Notes and highlights for

Flowers for Algernon

Keyes, Daniel

Anyone who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eyes are of two kinds , and arise from two causes , either from coming out of the light or from going into the light , which is true of the mind’s eye , quite as much as of the bodily eye ; and he who remembers this when he sees anyone whose vision is perplexed and weak , will not be too ready to laugh ; he will first ask whether that soul of man has come out of the brighter life , and is unable to see because unaccustomed to the dark , or having turned from darkness to the day is dazzled by excess of light . And he will count the one happy in his condition and state of being , and he will pity the other ; or , if he have a mind to laugh at the soul which comes from below into the light , there will be more reason in this than in the laugh which greets him who returns from above out of the light into the den . — Plato , The Republic

Flowers for Algernon

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THEMATIC APPERCEPTON TEST

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fotastats

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The word fotastats is likely a misspelling or phonetic approximation of photostats. A Photostat was an early type of photocopy, produced by a machine called a Photostat machine, which was used before modern copiers became common. It was a way to create duplicate copies of documents.

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April 6 — Today , I learned , the comma , this is , a , comma ( , ) a period , with , a tail , Miss Kinnian , says its , importent , because , it makes writing , better , she said , somebody , could lose , a lot , of money , if a comma , isnt in , the right , place , I got , some money , that I , saved from , my job , and what , the foundation , pays me , but not , much and , I dont , see how , a comma , keeps , you from , losing it , But , she says , everybody , uses commas , so Ill , use them , too , , , , April 7 — I used the comma wrong . Its punctuation . Miss Kinnian told me to look up long words in the dictionary to learn to spell them . I said whats the difference if you can read it anyway . She said its part of your education so from now on Ill look up all the words Im not sure how to spell . It takes a long time to write that way but I think Im remembering more and more . Anyway thats how come I got the word punctuation right . Its that way in the dictionary . Miss Kinnian says a period is punctuation too , and there are lots of other marks to learn . I told her I thought she meant all the periods had to have tails and be called commas . But she said no . She said ; You , got . to - mix ? them ! up : She showd ? me ” how , to mix ! them ; up , and now ! I can . mix ( up all ? kinds of punctuation — in , my . writing ! There ” are lots , of rules ; to learn ? but . Im ’ get’ting them in my head : One thing ? I , like : about , Dear Miss Kinnian : ( thats , the way ? it goes ; in a business , letter ( if I ever go ! into business ? ) is that , she : always ; gives me ’ a reason ” when — I ask . She ” s a gen’ius ! I wish ? I cou’d be smart - like - her ; Punctuation , is ? fun !

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sooty

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lace - eyes

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baseball cap with the D

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“ The more intelligent you become the more problems you’ll have , Charlie . Your intellectual growth is going to outstrip your emotional growth .

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lace valentines

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WF + A DdF - Ad orig . WF — A SF + obj

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pendant

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coattails

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feeble - minded

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The first picture had been a war film , and all I caught was the ending where the G.I . goes back to Europe to marry the woman who saved his life . The second picture interested me . A psychological film about a man and woman apparently in love but actually destroying each other . Everything suggests that the man is going to kill his wife but at the last moment , something she screams out in a nightmare makes him recall something that happened to him during his childhood

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Smug , pompous — I felt like hitting him too . “ I was a person before the operation . In case you forgot — ”

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! A cloud of smoke was hanging in front of my eyes , and with one breath you blew it away . A simple idea . Trust myself . And it never occurred to me before . ”

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“ Good night , Charlie . I’m glad you called me . I’ll see you at the lab . ” She closed the door and I stood outside the building and looked at the light in her apartment window until it went out . There is no question about it now . I’m in love .

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invariably

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My most absorbing interests at the present time are etymologies of ancient languages , the newer works on the calculus of variations , and Hindu history . It’s amazing the way things , apparently disconnected , hang together .

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navicert

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War Trade Agreements during World War II

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queasy

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“ There’s no going back , Fanny . I haven’t done anything wrong . I’m like a man born blind who has been given a chance to see light . That can’t be sinful . Soon there’ll be millions like me all over the world . Science can do it , Fanny . ”

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Everything was neat . The porcelain figurines were in a straight line on the window - ledge , all facing the same way . And the throw - pillows on the sofa hadn’t been thrown at all , but were regularly spaced on the clear plastic covers that protected the upholstery . Two of the end tables had magazines , neatly stacked so that the titles were clearly visible . On one table : The Reporter , The Saturday Review , The New Yorker ; on the other : Mademoiselle , House Beautiful , and Reader’s Digest . On the far wall , across from the sofa , hung an ornately framed reproduction of Picasso’s “ Mother and Child , ” and directly opposite , above the sofa , was a painting of a dashing Renaissance courtier , masked , sword in hand , protecting a frightened , pink - cheeked maiden . Taken all together , it was wrong . As if Alice couldn’t make up her mind who she was and which world she wanted to live in .

