64 pages • 2 hours read
Flowers For Algernon
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Progress Reports 16-17Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Progress Report 16 Summary
Charlie tours the Warren State Home, wondering if he will have to return there in the future. The head of the home shows Charlie that most of the residents are able to move around freely. However, he is struck when the woman in charge of the buildings discusses the challenges faced by the residents with the most severe disabilities. Charlie also visits a woodshop, where the residents are making shoddy objects which the workers nevertheless praise. He is moved by how much the workers at the home care for the residents by giving “a part of themselves” (230). Charlie also takes note of two residents who are cradling each other, the head explains, because they crave contact.
Back at the lab, Algernon has given up participating in the tests. Fay and Charlie continue to party, but Charlie is growing weary. One night, Alice and Fay meet at Charlie’s apartment. He had expected the meeting to go disastrously, but to his surprise the women get along well. However, Alice tells Charlie she is worried about how much he is drinking. They argue, but Alice relaxes when she learns that Charlie has not told Fay the truth about himself. Charlie begins spending more time at the lab to avoid going out with Fay so often. He becomes obsessed with his work, believing he has to cram a lifetime of innovation into the short time he has left before his intellect declines.
Charlie studies Algernon’s erratic behavior and believes he is on the verge of discovering the cause. Overworked, he goes to a party at Nemur’s home. He discusses the research with the other guests, including Mrs. Nemur. Charlie begins to feel the effect of the alcohol he has been drinking, and he and Strauss have a stern conversation about Charlie’s behavior. Nemur and Charlie argue; Nemur says Charlie is acting unfair and ungrateful, while Charlie says the others have failed to treat or see him as a human being. Charlie begins to feel like he is becoming the younger version of himself. He stares in a mirror, having a conversation with himself. He realizes that Nemur is partially right about his behavior.
Charlie writes a letter to Nemur in which he explains the “The Algernon-Gordon Effect: A Study of Structure and Function of Increased Intelligence” (254). He theorizes that artificially induced intelligence declines at a rate proportionate to the speed at which it was introduced. Nemur confirms his hypothesis. Charlie is fully aware that his theory applies to himself, and he begins to prepare for his intellectual decline, noticing that he has become absentminded. Algernon dies, and Charlie buries him and places flowers on the grave.
A few days later, Charlie goes to see Rose and Nemur. He is struck by the fact that the old neighborhood now looks rundown. It takes a moment for his mother, who opens the door, to recognize him, and at first, Charlie can barely speak. She wants him to go away, but he persists, and she lets him in. They talk about the operation and Charlie’s development. Rose fusses about how untidy the house is and scolds Charlie about the electric bill, and he realizes she is showing signs of dementia. In moments of clarity, she says how thankful she is that her prayers for Charlie have been answered. He tries to leave before Norma arrives, but he and his sister meet. Norma expresses joy at seeing Charlie. She says that she believed him to be dead before she was contacted about the operation. She apologizes for the way she treated Charlie as a child and explains the stress she was under at the time. They embrace in reconciliation. Rose tries to attack Charlie, seeing him as a child. He leaves shortly after, telling Norma he understands Rose’s behavior.
Progress Report 17 Summary
Charlie has begun to decline mentally and feels depressed. He plays music loudly at home and is irritable. He tells Strauss about the failed meeting with his father and becomes annoyed with Strauss, then hallucinates. He feels himself “blending with the universe” but being blocked by a cave-like wall with an opening that is too small for him to get through (182). He tells Strauss that he wants their therapy sessions to end.
The regular tests at the lab become more of a challenge for Charlie. He struggles to remember some basic things. He wants to quit the tests and is annoyed by the lab team members’ reassurances. Reading becomes difficult. One morning, Charlie finds Alice in his apartment. She says she has come to him to spend the time they have left together. Initially, he brushes her off, saying he needs the time for his work. Yet when they embrace, Charlie finds he does not feel panicked or hallucinate. Instead, he feels as though he has finally connected with someone, and he and Alice lovingly have sex. She stays to live with him at his apartment.
