Comparison of the Flowers For Algernon and Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

Flowers For Algernon

Keyes captures the feeling of what happens right after Charlie’s superior intellectual thinking is stripped away from him. He reverts back to being a man with a very low IQ. Despite valiant efforts of the protagonist to remain a hero/genius, his mental disability will forever impede him and define him indefinitely.

Keyes perceives that Charlie's relapse, in spite of the fact that he comes back to his original state, is a cause of a disaster. This disaster is perceived as pity toward the start of the novel in light of the fact that Charlie's handicap makes him be feeble and uninformed. By the end of the novel, disability causes the book's reasonable hero, the astute Charlie, to never again exist. All that had made the postoperative Charlie a different character—reason, love, creative ability, sexuality—deteriorates. Thus, it is as though smart Charlie is biting the dust. How readers are to react to this demise and its motivation, mental handicap, must be assessed, however, when the smart Charlie is contrasted with his preoperative state.

Keyes uses his argument to stabilize the concept of pitying the mentally disabled. Setting up this sentiment of complete pity for Charlie is fundamental as it gives background to the postoperative Charlie, who progresses toward becoming hyper-aware of his present state as a growing genius just as his previous condition of wretched, impaired man disappears.

The ceaseless social omnipresence of the novel ostensibly rests in the way that when Charlie ends up smart he apparently turns into a haughty, narrow-minded weight to everyone around him. This makes an interesting appreciation for the mentally crippled because, despite the fact that they are innocent, such obliviousness is desirable over the grandiose narcissists in the scholarly world. This thankfulness is fleeting, however, as we before long move our loyalty to the hyper-clever Charlie who seethes against the individuals who 'made' him, while in the meantime grieving the incidental quality of his creation that drives him back to being crippled.

The mind-boggling pity we feel for him as readers can also be comprehended through the intellectually enhanced Charlie. Since this new Charlie can't see himself as the same as the old Charlie, that old Charlie turns out to be something other than his initial desolate figure; presently he is an outcast. Charlie's extraordinary change has been from the obscure to the known, and since the obscure position is a place of the unknown, the latter position is the alluring one. His transformation from lack of knowledge to knowledge is a development nobody, not even postoperative Charlie, predicts, but alas, he is someone who is publicly acknowledged.

Charlie’s disability catches up to him and he must face the decay of his knowledge. Never having needed to see the initial Charlie as the equivalent to the genius Charlie, readers can change their minds about a man they first felt sorry for, into the man they eventually idolize; like dying, his disability eradicates what great has been made in the novel. Readers are left with the memory of Charlie who cherished Alice, his great love, and ached to make something enduring and useful for humankind. Mental disability, similar to death, has killed the likelihood for any new, positive encounters to happen.

Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

Christopher considers truth to be an anchoring standard of the world. If he is told the truth by someone, he can confide in them, but if they lie, he panics. Because of his Aspergers, he lacks full consciousness of reality, and readers pity him because of his naivety and innocence. Christopher additionally discovers that reality can sting as much as falsehood could. While he is always mindful of his physical security, hauling his knife relaxes him because of the fact that he can protect himself while being able to inflict harm on others if need be. Readers pity him because despite knowing how to protect himself physically, Christopher doesn't have a clue how to defend himself emotionally. He, in some cases, reacts to his feelings being hurt with his fists, for example, when he physically battles his dad, Ed, when Ed approached him about his mom's illicit relationship. Christopher trusts reality will protect him from emotional damage, but he is proven wrong, further enabling the reader’s pity.

Since Christopher at first structured his life by truth and lie, he opposes envisioning circumstances other than those that really exist. He doesn't want people to consider how the deceased may respond to current circumstances since they can't contemplate a world that goes on after their demise. Doing so, Christopher figures out how to shield himself from troubling considerations of his mother, who he thinks is dead, or of how things may have been in the event that she was still with Christopher. Christopher believes truth-telling is an indication of adoration, particularly in his dad. However, the reality about his mom winds up harming him.

