 |
| Google Images |
There’s Charlie, grappling with his ever-changing state of awareness,
slowly and dramatically getting to know who he is – in the others’ perception.
Lots of data from this episode are rendered differently in the
different media. Knowing them will be considered proof of having done the task.
Flowers
for Algernon (5)
Daniel
Keyes
 |
| Google Images |
April 22—I found out
what a Rorshach is. It’s the test I took before the operation—the one
with the inkblots on the pieces of cardboard. The man who gave me the test was
the same one.
I was scared
to death of those inkblots. I knew he was going to ask me to find the pictures
and I knew I wouldn’t be able to. I was thinking to myself, if only there was
some way of knowing what kind of pictures were hidden there. Maybe there weren’t
any pictures at all. Maybe it was just a trick to see if I was dumb enough to
look for something that wasn’t there. Just thinking about that made me sore at
him.
“All right,
Charlie,” he said, “you’ve seen these cards before remember?”
“Of course I remember.”
The way I
said it, he knew I was angry, and he looked surprised. “Yes, of course. Now I
want you to look at this one. What might this be? What do you see on this card?
People see all sorts of things in these inkblots. Tell me what it might be for
you—what it makes you think of.”
I was
shocked. That wasn’t what I had expected him to say at all. “You mean there are
no pictures hidden in those inkblots?”
 |
| Google Images |
He frowned
and took off his glasses. “What?”
“Pictures.
Hidden in the inkblots. Last time you told me that everyone could see them and
you wanted me to find them too.”
He explained
to me that the last time he had used almost the exact same words he was using
now. I didn’t believe it, and I still have the suspicion that he misled me at
the time just for the fun of it. Unless—I don’t know any more—could I have been
that feebleminded?
We went
through the cards slowly. One of them looked like a pair of bats tugging at
something. Another one looked like two men fencing with swords. I imagined all
sorts of things. I guess I got carried away. But I didn’t trust him any more,
and I kept turning them around and even looking on the back to see if there was
anything there I was supposed to catch. While he was making his notes, I
peeked out of the corner of my eye to read it. But it was all in code that
looked like this:
 |
| Google Images |
The test
still doesn’t make sense to me. It seems to me that anyone could make up lies
about things that they didn’t really see. How could he know I wasn’t making a
fool of him by mentioning things that I didn’t really imagine? Maybe I’ll
understand it when Dr. Strauss lets me read up on psychology.
April 25—I figured out
a new way to line up the machines in the factory, and Mr. Donnegan says it
will save him ten thousand dollars a year in labor and increased production. He
gave me a twenty-five-dollar bonus.
I wanted to
take Joe Carp and Frank Reilly out to lunch to celebrate, but Joe said he had
to buy some things for his wife, and Frank said he was meeting his cousin for
lunch. I guess it’ll take a little time for them to get used to the changes in
me. Everybody seems to be frightened of me. When I went over to Amos Borg and
tapped him on the shoulder, he jumped up in the air.
 |
| Google Images |
No comments:
Post a Comment