1963

The Progress Reports of Mr. Charlie Gordon

By CMaurer

  • Progress Report 1

    Charlie Gordon, a braindead man with mental disabilites, begins a journal at the request of a doctor: "Dr Strauss says I shud rite down what I think and evrey thing that happins to me from now on" (371).

  • Progress Report 3

    Charlie took some more crazy test today, and met a mouse named Algernon who raced Charlie in a maze. Algernon was extremely smart: "I dint know that mice were so smart. Maybe thats because Algernon is a white mouse. Maybe white mice are smarter than other mice" (374).

  • Progress Report 4

    Charlie finshed his tests and Dr. Nemurand Dr. Strauss decide to use him for an experiment that will triple his intelligence by surgical means. "After the operashun Im gonna try to be smart. I gonna try awful hard," says Charlie (375).

  • Progress Report 5

    Charlie undergoes his operation. Before the surgery he uttered, "Im skared... I want to be smart like other people" (375).

  • Progress Report 6

    Charlie Gordon said, "The operahun dint hurt". The quizzes and test with Algernon started up again. (377).

  • Progress Report 10

    Charlie Gordon's brain is expanding. Today, he beat Algernon, the genius little mouse, racing through the maze. Charlie states, "I must be getting smart to beat a smart mouse like Algernon" (380).

  • Progress Report 11

    Charlie discovers his friends love to make fun of his stupidity, "Now I know what it means when they say 'to pull a Charlie Gordon'" (383).

  • Progress Report 11

    Charlie asked his tutor, Miss Kinnian, out on a date. "The thought of leaving her behind made me sad. I'm in love with Miss Kinnian" (388).

  • Progress Report 12

    Charlie finds himself laughing at a mentally retarded dishwasher boy who dropped a bunch of plates in a restaurant. "This day was good for me.Seeing the past more clearly, I have decided to use my knowledge and skills to work in the field of increasing human intelligence levels. Who is better equiped for this work? Who else has lived in both worlds? These are my people. Let me use my gift to do something for them" (392-393).

  • Progress Report 13

    "It happend today. Algernon bit me." The non-coopoperating mouse bit Charlie Gordon. Algernon is refusing to eat and run the maze, and he is changing. "Everyone is upset about what this may mean"(393).

  • Progess Report 13

    Through research and experiments, Charlie Gordon finds out, "Artificially increased intelligence deteriorates at a rate of time directly proportional to the quantity of the increase". He calls this the Algernon-Gordon Effect. (395).

  • Progress Report 13

    Algernon died. "I put Algernon's body in a cheese box and buried him in the back yard. I cried." (396).