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But perhaps I had been released . Maybe the fear and nausea was no longer a sea to drown in , but only a pool of water reflecting the past alongside the now . Was I free ?

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anguish

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ooze

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frown

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unconcealed puzzlement

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enormity

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prowl

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deleterious

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ramified

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resentment

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phenylketonuria

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crowed

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found out . Physics : nothing beyond the quantum theory of fields . Geology : nothing about geomorphology or stratigraphy or even petrology . Nothing about the micro - or macro - economic theory . Little in mathematics beyond the elementary level of calculus of variations , and nothing at all about Banach algebra or Riemannian manifolds . It was the first inkling of the revelations that were in store for me this weekend .

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“ It doesn’t matter what he thinks of himself . Sure he’s egotistic , so what ? It takes that kind of ego to make a man attempt a thing like this . I’ve seen enough of men like him to know that mixed in with that pompousness and self - assertion is a goddamned good measure of uncertainty and fear . ” “ And phoniness and shallowness , ” I added . “ I see them now as they really are , phonies . I suspected it of Nemur . He always seemed frightened of something . But Strauss surprised me . ”

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admonish

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preferment

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enlivened

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They’d have a rotten time finding anything valuable here anyway .

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tresses

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sneer

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junkmobiles

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tincannia

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curtsied

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adroit

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styptic

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bosom

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veneer

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inhibition

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Keno Amusement Center

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How strange it is that people of honest feelings and sensibility , who would not take advantage of a man born without arms or legs or eyes — how such people think nothing of abusing a man born with low intelligence .

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A child may not know how to feed itself , or what to eat , yet it knows hunger .

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quiver

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brassière

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craze

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Just goes to show that you can’t have everything you want in one woman . One more argument for polygamy .

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Another case of men devoting their lives to studying more and more about less and less — filling volumes and libraries with the subtle linguistic analysis of the grunt .

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White Horse Club , and from there to Benny’s Hideaway , and then on to the Pink Slipper

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Allakazam Club

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exigencies

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I could see he was upset about the idea of my visiting Warren . As if I were ordering my coffin , to sit in before I died . But then , I can’t blame him because he doesn’t realize that finding out who I really am — the meaning of my total existence involves knowing the possibilities of my future as well as my past , where I’m going as well as where I’ve been . Although we know the end of the maze holds death ( and it is something I have not always known — not long ago the adolescent in me thought death could happen only to other people ) , I see now that the path I choose through that maze makes me what I am . I am not only a thing , but also a way of being — one of many ways — and knowing the paths I have followed and the ones left to take will help me understand what I am becoming .

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It upset me . . . because he reminded me of Charlie .

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The ones who manage to leave are all high - moron types — not that we’re getting many of those any more . Now we get more of the brain - damaged cases who require constant custodial care — but the high - morons can move around more freely , and after a week or so on the outside most of them come back when they find there’s nothing for them out there .

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denim

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starched

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Lautrec dancer

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Emotionally disturbed retardates

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As I drove out of Warren , I didn’t know what to think . The feeling of cold grayness was everywhere around me

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Like the boy who held the younger one in his arms , each had found a fulfillment in giving away a part of himself to those who had less .

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I’ve got to stop identifying with him .

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I’ve got to cut down on the drinking .

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Imperceptibly

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absorption

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taffy

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The odors of the laboratory animals , dogs , monkeys , mice , spin me back into memories , and it is difficult to know whether I am experiencing a new sensation or recalling the past . It is impossible to tell what proportion is memory and what exists here and now — so that a strange compound is formed of memory and reality ; past and present ; response to stimuli stored in my brain centers , and response to stimuli in this room .

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catatonic stupor

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zest

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coalesced

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Fortunately , I know enough about the processes of the mind not to let this block worry me too much . Instead of panicking and giving up ( or what’s even worse , pushing hard for answers that won’t come ) I’ve got to take my mind off the problem for a while and let it stew . I’ve gone as far as I can on a conscious level , and now it’s up to those mysterious operations below the level of awareness . It’s one of those inexplicable things , how everything I’ve learned and experienced is brought to bear on the problem . Pushing too hard will only make things freeze up . How many great problems have gone unsolved because men didn’t know enough , or have enough faith in the creative process and in themselves , to let go for the whole mind to work at it ?

