Flowers for Algernon/YMMV
- Adaptation Displacement: Few people know that Flowers was originally a short story.
- Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: When Charlie's journal entry asks that someone else put flowers on Algernon's grave after he's no longer able to -- hence the title.
- When Charlie returns to the bakery after reverting back to his former self, the same people who made fun of him & hated him when he got smart stand up for him when a new worker bullies him.
- In the novel, Charlie still feels bad because the new worker has a wife and child to support, and he thinks that the new worker shouldn't have to get fired just for bullying him.
- When Charlie returns to the bakery after reverting back to his former self, the same people who made fun of him & hated him when he got smart stand up for him when a new worker bullies him.
- Freud Was Right: Poor Charlie. Upon seeing his sister in the bathtub as a child, was struck by her (seeming) lack of gentialia. Not only did he come to the conclusion that their parents removed it to punish her, but his mother caught him and...jumped to the wrong conclusion. This earned him a traumatic experience with a knife and a deep-seated fear that he'd be castrated one day as well. Anytime he tries to have sex, bam! Traumatic memories.
- Fridge Logic: Genius Charlie remembering his childhood. Remembering his former thinking: Fridge Horror.
- It Was His Sled / All There Is to Know About "The Crying Game": One of the few things people who haven't read the book know about it is that Charlie is a retarded man who becomes intelligent and reverted back to how he was beforehand.
- Shoot the Shaggy Dog
- Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped: The book is very clear that the treatment of the mentally disabled was horrific at the time it was written.
- Tear Jerker: Big time.
- So many specific moments, but one that stands out is when Charlie, after having lost his intelligence, returns to his old class with Alice just like he used to. He can't understand why she becomes so upset to see him there; at that point, to him, it's just part of his routine again.
- The Woobie: Charlie, obviously. Realizes that his so-called friends were simply using him as a toy, finally reaches genius levels of intelligence, only to lose it, and starts to forget almost all the notable events that happened to him towards the end.