Both are aware that their time is limited. Charlie’s intellectual struggles continue. He loses his skills in foreign languages and finds it difficult to understand his own research. His coordination declines, he becomes more irritable, and he takes solace only in television. One day, he and Alice argue. Charlie says he wants to be alone, so she moves out. Strauss and Charlie’s landlady visit at times to check on him. Fay puts a lock on her door so Charlie cannot visit. He goes regularly to place flowers on Algernon’s grave. Alice and Strauss come to visit, but Charlie does not let them in. Charlie continues to write progress reports, but he has to make them simpler. He goes back to Mr. Donner’s bakery and asks for his job back. One of the new workers bullies Charlie, but Joe Carp, Frank, and Gimpy assure Charlie they will take care of him.
Charlie goes back to his class at the Beekman College Center, surprising and upsetting Alice. Charlie feels bad for the trouble at the bakery and for upsetting Alice. He decides to take himself to the Warren Home. He concludes his progress reports by asking that someone place flowers on Algernon’s grave.
Progress Reports 16-17 Analysis
Touring the Warren State Home is a profound experience for Charlie. The experience changes him. He had already decided to devote himself to researching intellectual disability to help other people. However, at the Warren facility, he sees examples of people who care for others in practice, and do so in a selfless, heartfelt way. The building aide he meets, the tired head of the facility, and the staff psychologists are all examples of these caring people.
Charlie’s experience touring the home is emotionally unsettling. He is struck by the two residents who hold each other and how the staff kindly treats residents with intellectual disabilities. While these sights are sobering, however, they also lead Charlie to accept his fate.
Charlie continues to struggle to reconcile the sensuality represented by Fay with the deeper pull he feels toward Alice. Though jealous of Charlie’s attachment to Fay, Alice realizes the significance of the fact that Charlie has not told Fay about his past, which means he still has a greater emotional attachment to Alice. As his intellectual abilities decline, Charlie finds great solace in spending time with Alice. When they finally make love, the effect is healing, though it is colored by the awareness that their time together is short-lived.
Charlie’s relationships with his coworkers declines at the same time as his intellect. His initial reaction to his struggles at work is frustration, as it was before. However, as he continues to be plagued by the younger version of himself, he realizes that he is taking out his anger on the lab team. This observation gives Charlie the final push he needs to develop his theory that his intellectual abilities will decline at a rate proportionate to the rate they were gained. There is no celebration to this discovery, given that it spells the failure of the experiment.
His sense of an impending end propels Charlie to finally visit Rose and Norma. His motivation is to show Rose what a success he has become, but the visit is not what he expected it to be. Instead of being comforted by a newly proud mother and sister, Charlie finds himself in the position of the one comforting his family, accepting his mother’s dementia and consoling his sister. Thus, the visit is more about him accepting and forgiving—coming to terms with his past—rather than moving forward.
The novel does not shy away from tragedy. Sadness, loss, and a sense of Charlie’s impending end color the final progress reports. This includes his visit to the Warren Home, in which he symbolically confronts his demise, as well as his brief relationship with Alice, his failed attempt to restart his job at the bakery, and more. Above all, the close of the novel stresses Charlie’s isolation and withdrawal. The final progress report shows Charlie preparing to leave for the Warren Home, and his plaintive plea to care for Algernon’s grave, symbolically underscoring Charlie’s own impending end.
At the same time, there is also a sense of fullness. Although Charlie didn’t have long to enjoy the benefits of the experiment, he had a spectrum of human experience unknown to him before. He reconciled with his sister, Norma, explored his sexuality with Fay, and connected fully and vulnerably with Alice. He reached a level of intellectual genius unknown to most people and contributed scientific theory. He gained self-understanding, realizing that his reason for wanting to be more intelligent was to please his rejecting mother. On the one hand, these moments of joy and self-actualization make Charlie’s unraveling more tragic. On the other, they illuminate the experience we all have as human beings: We are here for but a short time. Our mortality is tragic, but our lives have meaning. In fact, it may be our mortality that gives our lives meaning. Awareness of his impending demise motivates Charlie to make the most of the time that he has left.
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