FREE ESSAY ON "FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON" BY DANIEL KEYS

"FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON" BY DANIEL KEYS

CHARLY
The book "Flowers For Algernon", by Daniel Keys was written in 1961. Later, Richard
Heynes decided to produce the movie in 1968 properly called "Charly". There are both
similarities and differences between the two. However, the differences play a more
crucial role between the two rather then the similarities.
One major difference between the movie and book is the events that took place. One
example is when Charly met Fay. This never happened in the movie. But in the movie, when
he met her he let all of his inner feeling out into the open and had a great time. In the
movie he only went away for awhile and even then he only had what seemed to be a few
short flings. With Fay, Charly was able express himself to her. Another event that was
changed was the little field trip Charly took to Boston. Charly never went on this trip
to Boston in the book. It doesn't really play an important role in the story but then why
did Heynes make such a useless change?
Another major difference between the two is the progress reports Charly wrote daily. In
the novel his progress reports were how the reader was able to understand the character
of Charly even better then ever. In the movie however, Charly never wrote anything down
on paper. Maybe if he had done this in the movie, he wouldn't have gone so damn crazy
near then end of the movie and go out in a calmer way like he did in the book. Instead of
being so hostile towards his friends and loved ones, he could have simply expressed
himself in words rather then actions. Also, when Charly got his job back at Mr. Donner's
bakery he was never harassed by the new employee. This was when Joe Carp and the other
realized that Charly was back to his old self. Joe Carp roughed up the bully and got him
fired for his actions directed at Charly.
Another major difference between the book and movie is the traits and actions taken by
the characters. One example is Alice Kinnian. In the story, she is depicted as a quiet,
non-aggressive person, but in the movie she is very much the opposite in character. For
one, she never really made a move towards Charly, however, in the movie, she is the more
aggressive between the two. Also, towards the end of the movie, Alice asked Charly to
marry her and that never even happened in the novel at all. Charly is another character
who is given different traits and actions in the movie then the book. In the book, he is
a kind, warm-hearted man who couldn't harm a fly. Believe it or not in the movie Charly
tried to sexually assault Alice. In the book he never ever would have tried to do such a
horrible thing to Alice. Also, he got very upset when he found out that he failed one of
the tests given to him at the laboratory. He could have cared less if he failed in the
book. Charly's family is something else that was never mentioned in the movie, and it's
probably the most important difference of them all. It is the most important because of
the fact that when Charly went to visit his family, it brought to him a great deal of
happiness to his boring and dull life. If Richard Heynes maybe mentioned his family once
he would have taken a different road. Instead of him going on a violent rampage of
drinking, drugs and women, he could have been spending some quality time with his family.
Overall, the differences in the characters definitely played a more important role in the
outcome of the story then the other two listed above.
All in the entire movie made the book a lot easier to comprehend if there were any knots
in our heads. Even though a movie is a movie and a book is a book, the book was better in
a way because it was much more detailed. After reading the book, it wasn't easy to sit
through the movie. The differences in the characters bothered me as well as the events.
But in the end, the characters' differences played a more important role in the book then
the events did. Like Charly; he was the most innocent man in the book, but in the movie
he was completely the opposite. Even the book took months to reed it still was a pretty
good book. The movie just clarified everything that originally stumped us in the book.