Many feel that the mentally challenged are put through the many hardships of prejudice and maltreatment by people who lack the knowledge and understanding of their mental conditions. Usually what people don't know about, they consider strange or awkward and this is the case with the hardships of the mentally challenged. Prejudice, maltreatment and ignorance towards the mentally challenged are illustrated by the novel, Flowers for Algernon.
In Flowers for Algernon, Charlie Gordon, being mentally challenged, goes through many experiences when he is pre judged by many people, especially those who claim to be his friends. These 'friends' of his have the wrong ideas and wrong views when it comes to the mentally challenged. They believe that if an amputee has no limb then maybe a retard has no brain, which is completely irrelevant.
"Joe Carp said hey look Charlie had his operashun what did they do Charlie put some brains in" (Keyes, 16)
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