Study Questions for Flowers for Algernon

Section I--Pages 1-53

1) What does Charlie hope for at the start of his progris riports?

2) What is important about Algernon?

3) How do Charlie's co-workers treat him?

4) What is the relationship Charlie had with his family?

5) What's the problem Charlie has with his intellectual growth outstripping his emotional growth?

6) What does Charlie come to realize about the significance of his relationship with others?

7) What's Charlie's excitement about the college signify?

Section II--pages 54-115

1) What's going on in Charlie's mind about his relationship with Alice?  How does it evolve for him?

2) What effect does learning Gimpy is stealing have on Charlie?  Why?  What does he learn from it?

3) What's the significance of Charlie's realization that even professors have specialized and narrow knowledge?

4) What has intelligence done to Charlie's relationships at the bakery?

5) What kind of relationship did Charlie have with Norma?  What's her problem?

6) What difficulty is Alice having in her relationship with Charlie?

7) What is significant about the episode with Dr. Guarino?

8) Why does Charlie leave the convention?

Section III--pages 116-54

1) What is Charlie's reaction to seeing his mother and sister's photograph in the paper?

2) What is the significance of Charlie's relationship with Fay?

3) What is important about Charlie's meeting with his father?

4) What is Charlie's fascination with continuing Algernon's education?

5) What effect does alcohol have on Charlie?

6) What is significant about the retarded boy at the diner?

7) What is significant about Algernon's deterioration?

8) Why does Charlie want to visit the Warren State Home?

Section IV--pages 154-216

1) What does Charlie discover at the Warren State Home?

2) What happens when Alice meets Fay?  What's Charlie's reaction to Fay's seeing someone else?

3) What is the significance of the dinner party at Nemur's?

4) What does Charlie discover in the Algernon-Gordon effect?

5) What happens to Charlie when he returns home to see his mother and sister?

6) How is Charlie's slow degeneration evident in his manner of preparing his reports?

7) What does his degeneration do to his relationships with others?

8) What's his last advice to Nemur?