Ignorance is Bliss in the Short Story Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

When people say “Ignorance is bliss”, they mean that not knowing something altogether is much better in that situation compared to telling them and having them deal with the problem. In the short story “Flowers for Algernon”, Charlie undergoes a surgical operation in his brain that makes his IQ triple. Once a retarded man that was happy, now a smart man that sees his “friends” as people that use him as a joke. The statement “Ignorance is bliss” is proven true in the story “Flowers for Algernon” because Charlie was happier when he didn’t know how cruel society was to him.

First off, right after Charlie gets his operation (before he starts getting smart), he thinks that everyone is nice to him such as this quote in progress report 9,” Joe Carp said I shoud show the girls how I mop out the toilet in the factory and he got me a mop. I showed them and everyone laffed when I told them that Mr Donnegan said I was the best janiter he ever had because I like my job and do it good” [SIC](205).

Charlie isn’t aware that his so-called “friends” are just making fun of him by making him show others how well he can mop a toilet. All he knows is his friends are showing their friends how diligent of a worker he is. This ignorance makes his life happy for him. Charlie thinks that he has good friends that care for him and that they want to show their friends how well he works.

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Before Charlie learns about their real intentions, Charlie is happy. Another example happens later in progress report 9 when Charlie wrote, “I don’t remember how the was over but I think I went out to buy a newspaper and coffe for Joe and Frank and when I came back there was no one their.”[SIC](205)

Again, Charlie doesn’t understand that his friends are making fun of him by ditching him from the party because they were done messing with him and getting him drunk. And once again, Charlie’s good intentions makes him think that he forgot something or anything but his friends are doing good for him. Charlie’s ignorance IS bliss. A few weeks later, when Charlie is now quite smart, he sees the world like a normal person. He writes in his progress report,” Now I know what it means when they say “to pull a Charlie Gordon.? I’m ashamed.” (209) As Charlie develops, he realizes hat laughing along with his “friends” when they do a dumb thing and they say that they “pulled a Charlie Gordon”, was a direct insult to himself. He is starting to feel feelings like being ashamed for thinking that everyone is a nice person. As is learns facts about society, he becomes less ignorant and the bliss goes away so he becomes less happy and people become more aware of the mean things that they are doing to him. For example, Charlie writes, “I guess it’ll take a little time for them to get used to changes in me.

Everyone seems to be frightened of me.” The workers at the bakery are getting scared because they think: now that Charlie is getting smarter, he might get us back for all the mean things that we did to him or he might start doing mean things to us etc. Essentially, Charlie’s coworkers are feeling remorse and the frightening feelings that come with it. While Charlie gets more conscious of what is going on around him, realizes that maybe the real reason that Joe and Frank can’t come out to lunch with him isn’t because they actually have meetings or shopping to do, but rather they just want to get away from him as his intelligence surpasses theirs’. This is like a sort of karma for both sides in this situation. Right before he becomes a retarded man again, he is at the peak of his intelligence. At an IQ of around 200, it is about 20% higher than Einstein. In his progress report, he writes,” I find that I don’t communicate with people much anymore. Thank God for books and music and things I can think about.” (215)

At this point, Charlie has sectioned himself from the rest of the world. He looks down on them like they’re the idiots. Charlie is so smart he views the world as being dumb and can’t stand the “stupidity” of the normal person. The ignorance is bliss has now been placed on the rest of society. Society is now ignorant and dumb and they are happy compared to Charlie. This is the exact opposite of the case at the beginning of the surgery. The world has flipped upside down for him until he becomes dumb again and everything returns to normal EXCEPT he now KNOWS that people are harassing him. Even though he is dumb after his mental regression, he remembers his memories of comprehending the mockery from others. He is permanently unable to see everyone as a nice, happy person. He is UNABLE to be happy life before. The statement “Ignorance is bliss” is proven true in the story “Flowers for Algernon” because Charlie was happier when he didn’t know how cruel society was to him. As one becomes smarter, he isn’t able to see the world to be as smart as it was before.

One person that had an IQ of 307 was documented to have committed suicide in his teens because he had learned all of the “dumb world’s” knowledge and he became too depressed about the world around him. Certainly he could have grown up to help the world invent new things, but he committed suicide because the world was too happy or ignorant to understand what was going on with him. Our society compares itself to the differents: the smarts, the dumbs, the blinds, the leaders. But our cruel society only wants the averages and not the differents, which makes everything change. Works Cited: Flowers for Algernon. 2010. Holt McDougal Literature. Comp. Janet Allen. Evanston, IL: Holt McDougal, a Division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012. 196-223. Print.