Flowers for Algernon - Balance

I chose this photo not only because it's really cute, but also because it relates to the theme balance. A lot of this novel has to do with balance, because Charlie faces difficulties in life regarding relationships.

When Charlie is dumb, people stood away from him and treated him in an inferior manner. On the other hand, now that Charlie is far more intelligent than anyone else, they avoid him because they feel stupid when they're with him. Then would Charlie maintain good relationships if his intelligence was just 'average?' Would people consider him normal?

I always wondered about the concept of average, because unless you're dealing with math, an average is hard to get. How can you get the average of things like kindness, love, hate, or beauty? I feel bad for Charlie because he is ill treated by others no matter what he is. Even Alice struggles with Charlie's sudden development, and she begins to avoid Charlie as he becomes more and more intelligent. Charlie must be having an extremely hard time, because no matter what he does, nothing's on purpose, yet people tend to avoid him.

However, it is true that as Charlie gains intelligence, he forms a more critical view on people. He tends to pick out people's mistakes and therefore hurts their feelings. This is probably the cause of most people stepping away from him. Before, since he didn't know much, people were softer with him, yet they treated him like a little kid. Now, they accept his genius, but they dislike him because of his critical view.

In Progress Report 12, different perspectives on 'being human' can be found. Professor Nemur says that intelligence is important, and that if you are mentally disabled, you are disqualified as a normal human. However, on the other hand, Alice says that being kind and having emotions are more important factors of living. I wouldn't say who's right or wrong, but that everything depends on point of view, and you cannot be perfect. Charlie must find a state for him that satisfies both him and others.

Flowers for Algernon - Gaining Intelligence

Charlie's operation finds success, and this leads to further struggling within Charlie. He improves in his English skills, discovers things about his co-workers that he wasn't able to notice before, and he also recalls many memories from his past.

Even though these changes may seem happy, Charlie has a hard time dealing with them. I think I would it would be tough for me if I were in his situation, too. Since Charlie is more intelligent, he views things in a completely different way. The jokes and plays that seemed fun before are now insulting to him, since he somewhat figures out that his co-workers are teasing him. He remembers events in his past, and these are painful because they all reflect upon his dumbness. I think Charlie is generally embarrassed to see such bare truths about his own life. To suddenly see things that he used to be blind to would definitely be difficult to handle. I think my life is completely normal right now, being loved and cared by my friends and family. I am satisfied with my schoolwork and outer activities. However, if one day I saw everything differently and saw myself as a mentally retarded person being teased by others, my heart would break.

I think Charlie is going to become overloaded with painful information as he gains more and more intelligence. He is becoming too sensitive about the things people say and how they treat him. Even when they mean nothing bad, he takes it in emotionally and faces outbursts. I guess things ought to be difficult, since this whole experiment is no different from skipping 20 years of life. Charlie's intelligence grew from a 6 year old to an adult. He also forms new feelings of love towards Alice Kinnian, his instructor. However, she insists on keeping the personal feelings away and focus on the experiment. The smarter Charlie gets, the more troubled he is. I guess intelligence isn't always a good thing after all.

Flowers for Algernon - Introduction

It's been more than 2 weeks since I finished Life of Pi (even though I wasn't able to post anything), so I thought it would make more sense to start a new book and write about it.

I chose Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. I never noticed before, but I guess it was always there on my bookshelf at home. My cousin told me it was a good book, so I decided to take a look at it, even though neither the title nor the picture of the mouse interested me.

The first part confused me a lot because of the poor spelling and grammar. I thought, 'This sounds like a 7-year old.' And I've never seen a book written like this either. Fortunately, the errors were well balanced so not only was it obvious that the protagonist of the novel was mentally retarded, but also I was able to understand the text. Charlie Gordon, the protagonist, is a 32-year old mentally retarded man who is set into an experiment of artificial intelligence. Right at the beginning, Charlie says how Dr. Strauss told him to start writing diaries so that they can see whether they can use him or not. Miss Kinnian, Charlie's instructor, also tells Charlie that they could make him smart.

Throughout the first several 'progress reports,' many characteristics of Charlie can be found. He is extremely dumb, cannot spell properly, has poor memorization skills, and also has a sensitive mind. On the other hand, he is known to work hard in his studies, has high motivation, and is willing to paricipate in the experiment to become smart. His dream is to become smart.

Despite his positive personality, Charlie does not have any family. Well, he does have a sister and mother, but they live away from him and Charlie doesn't remember much. The scientists are the ones who find his family and ask their permission. It's really sad how Charlie's mother and sister won't live with him. I don't know much about the reason, but it's obvious that they couldn't handle Charlie's mental state and left him with his uncle Herman, who also died a while ago.

I don't think the overall novel will be so sweet. I think it will mainly be about a mentally retarded man struggling with himself throughout the 'experiment.' Charlie may like being part of it, but to me, it seems like they're not even sure whether it will work or not. I can't see the difference between Charlie and Algernon, the lab rat. So far, I'm liking the novel, especially because of the significantly different structure. I'm also becoming fond of Charlie because of his kind personality. I hope he becomes smart and becomes happy.

