Analysis of Charlie's Dreams in Flowers for Algernon

In Flowers for Algernon, Charlie has dreams that hint at sexual repression which upsets Charlie’s unconscious thoughts while disrupting his reality.

Charlie’s mother represses his sexual thoughts at a young age, causing Charlie to have nightmares about women which distresses his mental state. When young Charlie dirties himself in front of his mother, he states, “The penis is mine, but his mother will take it away from me as she always does. She will take it away and keep it for herself”. The tone Charlie uses suggests that he inadvertently expresses the desire to free himself from his mother’s repression of his sexual impulses. It also implies that he does not appreciate that she wants to subdue his penis or his sexual inclinations. In the middle of a nightmare, Charlie describes, “But when Miss Kinnian reads the report she gets angry and tears the pages up because they’ve got dirty words in them… When I get home Prof. Nemur and Dr. Strauss are waiting for me and they give me a beating for writing dirty things in the progress report”. This dream infers that he fears coming into contact with a woman in any sexual way because of Rose, Charlie’s mother. Rose represses his sexuality and beats him up every time he does something that involves his penis. In the dream, Miss Kinnian represents his mother and her tearing up the pages symbolizes his mother beating him up for writing the dirty words, which represents his sexual actions and thoughts. This nightmare suggests that Charlie’s mother represses his sexuality from a young age. During Charlie’s second date with Alice, he recounts, “Charlie looked up to see a boy of fifteen or sixteen, crouching nearby… he saw the boy’s trousers were open and he was exposed”. Charlie sees his past self as he gets physical with Alice. The young boy is Charlie and his open trousers represents him wanting to express his sexuality through sex with Alice. Charlie drives the boy off showing that he wants to get rid of his sexuality and that Rose’s repressions on the old Charlie still linger inside of the new Charlie. Rose’s repressions of Charlie takes a toll on his mental state, going so far as to upset his reality, such as him seeing the boy with the open trousers when he does not exist, and his relationship with Alice.

Charlie has castration anxiety in his dreams making him afraid of women. In a memory Charlie has when Norma takes a bath and he peeks inside, he recites, “Three blind mice… three blind mice,/ See how they run! See how they run!/ They all run after the farmer’s wife,/ She cut off their tails with a carving knife,/ Did you ever see such a sight in your life,/ As three… blind… mice?”. This exemplifies that Charlie dreads the idea of castration. The farmer’s wife cutting off the tails of the blind mice suggest that the tails depict Charlie’s penis or manhood. Cutting off the tails, or penises, would mean Charlie losing his own penis, and he worries that it will happen. His castration anxiety comes from a woman, or the farmer’s wife in this case, and cutting off the mice’s tails establishes a fear of women in general. In another nightmare, Charlie describes, “There is a red haired girl with her arms outstretched… she takes me into her arms, kisses and caresses me…. I feel a strange bubbling and throbbing inside me… my pockets are empty”. The girl in Charlie’s dream represents a woman and possibly his sexual desires towards women. He enjoys the sensation of the“strange… throbbing” he feels from this girl. Charlie also mentions that he had something in his pockets, something that he fears losing. The woman who rubs up against him symbolizes the woman taking the item out of pockets, which emblematizes his penis, and that's why he has empty pockets. In Charlie’s dream, he loses his penis to someone else and feels ashamed and responsible for it, explaining the line “there is blood on my hands too” (Keyes 83). He fears that a woman will take his penis away. While Charlie takes a break from his research into Algernon’s deterioration, he recounts, “The monkey tries to grab the other monkey’s tail, but the one on the bar keeps swishing it away… out of his grasp. Pretty monkey…. Can I feed him a peanut?... That sign says do not feed the animals”. Charlie wants to make love, to use his penis, which represents the tail, but he keeps swishing it away before the other mokey can grab it for fear that the monkey might take it away forever. “Can I feed him a peanut?” indicates that he wants to give it away, but the sign that says “do not feed the animals” establishes that Charlie wants to avoid giving his manhood away forever. Charlie has castration anxieties and the paranoia of losing his penis.

Charlie has nightmares and bad memories about women representing his fear of them, which prevents Charlie from fully understanding women. In a dream-hallucination, Charlie describes, “Running down the hallway...somebody chasing me… not a person… just a big flashing kitchen knife…. And I’m scared and crying… my neck is cut and I’m bleeding… Why is she different? What happened to her?”. The bloody kitchen knife symbolizes finding out the characteristics of a girl. The cut from the knife illustrates his innocence stripping away from him when Charlie finds out that women have different attributes than men, a groundbreaking revelation for Charlie. During one of Charlie’s dream-memories, his mother screams, “He knows enough to look at a girl that way. I’ll beat that filth out of his mind… He’s got no business to think that way about girls… if you ever touch girl, I’ll put you away in a cage, like an animal for the rest of your life”. Charlie’s mother represses his sexuality yet again, and Charlie builds the assumption that if he ever confronts a girl again, his mother will punish him. Because of this abuse from his mother, young Charlie develops the idea that women are scary in order to keep himself from doing anything his mother told him not to do. Charlie fabricates this idea and has not had the chance to fully understand women.

In Charlie’s dreams, he has a desire have sex while dealing with the issue that he does not have the proper mautrity for it. After the incident at the bar with his co-workers at the beginning of the book, Charlie depicts, “I dreamed about that girl Ellen dancing and rubbing up against me and when I woke up the sheets were wet and messy”. Charlie wants to have sex with another woman. However, the fact that he still exhibits teenager reactions from his grown, adult body demonstrates Charlie’s childish, sexual tendencies and thoughts. Charlie is still a boy, mentally and physically. He may want to have sex, but he lacks the necessary maturity.