Flowers for Algernon: Progress Report 17 Summary & Analysis

October 3. Charlie continues to lose his intelligence. He contemplates killing himself, but realizes that this would be foolish: he was happy enough when he was mentally disabled, and he will soon be mentally disabled again.

Late at night, Charlie listens to records, irritating his neighbors. He’s stopped playing the piano, and realizes that he doesn’t enjoy the same kinds of music anymore. Furious, he smashes every record in his place.

October 4. Charlie goes to a therapy session with Doctor Strauss. As he sits on the couch, he realizes that Strauss reminds him of his father Matt. Feeling bitter, he compares Strauss to a barber, “trimming” his patients’ egos and ids (terms from Freudian psychology).

As Charlie sits on the couch, he tells Strauss about his hallucinations—he’s been seeing a version of his childhood self. As Charlie talks, he has another hallucination, so vivid that he forgets Strauss is there. He imagines his “expanding spirit” moving through time and space. Then, unexpectedly, he feels himself shrinking back into a small, dark cave. Charlie struggles to escape the cave, but he can’t.

Charlie realizes that Doctor Strauss is standing over him, worried. Strauss tells Charlie that he’s been hallucinating for some time now. He suggests that Charlie leave now—they can continue tomorrow. As he walks out, Charlie remembers the words of Plato: “The men of the cave would say of him that up he went and down he came without his eyes.”

October 5. Charlie visits Professor Nemur and Burt to conduct more tests. He tries to solve mazes, and finds that he can’t. As Charlie gets more frustrated, Burt apologizes for lashing out at Charlie at the party, and Charlie accepts his apology. Burt gives Charlie a Rorschach test. With great frustration, Charlie realizes that he doesn’t remember how the test works anymore. Abruptly, Charlie gets up and tells Burt that he’s leaving. He asks Burt to say “goodbye to everyone.” Before Burt can reply, Charlie is gone.

October 7. Charlie spends all his time alone in his room. He tries to read Milton’s Paradise Lost, but finds that he can’t remember anything about it. He remembers his childhood, when his mother angrily tried to teach him how to read. Charlie begs to God, “Don’t take it all away.”

October 10. Charlie goes for walks late at night. One night, he can’t remember where he lives, and a policeman has to take him home. He also meets a pimp, who offers him “a girl.” Charlie gives the man ten dollars, and the man leaves, but never comes back. Charlie is humiliated.

October 11. Charlie finds Alice asleep on his couch. Alice wakes up and explains that she wants to see as much of Charlie as possible. She points out that Charlie probably has the same IQ at her.

October 14. Charlie’s mental state deteriorates quickly. He spends time with Alice, but gets angry easily. He listens to Stravinsky music and finds it slow and dull, despite the fact that he used to love Stravinsky. He wishes he could freeze time and live with Alice forever.

October 17. Charlie begins to have hallucinations of his childhood self, looking out through a window. He fears being sent back to the Warren State Home.

October 18. Charlie rereads his own paper on the Algernon-Gordon Effect and finds that he can’t understand any of it. He’s irritable all day long, even when Alice is kind to him. He imagines that Alice is humoring him—deliberately ignoring his mental deterioration. This infuriates Charlie. He wishes he could enjoy his time with Alice, but can’t.

October 19. Charlie loses some of his motor control, and he trips and drops things constantly. His only pleasure is television. Alice tries to cheer him up, but this only makes Charlie angrier. He realizes that he can longer read any language but English.

October 21. Alice and Charlie have a fight. Alice claims that she can’t live with Charlie when he lives in such a messy place. She reminds Charlie that before he had his operation, he never wallowed in self-pity, nor did he lash out at people for no reason. Charlie has lost something that he had before the operation: something that made everyone respect him, even when he was mentally disabled.

Charlie can’t stand listening to Alice. He orders her to leave immediately. He accuses Alice of pushing him, just like his mother. When Alice denies this, Charlie yells for Alice to leave. She leaves the apartment, weeping.

