Quarterly Review--We will also review in class tomorrow.

Flowers for Algernon

Final Quarterly Assessment

Friday, June 10, 2011

Format of Test

·        Character Identification

·        Multiple Choice

·        40 total

Characters:

·        Charlie Gordon

·        Norma Gordon

·        Rose Gordon

·        Matt Gordon

·        Professor Nemur

·        Dr. Strauss

·        Burt

·        Fanny

·        Algernon

·        Hilda

·        Alice Kinnian

·        Fay Lillman

·        Gimpy

·        Joe Carp and Frank Reilly

·        Uncle Herman

·        Mr. Donner

Charlie’s Changes Before and After Surgery In:

·        Love and romance

·        Grammar and punctuation

·        Intellect (intelligence)

·        Emotional development

·        Professional development

·        Social relationships

·        Confidence

Effects of Charlie’s Childhood

·        Rose’s confidence in Charlie’s child development

·        Rose’s way of dealing with anger and denial of Charlie; how Rose’s treatment impacted Charlie’s future relationships with women

·        Matt and Rose’s relationship

·        Charlie’s interpretation of good and evil

·        His childhood experiences’ impact on his behavior

·        His fears and concerns

Major Symbols

·        Algernon= symbol for?

·        Mirrors= symbol for?

·        Mazes= symbol for?

·        Knives= symbol for?

·        Windows=symbol for?

·        Darkness=symbol for?

·        Can you think of others?

Themes

·        Mistreatment of the mentally disabled (man’s inhumanity to man)

·        How our past can impact our present

·        Self-realization and understanding of self

·        Use and abuse of science and technology; ethics (or lack of) in scientific experimentation

Elements and Style

• Flashback
• This is a cyclical novel – why?
• Progress Reports – why did the author use this format to write the novel?

Important Quotes: Identify speaker, importance to novel, and which theme may be reflected

• "If your smart you can have lots of frends to talk to and you never get lonley by yourself all the time."

• "Some times somebody will say hey lookit Frank, or Joe or even Gimpy. He really pulled a Charlie Gordon that time. I don't know why they say it but they always laff and I laff too."
• "She says Im a fine person and Ill show them all. I asked her why. She said never mind but I shouldnt feel bad if I find out everybody isnt nice like I think."
• "'The more intelligent you become the more problems you'll have, Charlie.'" 
• "'You're fooling yourself, Rose.  It's not fair to us or to him.  Pretending he's normal.  Driving him as if he were an animal that could learn to do tricks.'" 
• "I'm like a man who's been half-asleep all his life, trying to find out what he was like before he woke up." 
• "I was seeing them clearly for the first time - not gods or even heroes, but just two men worried about getting something out of their work."
• "Our relationship is becoming increasingly strained. I resent Nemur's constant references to me as a laboratory specimen. He makes me feel that before the experiment was not really a human being."
• "What did you expect? Did you think I'd remain a docile pup, wagging my tail and licking the foot that kicks me? I no longer have to take the kind of crap that people have been handing me all my life."
• "Remembering how my mother looked before she gave birth to my sister is frightening. But even more frightening is the feeling that I wanted them to catch me and beat me. Why did I want to be punished? Shadows out of the past clutch at my legs and drag me down. I open my mouth to scream, but I am voiceless. My hands are trembling, I feel cold, and there is a distant humming in my ears."
• "They had pretended to be geniuses. But they were just ordinary men working blindly, pretending to be able to bring light into the darkness. Why is it that everyone lies? No one I know is what he appears to be."
• "'We who have worked on this project at Beekman University have the satisfaction of knowing we have taken one of nature's mistakes and by our new techniques created a superior human being.'" 
• “ ‘It’s not meant for any man to know more than was given to him to know by the Lord in the first place.  The fruit of the tree was forbidden to man. 
• “Strauss again brought up my need to speak and write simply and directly so that people will understand me.  He reminds me that language is sometimes a barrier instead of a pathway.  Ironic to find myself on the other side of the intellectual fence.”
•  “I realize there’s nothing we can do.  When you’ve got a child like him it’s a cross, and you bear it, and love it.  Well, I can bear him, but I can’t stand your foolish ways. “
• “‘You’ve got a superb mind now, intelligence that can’t really be calculated, more knowledge absorbed by now than most people pick up in a lifetime.  But you’re lopsided.  You know things.  You see things.  But you haven’t developed understanding, or—I have to use the word—tolerance.  You call them phonies, but when did either of them ever claim to be perfect, or superhuman?  They’re ordinary people.  You’re the genius.’”
• “What is my place?  Who and what am I now?  Am I the sum of my life or only of the past months?”
• “I’m a human being, a person—with parents and memories and a history—and I was before you ever wheeled me into that operating room!”