My name is Charly Gordon. I had an operation. I will become smart. I have a chalkboard. I write things on the chalkboard. This helps me to remember. Today I will run amazed with Algernon. Algernon is a mouse. I want to win the amazed. I like the teeter-totter. When I am up in the air, I am free. I like to make funny faces in the mirror. Miss Kinnian showed me a raw shok test. I failed. I want to be smart.From the time we encounter Charly until he is told of his operation, every thing Charly does are for reasons unknown to him, but are required for survival in the human world. Charly has no emotional association with the chalkboard except that he relies on it for remembering his routine. By observing Charly, it is noticed that he applies equal amounts of pressure and concentration as he writes on the chalkboard. He spells his words by sound and arranges his letters in backward strokes, but he never gives up until the word is on the chalkboard. Today’s word is school. Charly writes the word school on the chalkboard, but spells it skool. Although Miss Kinnian tells Charlie the correct spelling, he easily forgets. After the operation, Charly gradually learns to associate the words he writes on the chalkboard to their meaning. Charly is so fascinated with recognizing words that while on a ritual bus trip sightseeing Boston’s Historical buildings, he encounters the word school and writes it down on a small piece of paper. Charly checks every letter and corrects himself while writing it down. Soon after Charly arrives home, he does not feel like he has become smarter. He becomes angry with himself and finally sits in front of the chalkboard, and begins to write down his list of words of his activities for the next day. After he writes the word school on the chalkboard, he checks his small piece of paper from earlier and realizes that he wrote the word school correctly. From this moment on, Charly has the co...
