Kalila Attiyat
Mr Kolton
English 20F Advanced Placement
December 2nd, 2014
The Battle Between Intellect and Emotion
The intellectual self and the emotional self are fixed deep into our minds. We go through life fighting between what our head wants, and what our heart craves. Most of the time we don't have the strength to conquer what we want, as opposed to what we need. After all, in the mind of Charlie Gordon, the fight never ends. Regardless, Charlie faces the consequences of knowledge, and what influence it has on making decisions. While this battle between the intellectual self and the emotional self is never-ending, both sides must compromise to achieve a common limit.

Once in a while, we have to make a decision that can go against our morals, or in
Charlie's case, go with what we think is right, but lose the trust of a friend. Anyhow, since the operation, Charlie can not grasp the thought of going against what his intellectual self thinks is right. When Charlie witnesses Gimpy short-changing customers, he has a hypothetical battle between his intellect and emotional self. In the end, Charlie thinks to himself, “I would tell Gimpy what I knew and warn him to stop.” (95) Charlie's intellect overpowered his emotional side, he couldn't bear letting it go. Charlie had to do what he though was right, with the cost of jeopardizing his friendship with Gimpy. Although, Charlie warned Gimpy to stop before he gets into trouble; Charlie couldn't let Gimpy keep doing this. In this situation, Charlie's intellectual self is too strong to overpower.
As humans, we have the tendency to go against what our brain is telling us, whereas, for
Charlie that was the one true aspect he trusted the most. Granted, Charlie never understood the importance of how big an influence our emotional mind has. In this case, Charlie’s emotional self is prominent against his intellectual self, when Charlie makes love to Fay. Charlie's adult mind told him to wait and find someone he loves, but his heart just wants to make love to her. Charlie says to Fay, “I want to make love to you. Tonight I can do it. I know it… I feel it.” (208) This is the first time his emotional mind has been able to overcome his strong intellectual mind. Charlie's emotions got the best of his intellectually mature mind. Charlie gets to do what he wants with Fay without having to consider the consequences. With Fay, Charlie’s emotions overcome his intellectual self because his intellect has no say in it, it's purely physical. Charlie is an emotionally consumed person when he is with Fay, a person that isn't involved with what he truly loves, learning. However, with Alice he can do what he truly loves without having to sacrifice any of them.

On more than one occasion, Charlie has to make decisions based on his morals, or what his heart desires, however, the first time Charlie makes love to Alice is the only time that his intellectual and emotional selves seem to merge into one. Even so, with Alice there isn't a need for a continuous battle between his intellectual self and emotional self. Charlie can be true to himself, and to Alice, without pretending or giving up a part of himself. When Charlie is with Alice he thought to himself, “With the relief of