He considers himself the only stupid person to have ever done anything important for science. However, he doesn't remember the important thing he did. But the knowledge acquired by Charlie Gordon prevents him from remaining unchanged. Charlie Gordon, in Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, learned that if you open your heart, you will have more friends. Originally, 32-year-old mentally retarded Charlie Gordon believed that friends and popularity went hand in hand with intelligence. Therefore, Charlie was very eager to learn from Alice Kinnian, Charlie's teacher at the Beekman College Center for Retarded Adults. This eagerness led Alice to propose to Charlie a new experimental surgical operation in which intelligence would be enhanced. Before the operation, scientists Nemur and Strauss performed several tests on Charlie. During the first test, Charlie is given white cards with ink spilled on them. He is then asked to say what he sees in the spilled ink. Charlie scrutinizes the spilled ink on the white card. Then, stunned, Charlie replies that he sees ink. Nemur and...