In Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, Miss Kinnian does much to help Charlie. She is his teacher at a school for adults with learning disabilities, and she sees his potential. Though he has a very low IQ, he has a lot of motivation to learn. Charlie had found the school himself and had the desire to follow through.
Because of this, Miss Kinnian recommends Charlie for the surgery in Dr. Strauss' and Dr. Nemur's experiment. After Charlie has the operation, Miss Kinnian continues to work with Charlie and to encourage him along the way. At some point Charlie surpasses her, and she sees it coming before Charlie does. Miss Kinnian says,
"'I can only see a little bit of that, Charlie, and I won't go much higher than I am now, but you'll keep climbing up and up, and see more and more, and each step will open new worlds that you never even knew existed'" (Keyes 22).
Miss Kinnian helps Charlie throughout, but when she realizes he is going to lose everything he worked for, she is very upset. Later, Charlie shows back up at her class because he has completely regressed, and Miss Kinnian runs out of the room crying.
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