How did Charlie's past interactions with his mother shape his personality in "Flowers for Algernon"?

Charlie Gordon, a developmentally challenged
young man, is theof s "." Charlie undergoes a risky surgical procedure to boost his
intelligence and is able to look back on his relationship with his mother and try to understand
it.

Charlie has had a difficult childhoodsuffering verbal and possible
physical abuse from his mother, Rose. Charlie's past interactions with Rose shape his
personality and hamper his ability to interact emotionally with the woman he loves when he
becomes intelligent.

Specifically, Charlie develops strong romantic feelings
for his teacher, Alice Kinnian, but the shame that has been instilled in him as a boy is still
present. That shame came primarily from his mother and was also reinforced by others. It follows
him even when his intelligence reaches and then surpasses average levels. He recalls two
extremely painful incidents that happened when he was young.

First, the a
young Charlie experienced a humiliating experience when he spied on his sister as she was
bathing. This is the incident that ultimately led his parents to give him up and place him with
a relative, Uncle Herman. The abandonment will stay with Charlie throughout his life and haunt
his relationship with Alice. He dreams about it 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? Something about the knife.

I made myself a cup of
coffee and smoked a cigarette. I'd never had a dream like it before, and I knew it was connected
with my evening with Alice. I have begun to think of her in a different way

...ideas bubbling to the surface like a bubble bath...a woman bathing...a girl...Norma
taking a bath...I am watching through the keyhole...and when she gets out of the tub to dry
herself I see that her body is different from mine. Something is missing.

Running down the hallway...somebody chasing me...not a person...just a big flashing
kitchen knife and I'm scared and crying but no voice comes out because my neck is cut and I'm
bleeding

Charlie's dream involves a knife and suggests
that Rose may have attacked him physically. Even when he and Alice get to know one another
better, Charlie still has difficulties being close to her emotionally and intimately. The
intelligent adult Charlie recalls one situation when 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. A
friend of his sister's comes to the house and he starts thinking like that! I'll teach him so he
never forgets. 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.
But perhaps I had been released. Maybe the fear and nausea was no longer a sea to drown in. but
only a pool of water reflecting the past alongside the now. Was I free?

If I
could reach Alice in time-without thinking about it, before it overwhelmed me-maybe the panic
wouldn't happen. If only I could make my mind a blank. I managed to choke out: "You...you
do it! Hold me!" And before I knew what she was doing, she was kissing me, holding me
closer than anyone had ever held me before. But at the moment I should have come closest of all,
it started: the buzzing, the chill, and the nausea. I turned away from her.

She 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.

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