The Janitor in Mirror’s Edge, I’ve Read That Book Before February 1, 2012

I got a lot of enjoyment out of EA and DICE’s 2008 game Mirror’s Edge, which was the story about a freerunner who used her parkour abilities to transport important information that the senders didn’t want to be seen by the totalitarian government who listened in and censored everything. Over the course of the game you can find a secret room in one of the levels, a janitor’s room, made up to look like an office. In it, you see the Janitor has a pet mouse in its cage, and notes left over that look like they had been written by a small child. When I first saw this room I asked myself, “Where had I seen this before?” and then remembered exactly where I had seen it.

When I was a freshman in high school I had the pleasure to read what I personally consider one of the saddest short stories ever written called Flowers for Algernon. It is a short story written by Daniel Keyes structured as a series of journal entries written by what originally appears to be a child but is actually a grown man named Charlie, who is a janitor living in New York with a mental handicap.

At the start of the story Charlie is about to undergo an experimental operation, specifically, brain surgery. A procedure was invented they believe could fix his mental handicap which was originally tested on a lab mouse named Algernon. The mouse was born mentally handicapped and had already undergone the surgery. Field tests in mazes before and after the surgery showed the mouse had an incredible improvement in its mental capacity and Charlie was selected as a test subject. Charlie and Algernon would race each other in mazes, Algernon would run the maze while Charlie would navigate through the same maze on paper. In the beginning of the story, Algernon constantly beats Charlie at racing the maze.

Charlie undergoes the operation, which is successful, and in the process of retraining his mind learns years worth of studies in mere weeks. As time passes he ends up falling in love with his teacher. It gets to a point where Charlie becomes so smart he becomes distanced from most of the intellectuals around him, smarter even than the people who worked with him at the start of the project.

However a lingering fear comes into everyone’s mind when the mouse’s intelligence starts to wane. Algernon becomes depressed, no longer wanting to run the maze, stops eating and eventually starves to death. Charlie leaves flowers at Algernon’s grave, showing that even in his state he considered that mouse a peer and probably his only friend. Charlie reasons the same will eventually happen to him and he works day and night to publish a thesis of his experiences before he reverts to his previous state. Eventually he does become handicapped again and starts falling back into his old habits. He stops writing his journal entries and instead plans to leave NYC so he didn’t have to see anyone who knew he was smart.

Okay, now onto the Janitor. Judging by the notes he left in his office, along with notes he had passed along to a businessperson who may have been his brother, he appears to be in a mental state of about six years old. You’ll also notice he idolizes his pet mouse (who appears to be alive) who probably is his only friend (like Charlie). They both have the same profession.

Could the Janitor of Mirror’s Edge be a “Flowers for Algernon” reference? It is considered a very popular and well known story, especially among nerds, or people who would design or play video games. The Janitor’s graffiti did also make it into the iPhone/iPad game, which could also give some credibility that this wasn’t just some fluke easter egg but a recurring point of the series. I would love to hear from one of the game’s developers if this was just a coincidence or if anyone working for the company intentionally created the character as an homage to that fantastic story.