Ed finds the reality of his significant other's departure too difficult to even consider dealing with, and so he imagines that lying to Christopher will ensure him. Lying about Judy's passing shields his dad from managing his very own feelings, but he thinks that lying is the more considerate and selfless option in this case; it is better for Christopher to think his mom is dead than to believe that she has relinquished him. Due to Christopher's commitment to truth, however, he can't see that his dad may have meant well in deceiving him, regardless of whether it was wrong or not. He feels the agony of reality, which in this circumstance has sold out him as much as his folks have, placing him into passionate peril instead of guarding him. Pity is incorporated here because Christopher is easily misunderstood and it seems like others are making important decisions for him when he is very much capable of making his own choices. In spite of the fact that reality harms Christopher, he can't turn into a grown-up without confronting it.

Self-awareness

Flowers for Algernon

Flowers for Algernon examines the connection between smart and unintelligent individuals, or for the most part, between the superior and inferior. Since Charlie Gordon goes between these two universes—shifting from being intellectually disabled to being brilliant, and afterward back to intellectually disabled once more—he sees the manners by which individuals taunt and ridicule their scholarly inferiors, partially because of savagery, but mostly because of self-doubt.

Individuals of 'normal' intellect bully the disabled due to the fact that they need them to help themselves remember their place in the 'pecking order.' Charlie's at the mercy of his co-workers when they subject him to a sequence of remorseless tricks and jokes that strengthen the reader's perception of Charlie's ineptitude, awkwardness, and naivety. It's huge that Charlie's co-workers never become weary of pulling tricks on him even after 10 years. By mocking Charlie for his ineptitude, the co-workers are viably praising themselves for being more astute than Charlie—none of them are really smart, but at least they aren't seen as the 'remainder' of society. However, Charlie does not realize that they are mocking him. This all changes once Charlie transforms into a genius. His former tormentors declare that they're avoiding him since they don't need a walking reminder of their mental mediocrity: they would prefer not to associate with somebody who makes them feel inept.

All this can be said the same for his advisers, Professor Nemur and Doctor Strauss. It seems that the whole scientific community struggles to accept their mental mediocrity. When a video is shown of Charlie before the operation, Nemur's fellow workers all laugh at him. However, after meeting the new Charlie, they start to reject him very quickly because he is smarter. Indeed, even Charlie himself begins to think he is more dominant than his scholarly inferiors. Keyes seems to propose that people tend to be cruel to individuals who are more vulnerable and those same people tend to obey those who are stronger. Consequently, as Charlies transforms into a genius, his self-awareness grows but turns him into a somewhat cocky and arrogant man. There is a juxtaposition created because Keyes sends a message that being oblivious means being ridiculed, but being self-aware means arrogance. A question is proposed: Do readers prefer the former or the latter? The bigger message seems to be that there is no win-win situation in life, but especially for the intellectually disabled.

Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

Clark provides a derivation of Christopher’s lack of wisdom and experience by arguing that they are caused by the inability to communicate and coordinate properly; problems that are at the core of being a teenager with Asperger’s syndrome. This implies that Christopher conveys what needs be said in a basic and different way and cannot comprehend regularly acknowledged methods of signaling. Christopher having such a syndrome permits Haddon to remove the norm that language has embraced throughout the years and to strip it exposed to an authentic shape; according to society, people need to collaborate specifically with the words that are verbally expressed and not with the suggestions of these words. Christopher's experiences challenge that criterion, enabling readers to see the world in another and crisp light. However, this may be interpreted as an unfavorable trait because this misunderstanding towards language is what allows Christopher to become naive and not acknowledge his limitations.

