The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a short story first published in 1922. It presents a unique and fantastical premise: a man who is born old and ages backward.
Summary:
Benjamin Button is born in 1860 in Baltimore — but not as a
normal baby. Instead, he enters the world as a 70-year-old man with white hair,
wrinkles, and a long beard. His father, Roger Button, is horrified and
embarrassed by his son's bizarre condition. Despite efforts to make Benjamin
act like a child, his physical and mental age aligns more with an elderly man.
As time passes, Benjamin becomes physically younger. At 18,
he enrolls in Yale but is expelled because he looks too old. Eventually, he
grows more youthful and finds success in business, joining his father's
company. In his thirties (appearing in his fifties), he marries Hildegarde
Moncrief, who finds older men attractive.
Their marriage begins happily, but over time, as Benjamin
becomes younger and more vibrant, Hildegarde ages, and their relationship
deteriorates. Benjamin later joins the army and finds fulfillment in war. By
the time he returns, he is physically in his twenties, while his wife is
middle-aged.
As Benjamin continues aging backward, he attends Harvard,
becomes a football star, and eventually becomes a teenager, a child, and then a
baby. At the end of the story, Benjamin's mind fades as he becomes an infant,
and finally, he ceases to exist — too young to understand the world or even
himself.
Themes:
- The
nature of time and aging
- Society’s
expectations around age
- The
inevitability of change and mortality
- Isolation
and identity
Fitzgerald uses Benjamin’s reversed life to explore how
society treats the young and the old, and how identity is shaped by physical
appearance and time.
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