Describe three ways that Charlie was affected due to the treatment he received from his parents.

In
href="">Daniel
Keyess book href="">Flowers
for Algernon, Charlie Gordon undergoes a risky surgical procedure in order
to boost his intelligence to averageand then to above-averagelevels. Charlie has suffered verbal
and possibly physical abuse from his mother. In fact, his parents ultimately gave him up and
placed him with a relative, Uncle Herman. Of the many ways that Charlie is affected by the
treatment he received from his parents, three are discussed here.

First, it hampers his ability to interact emotionally and
romantically. The abandonment by his parents stays with Charlie and haunts his
relationship with Alice. He dreams about the treatment he received from his mother and writes,
"When I woke up, I thought of Alice, and I had the same feeling of panic as in the dream.
What am I afraid of?

It also makes him ashamed of his desire for physical
intimacy. That shame came primarily from his mother and was also reinforced by others. He
recalls two extremely painful incidents. In the first, the young Charlie spied on his sister as
she was bathing. In another situation, his sister Norma brought a friend home, and little
Charlie stared at her. His mother, Rose, became incensed.

"Look at him!" Rose screams. "He can't learn to read and write, but he
knows enough to look at a girl that way. I'll beat that filth out of his mind."

"He can't help it if he gets an erection. It's normal. He didn't do
anything."

"He's got no business to think that way about girls€¦.Do
you hear? If you ever touch a girl, I'll put you away in a cage, like an animal, for the rest of
your life. Do you hear me?"

"I still hear
her," he writes. She [Alice] tried to soothe me, to tell me it didn't matter, that there
was no reason to blame myself. But ashamed, and no longer able to control my anguish, I began to
sob."

Second, it also makes him
compassionate. He understands the injustice that other people who are like the
younger Charlie often suffer. After his operation, as his intelligence and understanding of the
world around him grows, he recognizes how badly people have treated him. He writes,

I guess I'm still a little angry that all the time people were
laughing and making fun of me because I wasn't so smart.

He empathizes with people who are like the younger Charlie. For instance, when he sees
other people taunting a young boy, he shouts at them. He sees himself in the boy and has
compassion for him.

Third, it
makes him seek approval from others. He strives to become even more intelligent
than most people in order to show his parents and others and eventually win their approval.
Before he undergoes the procedure, Charlie writes,

When I
become intelligent like Dr. Strauss says, with three times my IQ of 68, then maybe I'll be like
everyone else and people will like me and be friendly.

Then, following the procedure, he writes, Even a feeble-minded man wants to be like
other men.