What are the recurring themes of Daniel Keyes’

Schwartz 2011-12

Alienation and Loneliness• In an early "progress report," Charlie writes that he

wants to be smart "so I can have lots of friends who like me."

• Unfortunately, once he becomes a genius, he discovers that there are a whole new set of problems that prevent him from establishing satisfactory relationships with other people.

• He has substituted one sort of alienation for another, as the condescension and cruelty he once faced from humanity has been replaced by misunderstanding, insensitivity, and fear.

• Almost everything Charlie does in the novel is motivated by his desire to understand himself and establish functional relationships with others.

The Treatment of a Mentally Challenged Person by Society

• This is another important theme of the story, made more complex by the dramatic changes in the hero, and in his awareness of people.

• The readers see the injustice against him, with the crowd at his work, where a few are unreservedly kind and the others make him the butt of their tricks.

• Finally, even the medical men, whose professed aim is to improve the sad lives of mentally retarded people, treat him as an ‘object’ and a laboratory animal.

The Theme of Self-realization or an Understanding of Self

• This is the chief need for Charlie and it makes the book one with a universal significance.

• Although the situation in which Charlie finds himself is a bizarre one, with his rapid movement towards high intellect it gives him the mental capacity to analyze and voice his need for achievement, acceptance and love.

• He is also able to fulfill these needs and then accept what is happening to him in a philosophical manner, even after much suffering.

Motifs

•  Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text's major themes.

Changes in Grammar, Spelling, and Punctuation

• Charlie's initial leaps forward in mental ability are conveyed less by what he writes than by how he writes. Keyes signals Charlie's changing mental state through the level of accuracy or inaccuracy of the grammar, spelling, and punctuation in Charlie's progress