Experiment gone wrong in flowers for AlgernonAn experiment was done on a mentally retarded person to try to increase his intelligence. The experiment worked, but after months it returned to the state it was in originally. In the book Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes, this intelligence operation was carried out and the patient was Charlie Gordon. After the operation, Charlie was very bright, but experienced loneliness and psychological distress. Charlie was emotionally distraught because of his childhood flashbacks and because his intelligence was growing faster than his emotional intelligence. After the operation, he slowly started having flashbacks to different moments in his childhood. In many of them his mother would go away and start saying, "...It's normal! It's normal! He'll grow up like the others. Better than the others." Charlie dreamed that his mother was ashamed of him. His mother always thought that her son was normal, that he would grow up and become someone. Charlie's sister also ignored him. To her, Charlie was stupid and couldn't do anything. Charlie dreamed that his sister was scolding and teasing him. He also had memories of the night his parents brought him to the Warren home. He was terrified and his father would never answer his questions. Charlie remembered his childhood and through his memories felt guilty for hurting his family. After the operation, in the bakery, he had some friends. Friends who would talk to him and take care of him. Charlie then realized that he had no friends but simply knew people who made fun of him. The bakery employees liked him simply because they could blame Charlie for their mistakes. So, they couldn't do it after the operation, so they all turned against Charlie. Charlie also found out about Nemur and Strauss, the men who carried out the operation. He realized that they were not professionals, but two men shooting in the dark. Charlie felt like an expendable lab specimen. So, Charlie had lost his friends and now knew that he was just like a lab rat. He was starting to regress and contemplated suicide to end his life of ups and downs. He became irritable and nervous around people at university. He would get angry very quickly at people and then yell at them. People stayed away from him because he was going crazy and was unpredictable.