Nathan Oleari

Period 4

Have you ever wondered how smart, or intelligent you are? Well, according to
Howard Gardners Multiple Intelligences one way to define intelligence is The ability
to create an effective product or offer a service that is valued in a culture; a set of skills
that make it possible for a person to solve problems in life; the potential for finding or
creating solutions for problems, which involves gathering new knowledge. In short, your
intelligence quotient, or IQ, can be defined as above. Another form of Intelligence
according to What Is Emotional Intelligence? is Emotional intelligence (EI) refers to
the ability to perceive, control and evaluate emotions. As said above, your emotional
intelligence indicates to how you classify between different emotions and how to label
them appropriately. Now, the story Flowers

For Algernon has a lot to do with

intelligence. The main character, Charlie is put through an operation that is supposed to
increase is IQ. Not only does Charlies IQ fluctuate throughout the story, but his
emotional intelligence does too. For example, at the beginning of the story, on page
672, you can tell his IQ isnt very high because of this statement Dr. Strauss says I
shud rite down what I think and evrey thing that happins to me from now on. as you can
see, his writing is grammatically incorrect. On the other hand, you can tell his emotional
intelligence isnt bad when he says this on page 673 He looked very sad so that wasn't
it. I said please let me try agen. This statement shows that Charlie can recognize
emotions and respond to them correctly. In the middle of the story, you can tell that

Charlies IQ is going up and his EI, is going down in this statement, on page 699 I must
review Vrostadts equations

on Levels of Semantic Progression. I find that I don't

communicate much with people anymore. Thank God for books and music and things I
can think about. In this statement he is showing that he can understand harder subjects
to learn, but at the same time, he is communicating with people less often because he is
immersing himself with new knowledge. At the end of Flowers for Algernon, Charlies IQ

went down considerably. For example, in the middle of the story, on page 703 Charlie
said I find the Calculus of Intelligence to be a fascinating study. displaying that he is of
superior intelligence, then at the end of the story, Charlie states Then I realized that I
could no longer read German. I tested myself in other languages. All gone. showing
that his intelligence rapidly declined towards the end of the story. While Charlies
intelligence is falling, his emotional intelligence is rising slightly. In the middle of the
story, Charlie is unable to communicate (Page 699) then at the end, Charlie says
Evry body feels sorry at the factery and I don't want that... telling that, one, he can tell
when people feel sorry for him, and two, he knows that he doesnt want people to feel
bad for him. Overall, in Flowers For Algernon Charlies IQ starts very low, but his
emotional intelligence is average. Then, in the middle of the story, after his surgery,
Charlies IQ goes up and his emotional intelligence goes down, and then his IQ goes
back down and his emotional intelligence back up again.