Charlie Gordon- Charlie is dynamic and round protagonist in the text. His internal conflicts change over time due to him overcoming them yet his external conflicts never change. In the beginning of the text, Charlie's internal struggle w as his want to become more educated. He is not happy with his life at the moment due to him constantly being put down because of his disabilty. Charlie than goes through this scientific experiment which allows him to be smarter. Towards the end of the text, Charlie's internal struggle is dealing with discovering his past. Charlie is constantly hit with flashbacks and memories of his past. Charlie must then deal with accepting his past and coming to the conclusion of why he is the way he is. Charlie's external conflicts is fighting in with this new society. After the experiment, people do not understand what had happened to Charlie. Therefore, they must attempt to accept this new Charlie. His exterior struggle is having these people he knew for the majority of his life had turned against him because they didn't understand what happened to him. He developed relationships with Alice Kinnian and Algernon.
"The more intelligent you become the more problems you'll have, Charlie. Your intellectual growth is going to outstrip your emotional growth. And I think you'll find that as you progress, there will be many things you'll want to talk to me about"(47).
"The more intelligent you become the more problems you'll have, Charlie. Your intellectual growth is going to outstrip your emotional growth. And I think you'll find that as you progress, there will be many things you'll want to talk to me about"(47).
Alice Kinnian- Alice is Charlie's main love interest in Flowers for Algernon. She is the feminist view in the novel and is one of the only characters that truly knew Charlie from before the operation, and after. Alice represents a warmth and a common ground unlike Charlie who eventually grows cold and rude. Alice is also the only person that develops a personal relationship with Charlie. In the text, Alice is a static and flat character. She is a static and flat character because she is not fully developed by the author and hardly changes. Alice's internal struggle is accepting the new Charlie. The Charlie that she had started to love was replaced by a new Charlie that had made her feel inferior. Her internal struggle is choosing between holding on to this Charlie or letting him go. Alice's external struggle is Charlie. Alice wants to have a serious relationship with Charlie yet he his not capable of having one. Charlie is still getting use to this new life and is holding back due to his lack of understanding. Charlie is making it impossible for Alice to fulfill her wish of being with Charlie.
"So do I. But these days I can't talk to you. All I can do is listen and nod my head and pretend I understand all about cultural variants, and neo-Boulean mathematics, and post-symbolic logic, and I feel more and more stupid, and when you leave the apartment, I have to stare in the mirror and scream at myself: 'No, you're not growing duller every day! You're not loosing your intelligence! You're not getting senile and dull-witted. It's Charlie exploding forward so quickly that it makes it appear as if you're slipping backwards.' I say that to myself, Charlie, but whenever we meet and you tell me something and look at me in that impatient way, I know you're laughing"(124).