1) Is ignorance bliss? Does Charlie need the surgery to become happy with life?

2) Charlie states, "People think it's funny when a dumb person can't do things the same way they can." What is society's perception on the mentally disabled? Does society treat them as outcasts or accommodate them.

3) How does treatment of the mentally disabled currently compare to the treatment of the mentally disabled in 70s?

4) How does Charlie's personality begin to change as a result of his increasing IQ?

5) Do you prefer the Charlie before or after the surgery?

6) What is Charlie's relationship to Fay? How does it change throughout the story? Is Charlie's relationship with Fay a healthy one?

7) What is Keyes implying about intelligence? Is it necessary to exist in society, is it something we take for granted, does it only negatively effect us?

8) What are the similarities and differences between Charlie and Algernon?

9) How do Nemur and Strauss treat Charlie? Do they treat him like a human or like a rat you would perform experiments on?

10) What did Charlie learn about life and the people around him as he began to gain intelligence?

11) What changes took place at the bakery when Charlie became smarter? How did people begin to treat him? How did they react to his new found intelligence?

12) Charlie states, "It's easy to have friends if you let people laugh at you." Is this the only thing Charlie is going to remember from his experiment? How does this reflect the life Charlie was forced to live and the things he learned during his experiment?

13) How do you think Charlie ends up dying? What do you think his outlook on life is now that is IQ is decreasing?

14) Why do you believe Charlie could not make love to Alice?

15) What is the significance of the title? What are the flowers's for Algernon significant of?