October 25. Charlie tries to stave off his mental decline by teaching himself new things. He goes to the library and tries to read as much as he can—even when he doesn’t understand the books.

Charlie sees Fay in his apartment building, but she avoids Charlie as much as possible—she seems frightened of him. Charlie also gets a visit from Mrs. Mooney, his landlady. She brings him soup and other food. Charlie knows that either Alice or Doctor Strauss has arranged for Mrs. Mooney to take care of him.

November 1. Charlie tries to read as much as he can, but he gets frustrated with himself for not understanding the books. He reads “a book about a man who thought he was a knight.” Although he recognizes that the story has a “hidden meaning,” he can’t understand what the hidden meaning is. This makes him angry, because he knows that he used to understand.

November 2. Charlie spends his evenings watching a woman in another building. Every night she takes a bath, and Charlie enjoys watching her.

November 5. Charlie spends all day sitting in his apartment. Mrs. Mooney brings him food and suggests that he’s being lazy. Charlie tries to read books, but has to look words up in the dictionary. He puts flowers on Algernon’s grave, even though Mrs. Mooney finds this silly. Finally, Charlie tries to visit Fay, but she tells him to leave her alone.

November 9. Charlie gets headaches. His TV is broken, and the woman who takes baths at night pulls down her window shade, so that Charlie can no longer watch her.

November 10. Mrs. Mooney sends “a strange doctor” to see Charlie. Charlie tells the doctor that he used to be a genius. Charlie gets annoyed with this doctor, since he clearly doesn’t believe Charlie.

November 11. Alice and Doctor Strauss visit Charlie, but he refuses to let them into his apartment. Later on, Mrs. Mooney visits Charlie, and suggests that Charlie get a job. Charlie remembers his job at the bakery, but doesn’t want to go back. Nevertheless, he knows that he needs a job, since he doesn’t want to depend on other people—as he says, “I wont take charety from anybody.”

Novemerb 15. Charlie looks back on his old progress reports, but can’t understand most of the words. He also buys pornographic magazines from the drugstore, but when he has “funny dreams” about the women in them, he decides not to read them anymore.

November 16. Alice visits Charlie, but Charlie refuses to see her. This makes Alice cry, and she explains that she’s the one who’s been sending Charlie money and food. Charlie decides that he needs to get a job immediately. He prays, “don’t let me forget how to reed and rite.”

November 18. Charlie goes back to the bakery and asks Mr. Donner for his old job. Mr. Donner sadly agrees, saying, “Charlie, you got guts.” Charlie resumes work as a janitor. He tells himself that even if his coworkers make fun of him, there was a time when he was smarter than they were.

At work, a new hire named Klaus mocks Charlie, daring him, “Say something smart.” Charlie tries to ignore Klaus, but Klaus grabs Charlie by the arm and threatens to hurt him. This makes Charlie cry and soil himself. Joe Carp angrily pushes Klaus away from Charlie, saying that Charlie is a “good guy.” Later, Joe and Gimpy tell Charlie they’re going to convince Mr. Donner to fire Klaus. Charlie tells them that they shouldn’t fire Klaus—Klaus has a wife and a kid. Charlie says this because he remembers the experience of being fired. Gimpy nods and tells Charlie that Charlie “has friends here.”

November 21. Charlie goes to Miss (Alice) Kinnian’s class at the adult learning center, forgetting that he’s not in the class anymore. Alice begins to cry and runs out of the classroom.

Charlie decides that he’s going to go to the Warren Home. He doesn’t want people feeling sorry for him—not his coworkers, and not Miss Kinnian. He tells Miss Kinnian, “If you ever reed this Miss Kinnian dont be sorry for me.” Charlie explains that he got to meet his family and learn about science, so he doesn’t regret the operation at all.

Charlie remembers a book he read when he was intelligent. He thinks about the man who read the book, and imagines him “from the window.”

Charlie says goodbye to Miss Kinnian, Doctor Strauss, and everyone else. He asks Professor Nemur not to be such a grouch, and points out that it’s easier to make friends when you let people laugh at you. He also asks that someone put more flowers on Algernon’s grave.