Frank and Joe were being mean to Charlie without him realizing it. They thought his disability meant they could pick on him. They made fun of him at parties in front of people.
Person vs Society
Is different than everyone else's
With Charlie's disability, it's hard for him to learn. But, he wants to be smart. He wants to get the surgery to get smart.
Person vs Machine/Technology
Charlie races Algernon in mazes. Most of the time, at the beginning, Algernon always won. But, as time went on, Charlie started winning.
Person vs Society
Petition for Charlie to be fired.
His disability made it so that he was less smart than everyone else. People thought it was weird. When he did get smart, they thought he was scary for some reason.
Charlie got the surgery to make him 3X smarter. After the surgery, it took a while for him to realize he was getting smarter every day. He kept getting smarter, faster and faster, until his brain was regressing.
The people at Charlie's work signed a petition to fire him. They were afraid of his intelligence. There was only one person who didn't sign the petition.