84. A Challenged Book

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It turns out that there are two versions of Flowers for Algernon: a short story (the one that has been uploaded in 14 successive posts) and a novel, whose contents have been presented through the 146 audio episodes (don’t miss out on them: it is there that you’ll find the ‘real’ Charlie. Make sure you’ve saved them all, and listen to them again and again.). The short story and the novel share many plot points but the novel expands significantly on Charlie's developing emotional state as well as his intelligence, his memories of childhood, and the relationship with his family and Miss Kinnian. Still, more important for the outcome of such an experiment is what made Flowers for Algernon a “dangerous book”:

Censorship

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Flowers for Algernon is on the American Library Association's list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–1999. The reasons for the challenges vary, but usually centre on those parts of the novel in which Charlie struggles to understand and express his sexual desires. Many of the challenges have proved unsuccessful, but the book has occasionally been removed from school libraries, including some in Pennsylvania and Texas.

In January 1970, the school board of Cranbrook, British Columbia, as well as Calgary, Alberta, removed the Flowers for Algernon novel from the local grade-nine curriculum and the school library, after a parent complained that it was "filthy and immoral". The president of the British Columbia Teachers' Federation criticized the action. Flowers for Algernon was part of the British Columbia Department of Education list of approved books for grade nine and was recommended by the British Columbia Secondary Association of Teachers of English. A month later, the board reconsidered and returned the book to the library; they did not, however, lift its ban from the curriculum. 

Banned books - Flowers for Algernon

Fifteen words have been removed from the summary below, only to be offered, together with five ‘intruders’, for you to consider. Re-insert the ones which render the text meaningful and then check your answers.

Short story summary

The story is told through a series of journal entries written (1) _ the story's protagonist, Charlie Gordon, a man with an IQ of 68 who works as a janitor in a factory. He is selected to undergo an experimental surgical technique meant to (2) _ his intelligence. The surgery, already successfully tested on a mouse, is also a success and Charlie’s IQ triples.

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Charlie falls in love with his (3) _ teacher, Miss Kinnian, but as his intelligence increases, he surpasses her intellectually and they become unable to relate to (4) _ other. He also realizes that his co-workers at the factory, whom he thought were his friends, only liked him to be around so that they could make fun (5) _ him. His new intelligence scares his co-workers at his job; they start a petition to (6) _ him fired but when Charlie finds out about the petition, he quits. As Charlie's intelligence peaks, Algernon (7) _ declines — losing his increased intelligence and dying shortly afterward, to be buried in a cheese box in Charlie's backyard. Charlie discovers that this is, also in his case, only temporary.

He starts to experiment to find (8) _ the cause of the flaw in the experiment, which he calls the "Algernon-Gordon Effect". Just when he finishes his experiments, his intelligence begins to degenerate, to (9) _ an extent that he becomes equally as unintelligent as he was before the experiment. Charlie is (10) _ of, and pained by, what is happening to him as he loses his knowledge and his ability to read and write. Despite (11) _ to his former self, he still remembers that he was once a genius. He tries to get his old job (12) _, and tries to revert back to normal but he cannot stand the pity from his co-workers, landlady, and Ms. Kinnian. He decides to go (13) _ _ New York to live at the State-sponsored Warren Home School, where nobody knows about the operation. His (14) _ wish is that someone put flowers on Algernon's grave.

The novel opens with an epigraph discouraging people (15) _ _ at those who are perplexed or weak of vision. The epigraph is taken from Plato’s The Republic, part of which reads:                                                         

“

Google Images Any one who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eye 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.

”

AT – AWARE – AWAY FROM – BACK – BY – EACH – FOR – FORMER – FROM LAUGHING – HAVE – INCREASE – LAST – OF – ON TO – OLD – OUT – REGRESSING – SUCH – SUDDENLY – TO LAUGH     

1.                 BY – 2. INCREASE – 3. FORMER – 4. EACH – 5. OF – 6. HAVE – 7. SUDDENLY – 8. OUT – 9. SUCH – 10. AWARE – 11. REGRESSING – 12. BACK – 13. AWAY FROM – 14. LAST – 15. FROM LAUGHING