Open week

After reading Flowers for Algernon I could not stop thinking about how Charlie Gordon's "friends" changed their minds and decided to protect Charlie from the hecklers instead of using him as a cheap laugh.  What could have possibly caused them to change in such a drastic manner?  It is possible that after being looked down upon by Charlie they finally felt the hurt that is caused when someone is degraded, but I am not sure this is the case.  At least from what the narration tells us these so called friends were not inviting at all during the time when Charlie was intelligent.  What I find lacking in the story is distict evidence for whether or not Charlie truly drove these people away in fear of his scorn.  There are parts of the story that portray Charlie as an outcast not by choice but by default and there are parts that show him choosing to outcast himself.

It is interesting that the doctors that performed the operation on Charlie did not want him to read any philosophical works until he had reached a certain point.  Did they do Charlie any good by keeping him ignorant of certain things as long as possible?  I believe this must be the case.  It is possible that this relationship is explored in the following quote stated by Charlie.  "I resent Nemur's constant references to me as a laboratory specimen. He makes me feel that before the experiment I was not really a human being."