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Irony
Definition of Metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other. The comparison in a metaphor can be stated explicitly, as... read full definition
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other. The comparison in a metaphor... read full definition
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other... read full definition
Key Examples in Flowers for Algernon
Progress Report 10
Explanation and Analysis—A Hunger:
Charlie’s growing drive for knowledge finds some relief in his ravenous reading. Keyes makes allusions to several important Western writers as he describes how Charlie’s daily routine centers on reading:
I spend most of my free time at the library now, reading and soaking up what I can from books. I’m not concentrating on anything in particular, just reading a lot of fiction now—Dostoevski, Flaubert, Dickens, Hemingway, Faulkner—everything I can get my hands on—feeding a hunger that can’t be satisfied.
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Explanation and Analysis—Fuzzy Cloud:
As Charlie recalls an early memory of looking at comic books before he could read, the narrator uses visual imagery and metaphor to bring the scene to life for the reader. In this memory, the Charlie of the present recalls the past Charlie’s childhood struggle with reading and his fascination with the pictures on the pages of his books:
Unlock with LitCharts A+As he starts to turn the pages, he feels like crying, but he doesn’t know why. What is there to feel sad about? The fuzzy cloud comes and goes, and now he looks forward to the pleasure of the brightly colored pictures in the comic book that he has gone through thirty, forty times [...] he understands that the strange forms of letters and words in the white balloons above the figures means that they are saying something. Would he ever learn to read what was in the balloons?
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Progress Report 12
Explanation and Analysis—City at Night:
Keyes uses visual imagery and metaphor in this passage to link Charlie’s nighttime wanderings with his restless search for meaning as he grows smarter. Charlie, driven by a need he cannot name, walks through the city at night and gazes at the lights that fill the skyline.
Unlock with LitCharts A+What drives me out of the apartment to prowl through the city? I wander through the streets alone—not the relaxing stroll of a summer night, but the tense hurry to get—where? [...] Searching . . . for what? I met a woman in Central Park. She was sitting on a bench near the lake, with a coat clutched around her despite the heat. We looked at the bright skyline on Central Park South, the honeycomb of lighted cells against the blackness, and I wished I could absorb them all.
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Explanation and Analysis—Widening Gap:
After Alice confesses her feelings of inadequacy in the face of Charlie’s new brainpower, Charlie notices the change in their relationship and describes it in a series of linked metaphors:
Unlock with LitCharts A+She was crying silently as we left the school, and I found myself without words. All during the ride on the bus I thought to myself how upside-down the situation had become. She was terrified of me. The ice had broken between us and the gap was widening as the current of my mind carried me swiftly into the open sea.
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Progress Report 16
Explanation and Analysis—In the Cave:
This scene takes place as Charlie addresses his own reflection after an evening of drinking. It frames his struggle with the knowledge that he will regress intellectually as a battle between two separate identities. Keyes uses metaphor to explain this moment, as Charlie “speaks” to his past self:
Unlock with LitCharts A+"But I’ll tell you something else, Charlie.” I stood up and backed away from the mirror. “I’m not your friend. I’m your enemy. I’m not going to give up my intelligence without a struggle. I can’t go back down into that cave. [...] So you’ve got to stay away. Stay inside my unconscious where you belong, and stop following me around. I’m not going to give up—no matter what they all think. No matter how lonely it is. I’m going to keep what they’ve given me and do great things for the world and for other people like you."
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Explanation and Analysis—Clarity and Beauty:
Charlie tries to explain the rush he feels when he approaches new discoveries and the energy that drives him after the operation. Keyes uses metaphor and simile to capture the excitement and intensity of Charlie’s mental breakthrough:
Unlock with LitCharts A+I’m on the edge of it. I sense it. They all think I’m killing myself at this pace, but what they don’t understand is that I’m living at a peak of clarity and beauty I never knew existed. Every part of me is attuned to the work. I soak it up into my pores during the day, and at night—in the moments before I pass off into sleep—ideas explode into my head like fireworks. There is no greater joy than the burst of solution to a problem.
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