or Charly to feel important. When Charly is up in the air, reaching toward the sky on the teeter-totter, he has a feeling of freedom. The symbol of the teeter-totter is to indicate that Charly has no set guidelines within his mental intelligence, whereas, everything is done randomly and with out forethought. The teeter-totter is also suggesting that Charly does not have his feet firmly on the ground. He gradually becomes more stable after the operation, and only uses the playground equipment for an escape. The swing, which Charly also likes to ride on, is a sequence of backward and forward motions. Charly’s life is very similar to this motion and there are times when he becomes entangled in an emotional swing as well. When Charly’s life begins, it is an environment of neglect, because he is mentally retarded. Charly is a person who becomes intelligent, by having an operation, and regressively becomes mentally retarded again. Charly is always looking for acceptance and love. He thinks the material things around him will provide this, until his increased intelligence is able to help him realize that he himself is more important. Charly’s life is like a pendulum, swinging in the mist of the unknown causing his own reflection to take a good look around him to notice things he has not seen before.Looking into a mirror is one of the memorable moments for Charly, because he makes funny faces in them. There are many mirrors in the laboratory. The mirrors represent a two-fold process, the Charly before the operation and the Charly after the operation.In the beginning, Charly sees a mirror and makes silly faces, because mentally that is acceptable. After Charly has his operation, the mirror is reflecting the image of a new Charly. As Charly gains more intelligence, he views himself in the mirror as a reflection of the past and a possible hope for the future. Not until the deterioration of Algernon does a haunting im...
