Flowers for Algernon Literary Response

Garden of Eden

Question 8:

BIBLE PASSAGE (Genesis 3:1-3:7.)

¹Now the serpent was more subtle than any other wild creature that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God say, 'You shall not eat of any tree of the garden'?" ² And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; ³ but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'" ⁴ But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not die. ⁵ For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." ⁶ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate. ⁷ Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. 

           

            Above is the passage from the Bible. The story Flowers for Algernon and this excerpt from the Bible have a lot of similarities. The plots, talking about man’s unappeasable desire for knowledge, can be basically summarized into one old saying, “Curiosity killed the cat.”

            At first, Adam and Eve didn’t know that they were naked. They were carefree, unaware that they actually didn’t wear any clothes. I assume that most human beings on Earth today would be quite outrageous if someone asked him or her to be naked. That’s because all of us have the knowledge that being naked is a shameful thing, as Ms. Fanny summarized, “It was evil when Eve listened to the snake and ate from the tree of knowledge. It was evil when she saw that she was naked. If not for that none of us would ever have to grow old and sick, and die.” (pg. 71) In the Bible, Eve saw that the Fruit of Knowledge was good for food, delightful to the eye, and most importantly, could make one wise. After they ate the fruit, what actually happened to them? Their eyes were open, and they saw that they were naked. They started to feel shameful, and had to make several aprons sewn from fig leaves. The snake hit right at the spot, knowledge, a craving to become wiser had misled Eve. Quite similarly, at the beginning Charlie was a very positive man, uninformed of people laughing at him because of his slowness, and what had become of him after he underwent the operation? Well, he became smarter, and like Adam and Eve, started to feel shame when people were laughing at him. He had not felt this way before. In fact, he had not felt shame at all, had no idea that people were enjoying his company just because that they liked teasing him. The similarity of the plots are quite big. I can infer that in a way, this short story, “Flowers for Algernon” can be a version of the myth from Genesis, with several differences. For example, Flowers for Algernon is set in a contemporary environment and that things come about more slowly. In the Bible, God had “kicked” Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden right away. However, the tragedy of knowing too much had happened to Charlie in a slower way. The cons of knowing too much are illustrated in both of the stories.

            Because we have not read the other half of the story, therefore I cannot know what actually happened in the last half of the story, and consequently, I have no knowledge of Flowers for Algernon’s theme. However, I can assert one point about the Biblical account’s moral. That is, “Sometimes knowing too much can hurt you,” and I’m quite sure that Flowers for Algernon’s theme is something quite similar, for both plots are pretty similar.