I recently read a short story called "Flowers for Algernon" written by Daniel Keyes in which the author attempts to build up the reader's sympathy for the main character, Charlie Gordon.

The story is about a thirty-seven year old man who has a mental disability, which gives him a low IQ. He is given an operation that increases his IQ to genius level. He starts learning new things, including the fact that everyone he thought were his friends were just using him or keeping him around for their own amusement. In the end, the effects of the operation do not last and he reverts to having a low IQ. Knowing that like Algernon, the laboratory mouse who also had the operation and who regressed and died prematurely, he too will die an early death, he decides to leave New York.

The author writes the story as a series...