Christopher's desire to become an astronaut is firmly connected to his condition, especially considering the hardships he faces when it comes to social situations. Christopher, who acknowledges that his condition makes him unique—and in certain individuals' eyes, less fit—than the normal kid his age, frequently underscores that he is no less capable than any other person, and all through the novel we see him looking for a job where he feels good and esteemed. He detests his school, for example, because he feels undesirable and awkward, as he supposes he's better than the other students. Being in school with them suggests he is, by one way or another, less significant as an individual. Being an astronaut would demonstrate his value by enabling him to utilize his knowledge and scientific capacities as well as by turning his lack of social abilities, which cause him to favor being isolated, into an advantage. Here, his condition would make him significant. “It is these plans that demonstrate Christopher’s naivety in the early part of the novel, a limitation brought about by his autism.” (Clark 7).

Clark’s argument, as applied to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, poses the question of if Christopher eventually realizes his weaknesses and whether he addresses them or not. The answer is yes, he does acknowledge them and chooses to make significant decisions based off of them. After Christopher reasons that he should leave and live in London with his mother, he understands that he cannot become an astronaut since it would mean being very far from home, which alarms him since he has already experienced feeling such separation from his home in Swindon.

This little yet telling contemplative disclosure enables the reader to comprehend that Christopher has started to understand his very own limits and to think outside his own psyche, despite if it is just inside the extremely troublesome limits of his autism that confines him. The story closes with Christopher wanting to take more A-level tests in science and math, and after that go to a college in another town. He knows, because of having fled from home before in the book, that he won't almost certainly adapt without a grown-up present; he is likewise mindful that going into space is totally impossible. It is this new mindfulness that gives the concentration to the idea of awareness as a basic subtext. For what it's worth, Christopher's activities and revelations in solving a mystery, composing a book, and discovering his mom, albeit partly effective, have driven him to the conceptualization of his own defects as a vital part to his extended comprehension of the world at large.

Social Interactions

Flowers for Algernon

This topic envelops all parts of kinship: desires, observations, and its significance. Charlie's co-workers — Gimpy, Frank, and Joe — are the perfect subjects to investigate the concept of 'friendship.' Prior to the medical procedure, these men were Charlie's closest companions. He adored their company and anticipated investing his time with them. After the procedure, Charlie can see their relationship from an alternate perspective and comes to acknowledge that these men were not companions. They ridiculed him and he was regularly utilized exclusively for their enjoyment. As his realization comes to life, his friendship with them dies. But when Charlie gets reversed back into his original state, it is these 'companions' who welcome him back, having acknowledged him for who he again is.

When Charlie wakes up from his operation, he picks up the book 'Robinson Crusoe,' and as he deciphers it, the book is about an intelligent man on an island. Charlie pities Robinson Crusoe in light of the fact that he is isolated and has no companions, which foreshadows Charlie's own battle with his own friends.

The power of friendship is analyzed in Charlie's connection with Algernon. The tiny white mouse gifts Charlie with what the world could not gift: genuine and unequivocal companionship. Charlie finds his own destiny through Algernon. When Charlie relapsed to a point that was beneath to where he started, readers see the power of companionship, not just in the kinship that existed among Algernon and Charlie, but among everyone else. By the end of the novel, Charlie is unfit to recollect numerous things from the past and he knows that his relapse is disappointing to other people, particularly to Miss Kinnian, whom he thinks about as a companion, so he admits himself to the Warren State Home out of thought for his companions. What's more, genuinely a dependable companion himself, Charlie's last desire in his report asks that somebody makes sure to place flowers on Algernon's grave.

Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

Christopher's failure to express his sentiments of adoration and love in the 'stereotypical' way can feel isolating. Be that as it may, Christopher shows readers the significance of reassessing society's definitions of terms. Despite the fact that he doesn't care to be physically embraced by his dad and despite the fact that he hints at no care towards his mom, Haddon figures out how to build a world in which readers are really moved by Christopher's genuineness. Recalling his mom, he discloses that she smelt lovely which is such a particular recollection, that it invokes a picture of Christopher being physically near his mom and feeling consoled and soothed by her recognizable and distinct smell.

