threw lots of stuf that hurt lik an operashun and gitin fired from the bakery and hurtin Alice but he lirnd mor win he lirnd he was goin to be dum agin dering his xperimints with the mous Algernon then he did win he was smart He lirnd that evin tho Algernon wasnt smart anymor he was still a gud frind to Charlie and Charlie likd him Win Algernon died Charlie was sad cuz he lost such a gud frind but he was hapy becuz hed had the tym to be Algernons frind at the end and cuz the mous shoed him that bein dum didnt meen you didnt hav frinds witch was somthin he lirnd bein smart At the end he evin asks the doctirs in his last progris riport to “put some flowrs on Algernons grave in the bak yard” (216) And there aint any beter lesin to be lirnd if you ar smart or dum then the lesin that Flowers for Algernon teachs peepl U aint got to be smart or dum as long as you remimber the peepl and somtyms animuls that mak you hapy and that bein who you ar and not havin som fance operashun to chang your brain maks you smartr then the most smart pirson in the wurld

The End.

So, there it is; me laying my heart out for the world to see. Lemme know what you think - good or bad, I like to hear it all.

{Finished Reading: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon - Bloody fantastic book! It gives you a true peek into the mind of an individual with Autism and the world from their view. - CR: Familiar Texas by Caroline Burns (I'm a sucker for this woman's romance/intrigue stories.) and Secondhand Husband by Dallas Schultz and To Serve and Submit by (can't remember who). - TBRN: Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyers}

Thanks so much!
B.B. Walter