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and you’ve developed from a likeable , retarded young man into an arrogant , self - centered , antisocial bastard .

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“ The problem , dear professor , is that you wanted someone who could be made intelligent but still be kept in a cage and displayed when necessary to reap the honors you seek . The hitch is that I’m a person . ”

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intelligence and education that hasn’t been tempered by human affection isn’t worth a damn .

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I present it to you as a hypothesis : Intelligence without the ability to give and receive affection leads to mental and moral breakdown , to neurosis , and possibly even psychosis . And I say that the mind absorbed in and involved in itself as a self - centered end , to the exclusion of human relationships , can only lead to violence and pain .

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Dissection shows that my predictions were right . Compared to the normal brain , Algernon’s had decreased in weight and there was a general smoothing out of the cerebral convolutions as well as a deepening and broadening of brain fissures .

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I wept as I put a bunch of wild flowers on the grave .

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It has to do with my mother , and now — more than ever — I want to understand her , to know what she was like and why she acted the way she did . I mustn’t hate her . I’ve got to come to terms with her before I see her so that I won’t act harshly or foolishly .

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patched - up shanties

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Always working to show the neighbors what a good wife and mother she was . The most important thing had always been what other people thought — appearances before herself or her family . And righteous about it . Time and again Matt had insisted that what others thought about you wasn’t the only thing in life . But it did no good . Norma had to dress well ; the house had to have fine furniture ; Charlie had to be kept inside so that other people wouldn’t know anything was wrong .

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corrugated

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“ The house is such a mess , ” she said . “ I wasn’t expecting company . Look at those windows , and that woodwork over there . ” “ That’s all right , Ma . Don’t worry about it . ” “ I’ve got to wax those floors again . It’s got to be clean . ” She noticed some fingermarks on the door and taking up her washrag she scrubbed them away . When she looked up and saw me watching her , she frowned . “ Have you come about the electric bill ? ” Before I could say no , she wagged her finger , scolding , “ I intend to send a check out the first of the month , but my husband is out of town on business . I told them all they don’t have to worry about the money , because my daughter gets paid this week , and we’ll be able to take care of all our bills . So there’s no need bothering me for money . ” “ Is she your only child ? Don’t you have any other children ? ” She started , and then her eyes looked far away . “ I had a boy . So brilliant that all the other mothers were jealous of him . And they put the evil eye on him . They called it the I.Q . but it was the evil - I.Q . He would have been a great man , if not for that . He was really very bright — exceptional , they said . He could have been a genius . . . ” She picked up a scrub brush . “ Excuse me now . I’ve got to get things ready . My daughter has a young man coming for dinner , and I’ve got to get this place clean . ” She got down on her knees and started to scrub the already shining floor . She didn’t look up again .

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poised

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“ Not exactly . It’s a scientific report I wrote . Very technical . Look , it’s called The Algernon - Gordon Effect . Something I discovered , and it’s named partly after me . I want you to keep a copy of the report so that you can show people that your son turned out to be more than a dummy after all . ” She took it and looked at it in awe . “ It’s . . . it’s your name . I knew it would happen . I always said it would happen someday . I tried everything I could . You were too young to remember , but I tried . I told them all that you’d go to college and become a professional man and make your mark in the world . They laughed , but I told them . ” She smiled at me through tears , and then a moment later she wasn’t looking at me any more . She picked up her rag and began to wash the woodwork around the kitchen door , humming — more happily , I thought — as if in a dream .

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She had grown up , had become warm and sympathetic and affectionate .

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Whatever the truth is , I must not hate Rose for protecting Norma . I must understand the way she saw it . Unless I forgive her , I will have nothing .

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Three blind mice . . . three blind mice , See how they run ! See how they run ! They all run after the farmer’s wife , She cut off their tails with a carving knife , Did you ever see such a sight in your life , As three . . . blind . . . mice ?

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aglow

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blotting

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On the verge of blending with the universe I hear the whispers around the ridges of consciousness .

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“ . . . the men of the cave would say of him that up he went and down he came without his eyes . . . . ”

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He looked up at me , waiting . “ All I’ve got to do is . . . ” But then it hit me like a fist against the side of my head that I didn’t remember what I had to do . It was as if I had been looking at the whole thing clearly on the blackboard of my mind , but when I turned to read it , part of it had been erased and the rest didn’t make sense .

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Paradise Lost

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loafter