The enormous slip-up that Christopher's dad makes is to conceal the detail from Christopher that his mom is leaving them since he needs to 'secure' his child. Apparently stressing that Christopher will feel neglected and abandoned, he conceals this fundamental detail from him. Christopher's reaction to this isn't as one may expect - when he, in the end, discovers his mom, he isn't furious that she left. His relationships are directed uniquely in contrast to what society what them to be. Christopher demonstrates that he is more compassionate than the vast majority who express their adoration in the standard ways when he sees that Toby is gone. He risks his own safety so as to spare and protect him.

Indeed, Christopher causes readers to challenge how relationships should be seen. Society forces people to show love through conventional ways, like hugging and kissing, but Christopher defies those norms and chooses to love in other terms.

God

Flowers for Algernon

The talk of God often is brought up with regards to religion but is more frequent when the extent of power is challenged. Power is firmly attached to the topic of the intellectually disabled which challenges who should have control of the mentally ill individual and why they should. Does God have the control and the last word? Are the relatives in charge? For instance, Charlie first was introduced to religion when he heard his mom frequently pray to God in hopes of 'fixing' her son. After he becomes a genius, he overhears several students conversing about governmental issues and religion.

This is the first time he 'heard anyone say that there might not be a God. That frightened me because for the first time I began to think about what God means'. He was told all his life that God holds all power and so the possibility of God not having absolute power terrifies Charlie—and appropriately. He comes to loathe Professor Nemur, on the premise that Nemur does not regard him as an individual until after he becomes a genius. Nemur is trying to act like God. He actually believes that he made Charlie and when Charlie notices this, he argued at the Psychological Convention, saying: 'How can I make him understand that he did not create me?'.

Nemur keeps on parading his power at the meeting, and when he is posed an inquiry, Charlie says that 'it was the chance he had been waiting for to show his authority, and for the first time since we’d known each other he put his hand on my shoulder'. Nonetheless, Charlie develops to understand that he doesn't generally mind if a God exists or not, and embraces an unbiased view, realizing that people make their own idols in their heads for themselves. Consequently, Charlie sets up the harmony between knowledge and love as his new god. Later on at a party, he 'sermonizes' to the people, saying that at a basic level, faith consists of learning, knowledge, and intelligence, but these things do not merit anything without adoration and feeling. At long last, when Charlie is asked by Dr. Strauss who he fears more: God or nothing, he responds saying he is not afraid of either, but rather is scared of wasting life.

Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

Christopher considers God an outlandish and superfluous thought. He talks pompously of individuals who have faith in God, recommending they do so simply because they need a basic clarification for complex issues, for example, the presence of life. Christopher thinks that anyone can clarify life and complicated matters without carrying God into the talk (Christopher's thinking reviews the idea of Occam's razor, which says one shouldn't assume anything unless there is a simple explanation). Christopher believes it's just good fortune that there's a reality on earth, and not on different planets. For life to appear, there must be duplication (making replicates through sex), mutation (little changes in the duplicates), and heritability (those changes being transferred to the reproduction). Many don't trust that the unpredictable parts of life can happen by some coincidence, but rather happen because of evolution. Essentially, religious individuals believe that people are higher intellectually than other creatures, but the missing link is that humans will evolve into another animal and then that animal will treat the humans as inferiors.

Christopher again shows his abhorrence of anything imaginary or miraculous. He binds the very presence of life, a standout amongst the most apparently secretive wonders, with logical standards. In spite of the fact that other individuals regularly consider themselves to appear as something else or superior to Christopher, they all happened through science. Christopher appears to discover some fulfillment in the way that, over the long haul, self-righteous people are not self-righteous after all because a human is judging a human, which is a limitation in itself. He additionally communicates his fondness for animals again by guarding them against humans' seemingly dominant and arrogant ways of life.