Life of Pi - Flight Distance

　　　I chose this cartoon because it relates to a theme in Chapter 9. In Chapter 9, Pi describes how animals have flight distances, or something similar to 'personal space.' Pi says, "Getting animals used to the presence of humans is at the heart of the art and science of zookeeping. The key aim is to diminish an animal's flight distance, which is the minimum distance at which an animal wants to keep a perceived enemy." Some examples he gives are: Flamingos (300 yards), Giraffes (150 yards), African buffaloes (75 yards)

　　　Pi's father was good at understanding animals' minds and getting along with them. He respected them with care, gave them all the necessities required, and tried his best to give them the best home possible. This emotionally stabilized the animals, keeping a peaceful environment in the zoo.

　　　I think this part is quite interesting because humans also have certain personal spaces. I feel uncomfortable when some people come too close to me, while I don't mind other people. It all depends on how much I understand and trust the person. Personal space doesn't only mean physical area, but also your feelings and your mind. You might feel more comfortable talking with some people while you dislike having deep conversations with others. To reduce someone's 'flight distance' between you, you should take your time to try understanding that person, gaining trust, and showing that you really care about that person.

Life of Pi - Father's Lesson

In Chapter 8, there is a part where Pi's father tries to teach Pi's older brother Ravi and Pi a lesson. He takes Ravi and Pi to the zoo. First, they visit the tigers. Pi's father tells them that tigers are EXTREMELY dangerous animals, and that they should never have anything to do with them. Pi's father orders a live goat to be placed in the den. They find out later that the tiger has not been fed anything for days. Ravi and Pi witness the tiger violently killing and eating the goat. The blood shed by the goat is to emphasize the danger of tigers. Ravi and Pi are very upset, and so is their mother. However, Pi's father continues on, moving from animal to animal, explaining why each animal is dangerous. Ranging from elephants and lions to hippos and birds, Pi's father talks about how each animal can harm humans if they find a reason to. I never knew how dangerous animals could be.

Ravi, Pi, and Pi's mother might not understand why Pi's father had to give such a demonstration, but I assume it's because he's that worried. Since I already know a tiger is an animal that gets stuck with Pi later on the stranded boat, I guess this has something to do with the story. I've never been stuck one on one with a tiger before, and I don't think I ever will. I guess I'm lucky. But reading this certain part of the story, I can definitely tell something significant will happen between Pi and the tiger. I can't wait to read more and find out!

Life of Pi - Animals in Zoos

I wasn't able to read much of my book throughout this week because of the multiple assignments and events. However, I managed to get through 4 chapters during my rare, spare time, and it was quite interesting.

One topic I want to bring up is about animals. The narrator of the novel, Pi, knows much about zoos and animals since he does have a zoology major, but also because his father was an owner of a zoo. Since he was young, Pi played around in his father's zoo and knew what was going on. This gave Pi much knowledge about animals and their lives in zoos.

Pi talks about how many people often think animals live miserable lives in zoos. People tend to think that animals want freedom in the wilderness rather than being taken care of by humans. However, Pi states how this thought is completely wrong. He insists that animals like living in zoos under the hands of humans where life is stable with no dangerous opponents or natural hazards occur. It is more difficult to survive in the wild than living in zoos, according to Pi. Zoos provide shelter, food, and medical services for animals. Everything animals need is available in zoos.

In Chapter 4, there is a section where Pi says, "If you went to a home, kicked down the front door, chased the people who lived there out in the street and said, "Go! You are free! Free as a bird! Go! Go!" - do you think they would shout and dance for joy? They wouldn't. Birds are not free. The people you've just evicted would sputter, "With what right do you throw us out? This is our home. We own it. We have lived here for years. We're calling the police, you scroundel.""

Pi uses this comparison to describe how animals in zoos would be upset if they were simply told to leave the zoo and go to the wild. I've never thought of it this way before. The only idea I ever caught about zoos was that animals were simply kidnapped from the wild to be brought into completely different environments, used to earn money through tourism. According to Pi, animals could possibly be more comfortable and happy in zoos. But could people actually ever tell? Maybe it's just me, but the zoos I went to had unlively, tired animals that seemed like they were miserable.

Overall, I think this section of the book will mean a lot in later parts because Pi is left on a boat with animals. Maybe I could find out what the animals' real thoughts are, rather then trusting Pi. There might be a twist, who knows?

Life of Pi - Introduction

After finishing The Da Vinci Code, yesterday, I checked out a new book from the library called Life of Pi. The only time I ever heard of the book was when my social studies teacher in 8th grade said it was a really really good novel. When she said it that time, I wasn't interested in it at all because she said it was about a boy left stranded in the Pacific Ocean. The title, the cover, nor the book reviews on the back cover were interesting to me. Then why did I choose this book from the bookshelf? I decided to challenge myself to read a more difficult book, to attempt a novel that otherwise I would simply put away after reading the first few sentences. I always had a hard time focusing while reading, but this time, I want to try and make through it as best as I can.

The Author's Note in the beginning of the book explains to me how much trouble the author, Yann Martel, has been through. He spent a lot of time, effort, and money to finally write and publish this novel. Inside the front cover of the book, it says: "This is a novel of such rare and wondrous storytelling that it may, as one character claims, make you believe in God." This is a difficult statement to absorb. To be honest, I am not a Christian, and I do not believe in God. However, I do respect wholeheartedly everyone that believes in the words of God and Jesus Christ. I am just very curious about this statement, since a novel must be pretty darn good to make someone who doesn't believe in God believe in God. It takes a lot to move readers and turn that movement into tears and smiles. I hope I chose the right book for me, and who knows? I already know that the novel is told in the point of view of a man with a religious studies major & a zoology major, and I bet I'll be able to learn a lot from him and the story he has to tell.