Just finished reading this, am I allowed to cry?

Don't see why not, it does tug on the heartstrings. I suppose that was the point though, it was to humanize and lend dignity to mentally challenged people. Who even today are seen as less than human.

>>9154958
>Who even today are seen as less than human.

Is being human supposed to mean something to a modern person? A fetus is human. Doesn't stop anyone from killing them by the tens of millions.

>>9154984
Humanity in part requires empathy. Seeing someone as less than human creates a viewpoint in which empathy need not reside.

If everyone saw retards as non-humanistic errors that need only be erased then no doubt they would carry that through. The book simply gave us a situation with its sci-fi concept of putting us in the shoes of a retarded man and giving him a device to allow to reflect upon his nature. This book simply wouldn't have worked if Charlie was not the protagonist.

>>9154992
My point is that simply being human means nothing to most people. They have some arbitrary qualification that is more than just being a member of the human species. Hence the legal concept of "person."

>>9155003
Fair enough