S*xu@l content in Flowers for Algernon?

[Ghee]

I was going to assign this for my 8th grader. In looking at the Sparknotes, I saw that it mentioned s*xuality...several times. I was thinking that I didn't remember that at all, so I googled the phrase "s*xuality in Flowers for Algernon" and Oh. My. Word!! I don't remember that and I read the book at an age that I think it would have GLARED out at me ;)

 

Did I, perhaps, read the short story? Would that be more sanitized than the novel? I remember loving the story and being so sad at the end. I wanted to share the story, but not if Charlie's reactions to s*xual situations are the entire basis for the story. Help!

[Puma Mom]

I had the same experience as you did. I must have read a sanitized version as well.

 

Ah! I googled a bit more and apparently there is a short story AND a novel. I definitely read the short story!

[creekmom]

I think the novel is called Charlie and the short story is called "Flowers for Algernon". You can find FFA in 8th grade literature textbooks (Prentice Hall, McDougal Littel, etc.) I've found textbooks for as little as $5.00 on Amazon (older editions).

[Incognito]

I don't remember any of that in the short story. Must just be the full book.

[Alte Veste Academy]

LOL I was in the play in high school and I don't remember anything of that nature. Pretty sure we wouldn't have been able to do it... :lol:

[Ghee]

Hmm. I ordered the novel from PBS. Back on the sale list that'll go lol

 

So can you only find the short story in textbooks? I read it for an honors lit class and we didn't have a textbook... Trying to think what form it was in. I wonder if I can get it, now, in PDF?

[ccolopy]

I read the novel a few years ago when my nephew studied it in high school. 8th grade might be a bit young, but I don't remember thinking it was inappropriate for 10th (or 11th, I'm not completely sure).

 

I quick google search led me to the short story version here.

[Tidbits of Learning]

I read the novel and I believe it was in 10th or 11th grade. There was a lot of sexuality and his perception of sexuality as well as insinuations that the reason his mother was so put off by him was his behavior and ogling his sister as a young boy/man.

I think it was 11th grade literature class that I had to read that book. We did not have the sanitized version and I think it was the only required reading for the class that we weren't subjected to reading aloud chapters in class. It was all silent reading and our study guide skimmed over the sexuality. The book was Flowers for Algernon and not any other title. This was the exact cover of the book I read-

http://ogpenn.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/flowersforalgernon.jpeg

Edited November 6, 2012 by OpenMinded

[EKS]

Yes, Flowers for Algernon is written for adults.

[EKS]

I think the novel is called Charlie and the short story is called "Flowers for Algernon". You can find FFA in 8th grade literature textbooks (Prentice Hall, McDougal Littel, etc.) I've found textbooks for as little as $5.00 on Amazon (older editions).

 

The novel is called Flowers for Algernon.

[Amira]

I read the short story in high school (a school in a conservative area) and it was fine, at least in my memory. Then I read the novel on my own and there was a big difference in content between the two. I personally think it made a better short story than a novel, and that opinion has nothing to do with the sexual content of the novel.

[Shifra]

I read the short story in high school (a school in a conservative area) and it was fine, at least in my memory. Then I read the novel on my own and there was a big difference in content between the two. I personally think it made a better short story than a novel, and that opinion has nothing to do with the sexual content of the novel.

 

Same here! I went to a very religious high school, and we read the short story "Flowers for Algernon" in our literature anthology. When a couple of us (who were inspired by the short story) got the novel out of the library, we were more than a bit taken aback by the sexual content of the novel! However, that may have been the point of the whole novel--that Charlie was happier as an innocent, child-like person than he was as a full-fledged adult.